www.PrairieSeedCo.org, the Prairie Seed Council, is a collaborative venture with the goal to increase the amount and variety of coastal prairie plant materials including seeds.  It is in the midst of a two year, intensive seed collecting effort to provide seeds for urban pocket plantings, volunteer grow outs, and most importantly provide source material for seed production at a large scale.  Select the "join a team" tab at the website and see the list of teams, team leaders, and map of the collection areas.  Please help collect seeds and at the same time experience the prairie.  

Below is the first update of the activities of this group.  To get emails in your mailbox, go to www.PrairieSeedCo.org and select the "sign up for email list" tab.  It is an automated system through Constant Contact.  Subscribing and unsubscribing is very easy.

---------------- Prairie Seed Council News - 7/26/2012 --------------------------

Hi seed collectors, 

I'm Lan Shen and am Scott Barnes' replacement as Seed Collecting Manager.

This is the first of regular updates on what's happening with the seed collection teams. Information about this project, the individual teams, the seeds that we are collecting and when they would be ripe are online at www.prairieseedco.org.  The update this week is longer than normal.

Calendar.  Just posted on the website calendar are three upcoming seed collecting opportunities.  Please contact Team Leaders for specific meeting instructions.

• Wed., August 1, 8:00 - 10:00 a.m. with Lan Shen at College Park Prairie
• Fri., August 3, 8:30 - 10:30 a.m. with Jaime Gonzalez at KPC's Indiangrass Preserve.
• Fri., August 10, 8:30 - 10:30 a.m. with Jaime Gonzalez at College Park Prairie.

Collection Team News.  Below are recent updates of the collecting teams.  For a list of teams and map of the counties where they are collecting, see  www.PrairieSeedCo.org  and the tab "Join a team".

• Team 1: Nature Conservancy - Upper Coast; Team Leader: Aaron Tjelmeland: Team 1 collected Brown-eye Susan, white prairie clover, Rosinweed, wild rye, slender milkweed, Baptisia, and others at Nash last week.  Peter and Susan Conaty were there with Aaron and 3 Nature Conservancy Interns from Brooklyn and their mentor from the Bronx.  Despite the pouring rain and having to walk long ways from one patch of ripe seeds to the next (since most seeds were not ready), all had a good time.  These people traveled all the way from New York to collect, so there should be no excuse for us locals not to join a team and enjoy the prairie!

To get the seeds from Aaron at Texas City Prairie Preserve to the Katy Prairie Conservancy office in Houston, we have established a Prairie Seed Train:  the seeds are passed from Aaron to Jim Duron at Texas City Prairie Preserve to Tom Solomon at Armand Bayou Nature Center to Sandy Wilson at Sheldon Lake State Park.  Sandy will bring the seeds into the city and Lan will collect the seeds from Sandy's porch.

• Team 3: Katy Prairie; Team Leaders: Jaime Gonzalez, Linda Langlitz:  Team 3 has been collecting at KPC'sIndiangrass Preserve and at College Park Prairie.  Some of the seeds collected recently includes Brown-eye Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Lemon mint (Monarda citriodora), Brownseed paspalum, prairie parsley...  Also collected were some American basketflower seeds at Houston Arboretum & Nature Center.  Theo Ostler had blogged on the CPP website that they were ready and available to anyone.

• Team 5: NPSOT, TMN-Gulf Coast, NPAT-Houston; Team Leader(s): Katy Emde, Lan Shen.  Team 5, led by Katy, collected at a field found by Jane Reierson near Clay Road and Greenhouse road.  Some of the seeds collected by Katy, Jane, and Lan included Brown-eye Susan, prairie parsley and others still to be catalogued.  

On June 26, Team 5 led by Lan and including Heather Biggs, Susan Conaty, Sally and Hank Hilliard, Brandt Mannchen, Brandt's friend and great seed collector Dave, Sheryl Marquez, Celeste Mead, Linda Rippert, Don Verser, and Kelly Walker, collected mostly Brown-eye Susan along with rosinweed and sensitive briar.  Although we were there at what turned out to be the hottest day this year, all enjoyed College Park Prairie.  Photos have been posted.

Katy researched and wrote a Seed Collecting Protocol and a Seed Collecting Guidelines, both will be posted at the www.PrairieSeedCo.org website shortly.

• Team 6: Wildlife Habitat Federation + USFWS; Team Leaders: Jim Willis and John Magera:  Rebecca Chester and M. Morrow collected on June 22 & 25 at Attwater Prairie Chicken Preserve, NWR the three species: white prairie clover (Dalea candida), Knotroot bristlegrass (Setaria parviflora), and Virginia wildrye (Elymus virginicus).  Plans are to send these seeds to Kiki del la Garza Plant Material Center in Kingsville, to use them for restorations onsite, and maybe to send them to Wildseed Farms.

• Team 7: Texas Parks & Wildlife, Team Leader(s): Diana Foss:  Diana wrote, "...status for the East TX counties (Liberty, Hardin, Jefferson, and Orange): I have started recruiting volunteers for the East TX area, [and] have 7-8 from Beaumont Master Naturalist chapter...  They would like plant ID and seed collection training prior to collecting, so I’m working with Aaron to get that set up for the first part of August.  I have 2 potential sites for collecting and am hoping the volunteers themselves will know more local sites."

More information about seed collection training will be sent in future updates.

Requests to seed collectors and team leaders.
Please send comments about your seed collecting trips to share with other prairie enthusiasts.  

Please post photos of seed collecting trips at www.CoastalPrairiePartnership.org (or www.prairiepartner.org) and send me a link.  Or if you prefer, send me the photos and I will post them and credit the photos to you.

I look forward to working with you all.

Lan