[Collecting seeds] Like this one
here...
On the islands in the middle of the Sound because many of them were
windswept
in the case of these islands being in the rain shadow
you suddenly had open prairie land and that's what attracted the first farmers
When you introduce
food crops to the island
it's going to bring in non-native seeds
which is suddenly going to disrupt the character of
the island.
This is common mullein. It's a non-native species. As you can see from this area, it's
very limited um yeah I think that there are
20 - 30 individuals that we find in here and
and so we have a good chance of eventually controlling Common Mullein throughout
this area and prevent it from spreading seeds
to other areas... when we get small population.
Only about three percent to the original prairie in western Washington still exists in its original form
so the prairie here's the important for that reason the species are
surviving here but need to be managed.
OK, well we're restoring the prairie here at San Juan Island National Historical Park
and right here we're propagating plants and grasses and forbs
for the prairie restoration.
One thing that Todd and the crews have been doing this year is actually
introducing some other
species in here to help get more species diversity
And what we'd ultimately like to see with some of these prairie restoration
environments.
So those are the big big three things, you know, is
controlling non-native species, doing some native seed collection,
in addition to actually planting
native plants back onto the prairie itself.
The mission of the National Park Service is the preservation of cultural and
natural resources for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations
I think here by returning the prairie to a pristine state
I think you're returning to a time that when the Europeans came
this is what they saw.
Nobody knows exactly what the prairie looked like
150 years ago when the first Europeans got here
but this represents our best guess
My role
in some small component is leaving it better than it was in the past. You know
whether it's restoring the prairie
or protecting a certain species and giving
a piece that with that we thought was going to disappear and not available to the
American Public back to them. You know, to
appreciate and enjoy.