Happy Holidays!

Conservation, Seeding & Restoration Inc. wishes you a Happy Holiday and a Prosperous New Year!!

Christmas for the Valley House

With the Holiday season upon us, the employees of Conservation Seeding & Restoration Inc. joined together, again, to bring Christmas to two families who would otherwise have gone without. Over $900.00 was donated for Christmas gifts by CSR employees!

In the Field, CSR Construction Team

CSR Construction Team recently applied native seed, tackifier and erosion control material to a natural gas field located south of Pinedale, WY.

White Sage, Native American Culture

(photo credit)

White Sage in the Native American Culture

White sage (Salvia apiana) has been used for centuries in the Native American culture. White sage is wrapped together and tied into a bundle. Then the end is lit and after a few moments blown out. The remaining sage smolders like an ember and releases the smoke slowly. This smoke is used to purify people, places and objects. These smudgings clear away negative energies that are present. This sacred plant is safe to consume and has be traditionally used to break a fever or reduce sweating, cleaning eyes, post-pregnancy recovery, cold remedies, odor elimination, and much more.

White sage has an original range over southern California and into Mexico. However the practices of sage have spread from the native tribes of the southwest, to people nationwide. It has a great history in this area and a wonderful fragrance for the home.

(Sources here, here & here)

Botany in Action

Botany in Action, Picabo ID area.

The CSR Biology Team uses a combination of GIS, GPS and various testing methods to determine native & non-native vegetative cover, species counts, soil quality and depth, and habitat assessments. Through such data collection and comprehensive documentation, CSR, Inc. can select and apply specific native restoration seed, plants, and other materials for a successful site restoration.

2011 Idaho Horticulture Expo Trade Show

Conservation Seeding & Restoration Inc. is proud to be a part of the 2011 Idaho Horticulture Expo Trade Show, sponsored by The Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association. The event will be held January 19 – 21, Boise Centre on the Grove.

“The Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association is an organization of professionals including retail nurseries and garden centers, wholesale, growers, landscape contractors and maintenance firms, arborist and allied trades. It is a resource for increasing professionalism in the Green Industry.”

111th Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count

The 111th Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count, which is believed to be the longest-running wildlife census in the world, began this week and runs through January 5, 2011.

As an alternative, you may be interested in getting involved in the Great Backyard Bird Count organized by Audubon with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It takes place President’s Day weekend each February and you can count the birds each day in your backyard/community and then enter the results online.

Native Focus: Juniperus osteosperma, Utah Juniper

(photo credit)

Native Focus: Juniperus osteosperma, Utah Juniper, is an evergreen shrub/tree with irregular form, twisted trunks and branches. It’s bark is scaly and stringy, boasting yellow/green thick stiff foliage. Females produce berry-like brown seed cones in May/June. Found in dry, rocky, and open habitats. The juniper is long-lived and potentially toxic if ingested.

American Indians used the bark for cordage, sandals, woven bags, thatching and matting. They also ate the berries fresh or in cakes. Birds and small mammals also consume quantities of juniper berries. Junipers are also called cedars; Cedar Breaks National Monument and nearby Cedar City in southwestern Utah are named for this tree. Scattered tufts of yellowish twigs with whitish berries found on the trees are a parasitic mistletoe, which is characteristic of this tree. (Lady Bird Johnson)

…Available from the CSR Nursery…

Scientists in Training

Joey in the process of making “poopsicles”.

Sandra mapping random sample locations in a harvested soybean field.

Recently, a member of the CSR Biology Team helped mentor a couple of young researchers through some experiments for their district FFA competitions. Both Sandra and Joey had prior insect experience, and that is how Kent became involved. It is fun to see young people doing science and empowering them to ask and answer their own questions.

Joey knew he wanted to work with dung beetles. So his project was fairly straight forward. Dung beetle monitoring can inform grazing decisions, so he looked at frozen and fresh manure used as bait in beetle monitoring trap. He found that some beetle species show preference for one or the other, but overall the ease of using frozen baits far outweighed minor differences in trap capture. Joey found native and non-native dung beetle species in the pasture he examined.

Sandra’s question involved a native stem boring long-horned beetle that is found in soybeans. The beetle used cocklebur (it is native where Sandra lives) and other native asters for larval development before soybeans, so Sandra did a study between soybean and cocklebur use and found a preference for soybean!

Sorting beetle traps with Joey and splitting stems with Sandra was great fun. It is always good to get outside and enjoy. The real work is analyzing the results and writing them up – often the excitement of discovery is followed by a long drawn out battle with the word processor. Both young researchers got through their writing battles and placed very well in their respective FFA competitions while at the same time learning about biodiversity and farm productivity.

Both projects examined roles native (and often unintended) biodiversity can play in agricultural systems. There is so much we don’t know about the roles native species play in managed and unmanaged systems.

Invasive Focus: Leucanthemum vulgare, Oxeye daisy

(photo credit)

Invasive focus: Leucanthemum vulgare, Oxeye daisy, is a perennial that can reach from 1-3 ft. in height. A single plant can produce from 1-40 flowering stems. Leaves are 1-4 in. long, toothed (or lobed) and decrease in size closer to the apex of the stem. Basal leaves are spoon-shaped and petiolate. Flowering occurs all summer, when daisy-like flower heads develop. Each flower head can produce up to 200 flat seeds that are 0.08 in. long. Oxeye daisy is native to Europe and was introduced into the United States as an ornamental in the 1800s. The plants have been shown to carry several crop diseases. Oxeye daisy can thrive in a wide variety of soil types and can grow in sun to partial shade. (source)

Although many folks love this pretty flower, it is invasive and listed on Idaho’s Noxious Weeds list.