Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

WORLAND – Saturday, to celebrate National Public Lands Day, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along with community volunteers will collect seeds to be planted during next year’s National Public Lands Day to rehabilitate public land damaged by the Banjo Fire in August.

“The plants that we will be collecting seeds from are Indian Paintbrush, Annual Lupine, Gardener’s Salt Bush and Tahoka Daisy. We will be collecting all the seeds by hand because they are all easy plants to collect seeds from,” BLM Public Affairs Sarah Beckwith said. “It’s a good project; to be able to then next year, plant those and hopefully rehabilitate a burned area is a great thing,” she added.

BLM Outdoor Recreation Planner Hannah Fortney said, “Because of local adaptation, these seeds have a higher chance of survival than seeds grown or collected in a different geographic region under different environmental conditions.”

Community members interested in volunteering for a couple hours Saturday morning are asked to meet in the BLM Worland Field Office parking lot at 8 a.m. to carpool and caravan out to the seed collection site off the Nowater Trail Road south of Worland. Volunteers are asked to bring water and gloves and to wear closed-toe shoes.

Upon arriving at the collection site Beckwith explained that there will be a short group discussion before collection starts to explain what the plants and seeds look like and how to collect the seeds.

All volunteers will receive a free brown bag lunch, a National Public Lands Day volunteer shirt and hat and the satisfaction of helping preserve public lands.

“Events like this are valuable and I hope volunteers join us and take this morning to enjoy the great outdoors,” said Fortney.