plant and ecosystems nerd

I am so excited.

Someone near(ish) me posted on facebook that they had some native lupine growing in their hay field that was going to seed, offering to let people to come pick the seed. And so I message, and she said that there was also camas but it was gone by now.

So I go out, she tells me to have fun basically, and I get a bunch of Lupinus polyphyllus seeds,

and then I found some marsh speedwell (Veronica scutellata),

which is a host plant for Taylor's Checkerspot! And then I was looking for other things, scanning while walking through the grasses,

when all of a sudden I hear a rattle reminiscent of a maraca. I stop. I look down. I look around. There's hundreds of camas seed heads. Thousands. They're just slightly shorter than the grasses, so I didn't see them at first.

They're loaded with seeds.

I managed to harvest 27 grams (after cleaning!), and I'm pretty sure both greater camas and common camas were growing there, which would be a problem if I were trying to sell these seeds.

But since I'm using them to restore a patch of prairie in a public park (with official permission!) and perhaps grow my own food crop, it's perfectly fine.

I also proposed that I come back out and remove tansy from her hay field in exchange for her letting me dig up some camas bulbs, and she said yes!

(And yes, for those who are nervous, I personally am able to tell death camas seed heads from camas seed heads. Here's the death camas seed head, grabbed from the Burke Herbarium:

(Could I have cleaned the camas seeds better? Yes. But this amount won't effect much of anything, especially considering they won't be stored long.)

But apparently my phone didn't like something, so you're just going to have to imagine a field sprinkled liberally with tansy ragwort. Here's the after:

Tansy ragwort, Jacobaea vulgaris, is an non-native, toxic weed. It causes problems for livestock, and you should wear gloves if you're removing it. This looked way more impressive in person.

I got a bunch of camas bulbs, and more camas seeds, and she also had some Garry Oak seedlings in her drive way that she let me dig up and take home.

For the camas, I harvested very lightly, far less than 1% I'm sure. I looked for the most crowded spots, replanted smaller bulbs, and tried to give them a little boost by removing a nearby blackberry or weeding out a particularly aggressive non-native grass near them or something along those lines. If I get to come back next year, I may bring a couple buckets of compost to feed them. Just moving through the patch scattered thousands of seeds I'm sure, so the small number I collected was well balanced. I also tried to expand the patch via seed, just a little.

I just opened the form for Black Northwest's first Publication! If you are a Black artist residing in the PNW check it out and submit something :D

You can submit here

It took Haiti over a hundred years to pay that ransom and it's difficult to explain just how badly that fucked up their entire development, especially since France also demanded a 50% discount on everything they bought from Haiti just to make it harder. Like! No wonder they're impoverished!

Diné Weaver Venancio Aragón

"From researching historic twill patterns in museum collections to dyeing wool with Kool-Aid, Diné (Navajo) weaver and instructor Venancio Aragón interlocks research and experimentation to expand the visual and technical vocabularies of Diné weaving. Working on the Diné upright loom, Aragón is part of a generation of Diné weavers who reinterpret ancestral knowledge through experimentation, carrying the medium forward on their own terms. As he stated in our interview with him, “I am not a purist.”

Based in Farmington, New Mexico, Aragón is trained in cultural anthropology and Native American and Indigenous studies, currently teaching at Diné College, the Navajo Nation’s tribal college. Before transitioning to full-time weaving and teaching, Aragón worked as an interpretive park ranger at the Mesa Verde, Aztec Ruins, Bandelier, and Petroglyph National Monuments, where he led tours and developed public education initiatives. He was born to the Tó’aheedlíinii (The Water Flow Together People) clan and born for the Naakaii (Mexican people). His maternal grandfather is of the Tsénahabiłnii (Sleeping Rock) clan, and his paternal grandfather is of the Naakaii (Mexican people)."

While this isn't news to anyone who works in this space, it is useful to have this water-is-wet research to affirm that Indigenous knowledge and land management are extremely effective at storing carbon and protecting biodiversity.

I want to draw special attention to this part of the article:

Shrestha, Ibrahim, and other Indigenous experts said that as much as Indigenous peoples are asking for help, they are also urging the world to learn from them. The Kichwa people in Ecuador, for example, restrict hunting of female tapirs and other animals to help slow population decline. The Tacana people in Bolivia, among others, do not permit tree clearing along rivers, which helps maintain water quality and prevent erosion. The list goes on, and could help the rest of the world mitigate climate change and protect the environment.

While this isn't news to anyone who works in this space, it is useful to have this water-is-wet research to affirm that Indigenous knowledge and land management are extremely effective at storing carbon and protecting biodiversity.

I want to draw special attention to this part of the article:

Carb starts your engine, protein keeps it going.

Cookie

Fruit (canned or fresh)

Chips

Piece of bread

Popcorn

Crackers

Easy protein add on:

Nuts

Spoonful of nut butter

Cheese

Roasted chickpea snacks

Glass of milk (dairy or non dairy)