Bennet Ruffner moves a houndstongue plant into a garbage bag at Revive and Thrive Sunday, July 15. Volunteers removed 13 large bags of houndstongue from the meadow.
Ezra Strohmaier, 14, saws at the trunk of a Douglas fir tree. The tree-cutting crew for Revive and Thrive removed encroaching conifers from 1,000 feet of an aspen grove.
Terri Marx of Helena digs up a weed. She came to the Revive and Thrive event with her husband Glen who works for the Montana Association of Land Trusts. "But he didn't tell me until yesterday that it was a work party," she said.
Fran Penner-Ray carries a bundle of mature houndstongue to a nearby trash bag. "Hunters, anglers, hikers, bird watchers, all kinds of people care for this land," she said.
SEELEY LAKE- Last Sunday, community members and Montanans from all over the state gathered to work in Lost Horse Meadow in order to prepare it for a prescribed burn in the fall.
The Nature Conservancy, Blackfoot Challenge and Five Valleys Land Trust worked together for the sixth annual Revive and Thrive work party and celebration Sunday, July 15. Volunteers pulled noxious weeds and cut down trees in order to help restore a native plant, blue camas, to the meadow.
"This is a really exciting moment for me," said Steve Kloetzel, a land manager for TNC. "This is really the kick-off for a huge restoration project on the Clearwater-Blackfoot Project lands."
TNC was recently awarded a $1 million grant to work with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Land Management on restoring plants that are culturally important to Native American tribes as well as the environment.
"We went out and mapped sites that were wet enough meadows to support blue camas in them," Kloetzel said. "That is a really important plant to the tribes throughout the Pacific Northwest."
The blue camas plant has a root that, when cooked, tastes similar to a sweet potato. It was used as a food source and a trading item by many Native American tribes but its population has since declined due to weeds, livestock grazing and lack of fire,
More than 60 volunteers from all over Montana pulled or dug up noxious weeds like houndstongue and spotted knapweed. In the fall, a prescribed burn will be administered in the meadow, which in other areas has aided in the restoration of blue camas.
Other volunteers cut down young Douglas fir and lodgepole pines that were growing in an aspen grove on the edge of the meadow. Aspens provide important habitat for birds, deer and elk but are extremely shade intolerant. Cutting down other trees that might impede their ability to get sunlight is an important preservation method.
Fran Penner-Ray of Helena said that volunteering for restoration projects is one of the ways she personally cares for the land.
"This is a way of showing appreciation for the habitat that's there and trying to give a better change to the native plants that we have," Penner-Ray said. "Caring for this meadow is part of caring for a larger ecosystem."
Missoula County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier was also present at the event. He thanked the volunteers and said that it can be easy to think of conservation as something only professionals can do but volunteering can help people do their part to protect important ecosystems.
"This restoration isn't just about the Clearwater or Blackfoot watersheds," said Strohmaier. "Benefits that we do in this place will accrue throughout the Columbia River watershed."
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