School Tour of the CSR Native Plant Farm in ID

Lupinus sericeus, Silky Lupine in the CSR greenhouse
Killdeer, showing the students how they protect their eggs when threatened.
Aquilegia desertorum, desert columbine
Aquilegia scopulorum, Utah columbine
Thanks to CSR’s Rich Drick and Michael Callen, our school tour guides.

Conservation Seeding and Restoration, Inc. hosted another elementary school tour at our southern Idaho farm facility. An important element, and one we thoroughly enjoy, is to help educate area youth in the benefits of native flora and fauna. We hope their visit to the CSR native plant farm will inspire them to get outside and explore their environment.

2013 National Native Seed Conference, April 8 – 11th

CSR’s Steven Paulsen will be presenting “Oil and Gas Restoration, Challenges with Native Seed” at the National Native Seed Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

“The National Native Seed Conference connects Research, Industry, Land Management, and Restoration professionals, providing the premier opportunity to develop relationships and share information about the collection, research and development, production, and use of native plant materials.”

Inspiring Kids with Nature

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Inspiring Kids with Nature, by Steven Paulsen

For a time I worked in Chicago, Illinois. More specifically, I had the opportunity to work on the Chicago City Park Lagoon Systems. The overall project was an effort to restore the man made lagoon systems back to some semblance of the great Fredrick Law Olmsted’s former design, green rooms and such. Where the project and work of restoring historic significance using exclusively native plants was a wonderful undertaking (that I am just now realizing how fortunate I was to be a part of) that is not the story I am going to tell.

As a result of the restoration work, my proximity to it, I was afforded the opportunity to work with hundreds of intercity children that had limited access to any wild land interface. These kids came from a hugely diverse and socially divergent background. Many had never been more than a couple of miles from their homes and schools. Some had literally been around the world and their families landed in America as refugees. Others had parents that were academic scholars. With all of that diversity in culture, education, and social upbringing, they had at least (by my estimation and experience) a few things they could all get behind. They all had an unbelievable desire to learn about nature. None of them were “too cool” to be interested. None of them shunned any question from the group.

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As a restoration professional I think often of the pure, unadulterated happiness that a young person can show without being conscious of their outward display.

I would meet the school children in a small reclaimed tall grass prairie in downtown Chicago. I was familiar with the Plants, Birds, Butterflies, and Dragonflies that frequented the site and would take great pleasure in teaching the names, habits, and needs in general of the species found during our “hike”. We would talk at length about fire cycles and tall grass prairies, indigenous peoples that lent their knowledge to us so we could Steward the Land. We spent time discussing the difference between “maintaining a space” and “stewarding” one. Once in a while a unique and offhand question would come out of the crowd but typically everyone had their head pointed down looking for insects in the prairie, or pointed up looking for the next butterfly or bird sighting.

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I participated in these field trips for an entire semester and enjoyed every single one. But it was not until I received a packet in the mail containing the children’s school reports documenting the trips that I understood the true value of wild land interface.

Every once in a while I stumble across these reports and they truly make me smile. I believe Kids and Nature are an undeniable fit: they want to know more about the world around them. If someone is good enough to share with them any of their anecdotal experiences, it would almost certainly help create value/values in a young person’s mind. The same is true for those of us that might not qualify as “Kids” anymore.

I think it best to encourage everyone to take the time to teach, and if teaching is too scary for your personality type, perhaps take the time to share/communicate some point of interest. In my experience it does not need to be complicated, just true. Say something, if you do not, who do you suppose will? Values are taught not inherited.

(originally published on Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens)

7th Intermountain Native Plant Summit – March 26-27th

CSR will be attending the 7th Intermountain Native Plant Summit on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 26-27, 2013, at Boise State University. Sponsored by the BSU Department of Biological Sciences and the USDA-Agricultural Research Service. The Summit is open to the public, free of charge. We welcome you to join us!

Endangered Species

Endangered species are not limited to far away rain forests. Species, like Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse, are threatened by habitat alteration, degradation, loss, and fragmentation resulting from urban development, flood control, water development, agriculture, and other human land uses.

