Seed Season Begins!

By: Allegra Mount, BRN Seed Curator

​While the BRN horticulture team collects seed year round for restoration projects, the bulk of the work definitely happens during the fall season.  As our monsoons draw to a close, warm-season native plants finish flowering and complete the ripening process on their precious fruit while preparing to disperse it across the landscape.  Our focus during the post-monsoon collection season is always set on one kind of plant in particular: native grasses!

​Most of our native grasses are warm-season, meaning they do most of their growing, flowering, and seeding during the hot, rainy monsoon season. Our southern Arizona grasslands are unique ecosystems that are valuable to wildlife as habitat, to ranchers as forage, and to the world as a form of carbon sequestration. In restoration, grasses have tremendous value for their ability to grow and establish quickly from seed and hold soil in place on steep slopes. Native grasses also have extensive, fibrous root systems that allow them to withstand periods of drought by staying dormant. 

​In 2019, our goal is to collect over 200 lbs of seed from native grasses and forbs from over 40 different species! This seed is slated to be used in restoration projects across the borderlands on public lands, as well as being added to our ever growing seed collection. Public lands projects of note include over 150 lbs of seed collection for the Mansfield Mine Restoration Project in the Coronado National Forest’s Santa Rita Mountains, and grass seed collection on the National Park Service’s Coronado National Memorial in Hereford, where we are removing invasive species and revegetating an area that supports the struggling species Pectis imberbis, beardless chinchweed.

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​For the past three years we have been fortunate to be able to hire a great crew of seasonal seed collectors. This is seasonal work, but can lead to future job opportunities with the organization.

Local Patagonian Zach Farley started working with us in 2018 as a seasonal seed collector and now is a full-time restoration crew leader. This year, we’ve been able to promote horticulture intern Randi Trantham to seed crew leader, bring on  three Patagonia locals, and hire four additional staff local to southern Arizona.

​The 8-person crew will be working full days Monday-Thursday collecting starting in October; in September, a smaller crew is making collections on specific species like Cane Beardgrass, Bothriochloa barbinodis, that ripen much earlier than other species.
 
We’re looking forward to a great season ahead! Due to time and staff constraints, we’ve had to postpone our planned seed collection workshop until this winter, but if you’re interested in volunteering with us for seed collection we’d love to have you.

​Volunteers should be able to walk on steep, uneven terrain and work in full sun. Contact horticulture@borderlandsrestoration.org if you’re interested in volunteering with us. Otherwise, just get out and enjoy this lovely fall weather and appreciate our beautiful grasslands!