It’s Time to Seed the Sentinel Burn, If the City Had the Seeds
By Robert Struckman, 10-03-08
In about a month, an army of volunteers will hike up Mount Sentinel to re-seed about 320 blackened acres with native grasses and plants.
If they can scrape together $22,000 for the seeds.
The University of Montana and the City of Missoula each own about 160 acres of the burn area. Native seeds to sow on the area aren’t very expensive, compared to previous years. Estimates had the seeds costing as much as $50,000. But the manager of Missoula’s conservation lands says the seeds will only cost about $30,000. Prices are down because the seed yield is up from a wet summer and demand is down from a mild fire season.
The UM and the cash-strapped city together only committed $3,000 for seeds. Donations add up to $5,000.
City Conservation Lands Manager Morgan Valliant says he hopes to raise the remaining $22,000 from more donations and grants.
A low-intensity burn like the one on Sentinel offers a rare opportunity to re-establish native plants in places where they’ve been displaced by weeds. As the vegetation on the blackened face of the mountain recovers, it’s important to help those native plant communities, he said in a press release. Otherwise weeds will grow even more dense.
Donations can be sent to the UM Foundation. If you want to put a check in the mail, send it to the UM Foundation, UM Natural Areas/Sentinel Burn #27J, UM Foundation, Brantley Hall, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812. Checks should be made payable to UM Foundation #27J.
Donations will also be collected at Missoula Parks and Recreation Operations Division, 100 Hickory St., Missoula, MT 59801.
To learn more about this project, call Morgan Valliant at 552-6263 or Marilyn Marler at 243-6642.
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Seems a little steep. Maybe even usurious.
Where are they buying it?
You can also use natives that have a wide commercial following, like Paiute orchard grass, Idaho fine fescue, and some of the wheat grasses, and get just as good a job done. All are probably retail in the $5 a pound range....15 lbs to the acre. Still $75 an acre.
Or you can use annual ryegrass, at less than a dollar a pound, with some Paiute orchardgrass and Idaho fescue, and get your mix down in the $20/acre range. The annual ryegrass will hold soil, and keep out weeds, and over time, be overtaken the by natives. A good tetraploid annual ryegrass of forage type is wonderful for wildlife and is a great band aid to make the transition to re-emergence of natives in competition with weeds.
Once you get animals using the grass, their activity and digestion will introduce life back to burned over ground, and things really heal fast. The purists don't like it, but the ranchers who are doing this are getting back range and good wildlife numbers. Something is a lot better than nothing.
I've seeded a good bit of native grasses myself, though. Mostly some time back, but am going to be again this next spring, so am understandably curious.
I know at least one local seed dealer who makes a killing on fire restoration. More power to 'em, it's a capitalist society and all. I'm pretty well over doing business there, personally though.
So, I'm not trying to start an argument, bearbait. Just curious. 15# is about double what I've seeded, but then mine wasn't in mountainous burns. Maybe that's different...
It's a heck of a lot more expensive, I know that.
If you stopped and thought about it, you know that seed breeders only have native seed to work with in the beginning. They work with that seed and select seeds from plants that show characteristics that are favorable for needs of the grower. And select back again. Out of nature's diversity will come some seeds that will do what you need, and it is those that get wide distribution. Idaho fine fescue, Paiute and Profile orchardgrass, and a host of wheat grasses.
I use the tetraploid annual ryegrasses because they are so palatable, so vigorous in growth, and will germinate and grow in pretty tough situations, and maybe not even last a year. As an annual, they only are there as long as they produce viable seed. The track record is that they get less and less of the total biomass over time. In the meantime, the annual ryegrass was there to create biomass, to be good food for wildlife, to provide a robust plant to hide bird nests, to provide seed late in the year to feed wildlife. All that wildlife poops and scratches and puts biology back into soil sterilized to an extent by fire. The native seeds, down further in the soil profile, get disturbed by animal hooves, rodent scratching and excavations, and they are exposed and germinate into a favorable environment. No tilling, no drilling. Broadcast seed onto early snow, and let the critters and natural processes do the rest.
And maybe have a county water tanker on site to clean car and truck tires before they get to the site, and the boots of people walking to there. Keep the weed seed contamination to a minimum in the Valley of the Knapweed, the font of knapweed contamination for the state of Montana.
The commercial seed is labeled and tested. I have no idea what the standards are for "native" seed production. And the rate will, of course, be geared to the amount of seed needed to get a meaningful cover over an acre. That can vary by seed type and size.
I'm a farmer, bearbait.
Believe it or not, I have thought about these things.
Sounds to me like you're grasping to justify these exorbitant prices.