Preparing For Winter at the CSR Farm

The Idaho CSR Farm is preparing for the cold winter months ahead. Four hoop houses have been set up and filled with over 2,000 native plants. Three of the hoop houses contain ‘Native Roots, LLC‘ plants.

CSR to Hire Colorado Regional Manager

Interested in joining the dedicated CSR Team? We are currently looking to hire a Colorado Regional Manager.

Job Description:
The Colorado Regional Manager oversees all projects and activities in Colorado and supervises office staff. The position requires good multitasking and organization skills to coordinate with CSR staff and clients on multiple congruent projects. Manager will develop new client base, and communicate with existing clients on a regular basis. The manager will work with General Manager and other CSR staff to put together competitive bids on restoration projects throughout the state. Travel is required. Click here for further details.

If you would like to apply for a different position, we welcome your inquiry!

Please submit applications to applications@csr-inc.com or mail to the Kimberly Idaho office: CSR, Inc. Attn: HR, 506 Center St. West, Kimberly, ID 83341.

At the CSR Farm: Tetraneuris acaulis (Hymenoxys acaulis) Butte marigold

(photo: Bransford)

Tetraneuris acaulis (Hymenoxys acaulis) Butte marigold

Tufted rosettes of narrow, silvery leaves are topped by a 4-6 in. leafless stem supporting a single, yellow flowerhead. Well-developed plants may have a foot-wide clump of 30-40 rosettes, each with a flowerhead. It’s native habitat is dry, rocky slopes; mesas; limestone bluffs and roadsides. Blooming from May through July. (Lady Bird Johnson)

The butte marigolds above are from CSR’s native plant farm located in southern Idaho. They are part of CSR’s new adventure in native plants: Native Roots, LLC.

Native Roots (NR) plants are selections from nature that have been grown in a controlled environment over ten years and several generations. A very aggressive selection process has been engaged for specific traits on plant form and habit.

NR plants are truly native to the western USA and are the first varieties of native plants that are totally predictable in a landscape. The Native Roots brand currently consists of 60 varieties and will grow in a short time frame to include 350 varieties of plants native to the western United States.

CSR Signs Purchase Agreement of Rocky Mountain Native Plants!

Rocky Mountain Native Plants (located in Rifle, CO) purchase agreement has been signed! Conservation Seeding & Restoration Inc’s capabilities to serve customers, and restore the planet one native plant at a time, has just expanded.

CSR Field Equipment

CSR’s Keith Henstock arrives in Colorado with the field equipment necessary in preparing a pipeline right of way for restoration. This is a new project for Conservation Seeding & Restoration.

Sagebrush & Wetland Plants along the Ruby Pipeline ROW

Earlier this month CSR planted sagebrush seedlings along the Ruby Pipeline.

To date, the count of plants installed in Wyoming is 199 wetland/riparian plants and 46,957 upland plants. (Wyoming big sage, Basin big sage, mountain big sagebrush, and black sagebrush)

Utah: 7,082 wetland/riparian plants and 65,612 upland plants. (basin big sagebrush and black sagebrush).

Native Plant Focus: Shepherdia argentea, Silver buffaloberry

(photo credit: Julia Adamson)

Silver buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea) in the CSR nursery located in Rifle, CO.

Native Plant Focus: Shepherdia argentea, Silver buffaloberry

Silver buffaloberry is a mound-shaped shrub, 6-20 ft. tall, which sometimes becomes nearly tree-like. The deciduous plant may be single-trunked or have a few short-trunked stems. Twigs are spiny and silvery gray. Foliage is also silvery-gray. Inconspicuous flowers precede a football-shaped berry that is red, orange or yellow. Shrub or small tree with silvery, scaly leaves, young twigs, berries; branches opposite; twigs often spine-tipped. Silver buffaloberry tolerates the poorest of soils and does well in dry or alkaline situations. Its native habitat is prairies, banks and ravines. It is a low maintenance plant and extremely cold and drought tolerant. For fruit set, both male and female plants are required.

The berries are edible, but sour, best after frost in November.

(Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center)

Milkweed Seed Ready to Take Flight!

Milkweed seed ready to take flight!

“Milkweed is the common name for a group of plants that belong to the Asclepias genus. This genus of plants is named after Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology. Milkweeds have a long history of being used for medicinal purposes because of the cardiac glycosides found in their tissue.

Milkweed is the host plant for the monarch butterfly. As the monarch larva consumes the milkweed leaves, it also retains the cardiac glycosides making the monarch toxic to predators. There are over 100 species of milkweed in North America.”
(Butterfly Encounters)

Increasing the Availability of Native Milkweed Seed (Xerces Society)

“Milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) are the required host plants for caterpillars of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and thus play a critical role in the monarch’s lifecycle. The loss of milkweed plants in the monarch’s spring and summer breeding areas across the United States is believed to be a significant factor contributing to the reduced number of monarchs recorded in overwintering sites in California and Mexico. Intensifying agriculture, development of rural lands, and the use of mowing and herbicides to control roadside vegetation have all contributed to a reduced abundance of milkweeds in the landscape. To reverse this trend, the North American Monarch Conservation Plan (published in 2008 by the tri-national Commission for Environmental Cooperation) recommends the planting of regionally appropriate native milkweed species.

With Xerces’ support and funding, Conservation Seeding & Restoration Inc has initiated production of showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) for increase and distribution. Next year, Xerces and CSR plan to bring an additional milkweed species into production.”

Read more about this project…

Stenopelmatus, Jerusalem Cricket

This Jerusalem cricket,also called Nina de la tierra, was found on the Big Hill fire location (18 miles south of Bruneau, ID) where CSR will start drill seeding for a government contract.

“Jerusalem crickets, also called “potato bugs” are a group of large, flightless insects of the genus Stenopelmatus. They are native to the western United States and parts of Mexico.

Despite their names, Jerusalem crickets are a distinct lineage within the Orthoptera, separate from crickets (e.g. Gryillidae), are not native to Jerusalem, and they do not prefer potatoes for food. Active usually at night, the insects use their strong mandibles to feed primarily on dead organic material but can also eat other insects. Their highly adapted feet are used for burrowing beneath moist soil to feed on decaying root plants and tubers.

Similar to true crickets, each species of Jerusalem cricket produces a different song during mating. This song takes the form of a characteristic drumming in which the insect beats its abdomen against the ground.

As is true for other large arthropods (e.g. solfugids), there are a number of folk tales regarding Jerusalem crickets which are untrue; first and foremost, they are not venomous. However, they can emit a foul smell and are capable of inflicting a painful bite – but neither is lethal, as some of the tales would suggest. They also do not cry like children, nor do they rub their legs together to make sounds.”
(source)

Idaho Native Plant Society, 2012 Calender

The Idaho Native Plant Society’s 2012 native plant calender is now available for order! Calender months April and June will sport CSR’s Julie Riddle’s submitted photos.

Congratulations Julie!