Help sought to glean seeds from desert

Like Johnny Appleseed in reverse, a small army of volunteers could soon fan out across the desert to collect seeds from a native shrub ravaged by wildfires in recent years.

That is the goal, anyway, of a federal initiative aimed at repopulating charred areas of Southern Nevada with desert blackbrush plants.

Led by biologists at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, federal officials have issued a call for volunteers to assist with the unprecedented seed harvest.

Over the next month, they hope to collect as many seeds as possible from blackbrush plants now blooming across the region.

The seeds will be used to quickly grow blackbrush at Lake Mead's native plant nursery and replant portions of desert scorched by wildfires in 2005 and 2006.

Blackbrush burned in those fires has yet to rebound because the plant is extremely slow-growing and rarely produces seeds.

"It takes a really, really long time for it to recover, possibly on the order of decades if not centuries," said Josh Hoines, interagency restoration coordinator for the park service at Lake Mead.

In the absence of blackbrush and other local species, red brome and other invasive weeds often take hold. When those unwelcome plants dry out, they become fast fuel for wildfires, thus continuing the cycle of destruction for native plants.

The seed harvest and re-vegetation program is a joint effort by the Southern Nevada Agency Partnership, which includes the Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service.

The harvest is being timed to cash in on a bumper crop of blackbrush.

"We're just trying to take advantage of nature's opportunity here," Hoines said. "This looks like an absolutely fantastic year."

Volunteers will be trained to identify the plants and properly collect their seeds.

The first harvesting trip will take place on May 31, with future outings tentatively scheduled for each Saturday in June.

Hoines described blackbrush as a "fairly nondescript" shrub with low, dense branches that drop their leaves in the summer.

A member of the rose family, the plant usually appears dark gray in color, except in spring when it sprouts a coat of "beautiful yellow flowers," Hoines said.

Blackbrush can go five to seven years without producing seeds. In the nursery setting, however, the plants can be made to grow quite quickly.

If conditions are right in the desert, Hoines said, blackbrush grown from the seeds collected over the next month could be planted in some of the burned areas as early as this fall.

"The more seeds we can collect, the more plants we can grow," he said. "This is a real opportunity to make a lasting difference."

Those interested in taking part the seed harvest are asked to contact Lake Mead's Volunteer Program Manager Nancy Bernard by e-mail at nancy_bernard@nps.gov or at 702-293-8714.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.