Citizen science has kids seed bomb field

Students from four area schools got to stomp around a field on the Colville Reservation in a citizen science experiment that continued this June.

The students, from Nespelem and Keller schools on June 6 and from Lake Roosevelt and Inchelium schools June 7, had prepared in class a lot of "seed bombs," for planting native wildflowers on a field of native bunchgrass.

The bombs, which a year ago had been made of clay and a pinch of seeds for the same experiment, this year had a bit different makeup and deployment plan, explained Linda McLean of the Colville Reservation WSU Extension program.

This year they added some dirt, more seeds (if you tell someone with tiny hands to put in just a pinch of seeds, not many get in) and a plan to stomp on the mixture, not just toss it.

Last year's efforts, in the same field at the corner of Cache Creek Road and Cache Creek Cutoff Road, yielded few different species of flowers.

The effort expanded this year to include more tribal departments. Fish and Wildlife were joined by the Range program, Forestry and Mt. Tolman Fire Center.

Kids on Wednesday were spreading out to find and document examples of the different species. They also stomped on their new seed bombs. McLean said the Mt. Tolman Fire Center sprayed with water from a pumper truck after the students left, but only after offering a little spray to the delight of students feeling the heat.

"This is in hopes of providing the seeds a little jump-start towards germination," McLean said.

Students also got to learn about measuring bunchgrass to assess whether a field is ready for grazing animals, learn about reservation animals, get a lesson in how fire embers travel and light fires far from where they started, and meet Smokey Bear.