Boise, ID- A multi-state effort to restore hundreds of thousands of acres of sagebrush country in the southwestern corner of the state requires lots of native plants. Volunteers and scientists in Idaho harvest seeds from those plants on federal land. The seeds have to be cleaned and processed before they’re planted. Emily Schwing takes us to the government run nursery that does exactly that.
Inside a big garage, the air is heavy with the sharp smell of sagebrush. And dust from the shrub is so thick it sticks in the back of your throat if you breathe in.
A giant blue machine chugs away …
“It’s just a small plot combine that you’d see at any research station, yells Clark Fleege. He manages the Lucky Peak Nursery outside of Boise. He explains how the combine works, as three employees shovel material from a seed collection project into a gaping hole in the front. The combine separates the seeds from sticks, leaves and other debris.
“We use that in our initial cleaning process to take out the large debris and the clean seed, somewhere around 20% purity which works out real well if the BLM or Fish and Game want to use it in their direct seeding projects,” he says.
The Lucky Peak Nursery is one of six run by the US Forest Service in the United States. Some of the grasses, shrubs and trees native to the Intermountain West and the Great Basin region are grown here for state and federal restoration projects.
Brian Wise works as a machinery operator at the nursery. He wears what looks like a biohazard suit and he takes off a full face mask to talk. This is a dirty job and Wise says “that’s an understatement!”
Since 2008, the BLM and Fish and Game have partnered to collect seeds from all kinds of different plants on the Morley Nelson Birds of Prey Conservation Area southwest of Boise. This year, volunteers brought in over 2000 pounds of sagebrush material, but Clark Fleege says that’s low compared to past years.
“After the big fire they had in the Murphy complex I think that was in 2008 or 2009. They collected 4000 pounds of material they even had the governor with them out collecting.”
Agencies will use the seeds to replant areas burned by fires, damaged by grazing, or overrun by invasive weeds. On this day, workers separate tiny Wyoming Big sagebrush seeds from all the other material collected in the field. What used to take weeks to do by hand only takes a few hours with a combine. When it’s all finished, there’s about 100 pounds of pure seed, all bagged up and ready to plant.