Wildlife division seeks volunteers to gather seeds for recovery program

Sandra Chereb

Thursday, Oct. 7, 1999 | 9:54 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Volunteers are being sought to collect seeds from native plants to be used to revegetate some of the nearly 1.6 million acres destroyed by wildland fires in Nevada this summer.

"We cannot attempt to rehabilitate every one of those acres, but we're looking at those that we feel will have a better chance of recovery with some help," said Kim Toulouse of the Nevada Division of Wildlife, who is coordinating the volunteer effort.

"We want to use the native species of plants," Toulouse said. "They're a little more fire resistant than what's out there - and what's out there now is cheat grass."

The agency wants to collect three species of seeds - Wyoming big sage, four-wing salt brush and rabbit brush.

Seeds from Wyoming big sage are miniscule and should be ready for gathering in the next few weeks.

"We're going to take the group out to a stand of sagebrush and have a little training session," Toulouse said. He noted that gathering sagebrush seeds is best accomplished when people work in pairs.

"We will provide lunch for everybody who shows up on the team days," he said, adding that the effort will continue every weekend until the snow flies.

With the help of volunteers, Toulouse said the agency hopes to collect about 50 pounds of rough seed per day. Once chaff is removed, it should amount to around 7 pounds of pure seed, with an estimated 2 million seeds per pound.

"They're very, very tiny. They look like a little black speck," he said.

The seeds will then be mixed with rice hulls and dispersed by airplane or helicopter at a ratio of one-half pound per acre.

"If we had to do this ourselves, there's no way we could do it," Toulouse said. "We need as many volunteers as we can get."

He added that because of the number of fires around the West this year, there is very little seed on the market to buy.

A similar effort is scheduled in Tonopah beginning Nov. 6., and Toulouse said the agency is also trying to organize seed-gathering projects in other parts of the state.

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The agency's first volunteer outing will begin at 9 a.m., Oct. 16, at the division's headquarters on Valley Road in Reno. For more information, contact Kim Toulouse at the Nevada Division of Wildlife at (775) 688-1500.