Celebrating Wildflowers
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Plant of the Week: Alpine Forget-Me-Not
A native perennial to the north-western states and provinces of the United States and Canada, it was designated the state flower of Alaska in 1949. Read more about alpine forget-me-not…
Pollinator of the Month: Miner Bee
Miner bees are solitary, ground nesting bees that like to establish their home in well-drained soils, as in banks, hills, road cut-outs, between stones of old buildings, and between logs in cabins or barns. Read more about the miner bee…
Beauty of It All: Terrific Trilliums
Trilliums hold a special place in the hearts of naturalists, botanists, horticulturalists, and outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen worldwide. Read more about trilliums…
Ethnobotany…plants sustaining people
Ethnobotany is the study of how people of a particular culture and region make use of indigenous (native) plants. Read more about ethnobotany…
Explore Rare Plants on our National Forests and Grasslands
“Caring for the land and serving people”, the mission of the U.S. Forest Service, means caring for rare plants and their habitats, and helping people learn about these special plants on our national forests and grasslands. Read more about rare plants….
Forest Service Regions
The nine Forest Service regions are broad geographic areas, usually including several states, encompassing 155 National Forests and 20 National Grasslands. These lands include a vast treasure of diverse landscapes, ecosystems, fauna, and flora. Explore the wildflowers of the Forest Service's Regions….
Welcome!
Celebrating Wildflowers is dedicated to the enjoyment of the thousands of wildflowers growing on our national forests and grasslands, and to educating the public about the many values of native plants.
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Celebrating Wildflowers News
Introducing “Real Time” Counts at a Few California Overwintering Sites
Posted November 14, 2019
Snapshot of the 2019 Real Time Western Monarch Count Data. Visit the Xerces' Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count home page for updates.
New this season: the Xerces Society is introducing "real time" counts at a few overwintering sites thanks to some great volunteers. There's a new graphic in the slider with counts from a few important overwintering sites. We'll be updating these counts regularly throughout the overwintering season so you can get a glimpse at how many monarchs are clustered.
Check out the homepage of Xerces' Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count…
More than Monarchs: Restoring Ecosystems
Posted October 3, 2019
Honeybee on an aster. Photo by Candy Sarikonda, courtesy Monarch Joint Venture.
While monarchs are intrinsically important, conserving monarchs matters for more than just their own protection. Monarch Joint Venture is exploring the ways that monarch habitat and conservation helps people, other wildlife and the environment in the “More than Monarchs” series.
Read more about restoring ecosystems on Monarch Joint Venture…
Be Amazed by the Colors of Fall
Posted September 27, 2019
Fall colors at Cass Lake, Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota. (Forest Service photo.)
There are so many beautiful songs and poems written about autumn. And images! Amazing pictures and videos of trees and flowers aglow with brilliant reds, yellows and oranges among the many iridescent shades of the color spectrum.
This wonderfully vivid season also brings out the adventurers among us. A nice hike or walk in a national forest or grassland becomes suddenly awash with color and you feel like you’re walking through a land of enchantment.
Read more about the colors of fall and Fall Wildlfowers on Celebrating Widlflowers.
Best Management Practices for Pollinators on Western Rangelands
Posted September 12, 2019
Rangelands comprise the majority of public lands in the western United States, spanning a huge diversity of ecological regions, habitat types, and elevations—from grasslands to sagebrush steppe to pinyon-juniper woodlands to mountain meadows—and supporting some of the highest diversity of bee species in the country, as well as many butterflies, moths, and other pollinators. Many pollinator species in the West are declining and at-risk due to stressors including habitat loss, pesticides, disease, and the effects of climate change. A lack of pollinators on rangelands can have major ecological and economic impacts.
To help land managers incorporate pollinator-friendly practices into rangeland management, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has published Best Management Practices for Pollinators on Western Rangelands. These best management practices (BMPs) were developed for federally managed rangelands that span the eleven western United States: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Read more about BMPs for Pollinators on Western Rangelands…
Getting climate-smart with seeds: How a new software tool helps prepare landscapes for expected future conditions
Posted September 5, 2019
The web-based Climate-Smart Restoration Tool helps improve the seed selection process, which is a key part of ecosystem restoration and climate change resilience. Seed transfer limits are mapped based on user-designated geographic locations.
These days, there’s a lot of vulnerability associated with the Artemisia keystone species and its related ecosystems. Human development, overgrazing, severe fires, and encroachment by cheatgrass and pinyon-juniper woodlands have all reduced or degraded sagebrush ecosystems. It’s been estimated that less than 10 percent of U.S. sagebrush habitat is unspoiled. Greater sage-grouse, pygmy rabbits, and hundreds of other sagebrush-dependent species are particularly vulnerable to current and expected habitat disruption, including projected climate change.
One scientist whose research is helping to restore these ecosystems is Bryce Richardson, a research geneticist for the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Moscow, Idaho. Richardson’s work involves identifying sagebrush “seed zones”, geographic areas in which seed can be relocated and remain adapted to environmental conditions.
Read more about getting climate smart…
The Third Trinational Monarch Monitoring Blitz Was a Success Thanks to You
Posted September 3, 2019
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is pleased to announce the results of the third annual Trinational Monarch Monitoring Blitz (the Blitz). For a week, hundreds of volunteers in Canada, Mexico and the United States helped monarch experts gain more information to enable better understanding of the distribution of the migratory monarch butterfly, an emblematic North American species.
Read more about the monarch monitoring blitz success…