Yesterday I volunteered with a local conservation group, Wildlands Restoration Volunteers, to collect seeds of the wildgrass, Mountain Muhly. Let me tell you, I never knew grasses were so different. After we knew what to look for, every other grass seemed so obviously not the right one, and it was easy to spot the Muhly even when walking at a briskish pace. It was an interesting experience, the people were all very talkative and interesting, and I learned lots of new things. Lots of plant dorks. We were collecting the Muley because you can't buy it commercially, and it is needed by the Boulder County Parks and Open Space Dept to restore meadowlands after fire, reclaimation, etc. They're going to take all the seed we collected and grow it up in a field to get even more seed! We collected a surprisingly amount of seed.
In addition to meeting interesting people and learning things, I met a woman who does oil portraits for a living on commission. We were talking about the idea of the starving artist, and she encouraged me to pursue art, even if only on the side. And that one thing always leads to another, the paths that we take should lead us where we are supposed to be. I don't know how much I believe that, but it's nice to think about because it negates regret. She suggested I read "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. We also talked about Jan Michael Vincent for some reason, and I'm supposed to google him because he's some 70s hottie.
I never realized seeds were so important and that there really were all these different species of plants in any given meadow. There are a lot of strange and distinct plants when you're down there looking at them. In related news, an international seed storage facility, Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, that wants to save seeds from every flowering plant on Earth, is lacking funds. I didn't really realize that this was an important project, but they already think they have six species of extinct plant seeds there. I picture a world like in Wall-E, where all the seeds kept in this facility are released onto a dead planet and the Earth returns to its former glory!
Today I'm canvassing for Obama for the last time since voter registration closes tomorrow. Next week I'm going to volunteer with WRV again and restore a local creek by clearing out non-native water-sucking trees and replacing them with native species.
1 comment:
That's really cool about the seed collecting. I've heard of the seed bank before, and it's a splendid thing to do. I always marvel when I hear there are actually people taking action to help the planet.
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