Mural by Gary Stone

Conservation, Seeding & Restoration Inc will be portrayed on a mural in Hansen ID. by artist, Gary Stone!

Petroleum Association of Wyoming (PAW) and Sage Grouse

The Petroleum Association of Wyoming (PAW) and its member companies have established the PAW Sage-Grouse Management Team dedicated to proactively addressing issues affecting sage-grouse in Wyoming. The team—comprised of members ranging from wildlife biologists to reclamation specialists—will strive to be the resource for industry education and participation related to sage-grouse. The team will coordinate and help implement local, state and federal projects benefiting sage-grouse and share the latest research findings and recommended management practices for sustaining balanced and thriving sage-grouse populations.

Connect with Petroleum Association of Wyoming through Facebook!

Safety Comes First

Safety comes first at Conservation, Seeding and Restoration Inc!

• Kevin Osborne here, doing his best impersonation of an unconscious dummy during a recent CPR/First Aid re-certification.

• CSR employees are OSHA 10hr safety certified while all crew leads and managers are OSHA 30hr certified.

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are followed.

• Weekly and on-site “tailgate” safety meetings.

• Job Safety Environmental Analysis (JSEA).

• Chainsaw safety training.

• Instructor led ATV training due to the variable terrain CSR operates in.

• Wyoming One training for oil well sites as well as ground disturbance training.

• Pre-employment and random drug screening required.

Lupinus arbustus, The Longspur Lupine

Longspur Lupine (Lupinus arbustus) pictured here established in a residential landscape. This beauty is ready to bloom and will continue to do so through June. The Longspur Lupine, along with Silvery Lupine (Lupinus argenteus) and Silky Lupine (Lupinus sericeus), are available from the CSR Nursry.

Coconut Fiber Pots

All native plants CSR provides D&B Supply are grown in coconut fiber pots. These pots are meant to be directly planted in the ground and decompose over time. As you can see, root growth for this native plant is good and penetrating the pot as intended. These particular roots will be “air pruned” – exposure to the air will cause them to die back, that’s natural and expected. If the pot were in the soil as intended, the roots would continue to grow!

CSR and the Ruby Pipeline 2011

The Ruby Pipeline installation of live plants has been temporarily suspended due to an unusually wet spring. This project will resume either fall of 2011 or spring of 2012. This spring the CSR Team planted 43,242 native plants!

Blooming in the CSR Greenhouse: Colorado Blue Columbine

Colorado Blue Columbine, Aquilegia coerulea, (also known as the Rocky Mountain columbine) is now blooming in the CSR Greenhouse! Colorado blue columbine is the state flower of Colorado, whose state song also happens to be “Where the Columbines Grow”.

Reading of The Lorax

CSR folks share The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss, with the youngsters at the CSR EcoExpo!

It’s important to note that this story, as simple and straight forward as it is, provides for us at CSR, Inc a couple of very powerful truths. First, we are the “Oncler” as a society. Second, we are the “Lorax” as a community inside of that society. Simply we, the “humanity, Oncler’s”, are the only beings that set forth a value for creatures, landscapes, habitats and all other items in or on the planet earth. Because we take the liberty to set the values it’s up to us, the “Lorax” of society, to establish value for the things the “Onclers” have overlooked from their perches and towers, or missed in their vigor to establish value for things that are easier to see, feel and experience. Please read this children’s book and experience your surroundings in a way that lets YOU place a different “value” on items that seem distant or difficult to understand. Accept the world the way a child does and learn from the humility that comes from acknowledging you are not the one that sets forth the values you have been taught to cherish, but are merely reacting to the teachings of society. Don’t be a “Oncler”.

Truax Trillion Seeders

CSR’s new Truax Trillion Seeders have arrived!

This seeder plants turf grasses, wildflowers or forbs, native grasses, legumes and cover crops.

“The Green Thing”

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized to her and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”

That’s right, they didn’t have the green thing in her day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, using the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But they didn’t have the green thing back her day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks. But she’s right. They didn’t have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts…. “wind and solar power” really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right, they didn’t have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a pizza dish, not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used wadded up newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power.

They exercised by working so they didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right, they didn’t have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty, instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled pens with ink, instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But they didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus, instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. But that old lady is right. They didn’t have the green thing back in her day.

(Tom Dooley)