The sun sets behind the Flatirons while a soft breeze cools\nthe air. With full seed bags and full hearts, volunteers pick their last seed\nand head back to their cars on a mid-summer night\u2019s native seed collection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a common occurrence on Boulder County\u2019s public lands\nduring the warmer months. Passionate stewards of local open space lands give\ntheir time to harvest native grasses, flowers, berries, and cones so our local\nrestoration projects can be completed with ecotypic (site specific) plant material.\nIn this case, a local ecotype refers to a plant that has adapted to its local\nenvironment\u2014the soils, precipitation, climactic extremes, and elevational\ngradient, among many other factors that have encouraged our plants to thrive\nthrough millennia of natural selection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our native seed collection effort has grown since the late\n1990s and been hugely successful and continues to grow in popularity and need.\nOften times though, the scale of restoration on county open space exceeds what\nwe can sustainably harvest from the landscape. We cannot secure the amount of\nseed that is needed to restore our public lands from wildland collections\nalone, especially in the wake of a natural disaster like a fire or flood. A\nlarger, more targeted effort was needed to increase our access to and volume of\nnative, ecotypic seed. From this need, the Peck Native Seed Garden was created.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Peck Garden, located along the LOBO Trail (Longmont to\nBoulder Trail), was established in 2012 and is on the Peck open space in\nsouthwest Longmont. About 12 acres of this property is leased to Ollin Farms,\nan organic market farm, while about a quarter acre of this farm has been turned\ninto a native seed increase field growing about 10 to 12 different species of\nnative wildflowers and native grasses. All of these species were originally\nharvested from local open space lands by volunteers. Boulder County Parks &\nOpen Space volunteers and the Boulder County Youth Corps installed these plants\nat Peck Garden. A small and strong group of volunteers maintains this organic\ngarden. Volunteers harvest the seed and often also help to sow our ecotypic\nseed back into the landscape. This is a full-circle effort through and though\nand represents the confluence of community involvement with scientifically supported\nland management practices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This in-house seed increase undertaking has vastly improved\nour restoration efforts. We typically harvest between 100 and 150 pounds of\nseed annually from the Peck Garden. This garden harvest can account for\napproximately one-third of all the seed we collect in a year, depending on the\nspecies we target and Mother Nature\u2019s wildland seed production. By organizing\nthese species into rows, and with irrigation help from Ollin Farms, we can\nproduce large amounts of seed from some of our \u201cwork horse\u201d restoration\nspecies. These types of plants can establish and persist in the range of soils\nand elevations found in Boulder County, readily produce viable seed each year,\nand offer ecosystem services like pollinator forage, wildlife habitat, and soil\nstabilization. Some of the tried and true work horse species we grow at Peck\ninclude (but are not limited to) Blanket Flower (Gaillardia aristata), Prairie\nConeflower (Ratibida columnifera), Hairy Goldenaster (Heterotheca villosa),\nSideoats Grama (Bouteloua gracilis), and Western Yarrow (Achillea millefolium).\nBoulder County has used this seed in a variety of restoration projects\nthroughout the county, spanning small-scale projects like trailside seeding or\nslash pile restoration, to large-scale efforts like flood recovery restoration\nalong the St. Vrain Creek. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take a walk on the LOBO Trail this spring, or sign up for\nnative seed collection, and see this innovative and productive garden with your\nown eyes! Peck is, without a doubt, a special place. From June through August\nyou can hear the hum of pollinators tasting the rainbow of the flowers\u2019 nectar.\nHawks soar in the sky above your head. Friendly passers-by spark up\nconversation, as they wonder what\u2019s happening on the other side of the fence.\nAnd as the sun sets behind mountains, you can find a group of volunteers\ncanvassing the rows of plants and filling up their seed collection bags with\nwide smiles on their faces. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The sun sets behind the Flatirons while a soft breeze cools the air. With full seed bags and full hearts, volunteers pick their last seed and head back to their cars on a mid-summer night\u2019s native seed collection. This is a common occurrence on Boulder County\u2019s public lands during the warmer months. Passionate stewards of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-1567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-volunteer","tag-summer-2019"],"yoast_head":"\n