Habitat restoration is critical in urban and suburban settings where commercial and residential development has impacted all natural areas. Native landscapes and areas positively impact the quality of the environment by improving air, water, and soil quality throughout the community while providing habitat for local & migratory wildlife, birds, and insects.

Roots Demystified, by Robert Kourik

Roots Demystified: Change your gardening habits to help roots thrive, by Robert Kourik

“Roots Demystified is the only book in print for gardeners with such an extensive variety of root illustrations. There are twenty-five meticulous drawings produced by horticultural researchers who actually dug, troweled, dusted, mapped, and drew their way through entire growing root systems, down to the tiniest root. The resulting illustrations are a revelation of the beauty contained in the actual patterns, and habits of rooting plants. Guidelines also provide a home gardener with tips for the practical use of the new information.”

“Managing Your Rural Property” in Pitkin County, CO

Managing Your Rural Property in Pitkin County, Colorado. Tuesday, March 5, 2013.

“Join CSU Extension, the USDA-NRCS, and partners to discuss some basic topics related to managing your small acreage property. This will be held at the Pitkin County Library (120 North Mill St., Aspen) from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm and will offer light refreshments. Learn from professionals about maintaining a healthy property, proper species selection for our climate, keeping noxious weeds in control, and techniques that will improve the value of your land investment. Both beginners and experienced landowners will find value in this workshop.”

Shawn Wissel, the CSR Rifle Colorado Regional Manager, will be presenting “Stewardship For Private Property” Click here to view the event flyer.

Storm Water Management

CSR’s Michael Clancy recently attended the (IECA) International Erosion Control Association 2013 Environmental Connection Technical Sessions in San Diego, California. While the conference was fun and greatly educational, storm water is not and was first regulated in 1972 through the Clean Water Act. The CWA was developed to control point source pollutants and protect our imperiled water ways such as the Cuyahoga River in Ohio. The Cuyahoga caught fire as many as 13 times! This brief video outlines some of the issues the Cuyahoga River faced.

Storm water management has proven a great benefit to our lands, waters, and lives. CSR conducts storm water management for clients across many industries. Conferences such as the IECA Tech Session offer great opportunities for professionals to learn, grow, and network. CSR utilizes the training offered at Stormwater USA and it was a pleasure to meet up with them in San Diego. If you have a personal or professional desire to learn more about storm water, please check out the courses they offer.

Biologist in the Classroom

Sharing a fun blog post by CSR’s Kent Fothergill…

From the mouths of babes…

If you ever really want to test your skills, go into a third grade class room and present about your passion. A group of inquisitive 8-year-old kids can reduce even the most hardened field biologist to rubble. There is simply nothing more fun or rewarding than sharing biodiversity with kids – and it may be the most important activity given the state of natural history education in our nation.

Normally, I go into a classroom setting armed with four stations and three helpers (yeah, we make the teacher work too). We try having a cage of live insects collected within a half mile of the school, all life stages of at least one insect, and two Cornell drawers full of gee whiz bugs. This is big fun – it is awesome to leave a classroom of kids buzzing about insects.

The event depicted only happened once, but it was a magnificent question. I didn’t go into R and K selection, rarity, focused collection vs. backyard bug lights, documentation, or anything else – the question was pure and the answer this kid was seeking went far beyond my activities. As long as our schools produce kids who can ask good questions, the future will be in good hands.

Enjoy the comic: really happened, but everything is changed.

Pocket Guide to Sagebrush by Leila Shultz

Pocket Guide to Sagebrush by Leila Shultz

“This guide is written for anyone interested in learning more about sagebrush species and habitats. It provides descriptions of some of the remarkably diverse sagebrush communities in western North America. The purpose of the guide is to give identifying characteristics and range maps of 18 species of sagebrush, encompassing 27 different kinds (including subspecies and hybrids).

The different kinds of sagebrush are identified primarily through pictures and dialogue. Community descriptions are given as a brief overview of the habitat diversity within the sagebrush ecosystem. Diagrams and maps show where you might find the species in the landscape.

This guide was made possible by Utah State University’s College of Natural Resources and Intermountain Herbarium, staffs of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), USDA Forest Service, Bureau of Land Managment (BLM), and Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) Conservation Science.

The Pocket Guide to Sagebrush is now available as a pdf. Best viewed in a smaller window.”