Curious About … Liking Shrub-steppe?
Plan to visit the CDLT Jacbson Preserve in the Wenatchee Foothills to experience a shrub-steppe ecosystem Continue Reading →
Category: sagebrush-grasslands
Curious About … Birding Close to Home?
Right now, dozens of long-distant migrating songbirds are setting up shop in our shrubby canyons, leafy aspen groves, and riverside cottonwood forests. I invite you to visit one of these nearby habitats to hear and see colorful songbirds who have arrived from Mexico and Central America to nest and raise young in our valley. Continue Reading →
Curious About … Antelope bitterbrush?
Antelope bitterbrush is blooming in the Wenatchee Foothill’s shrub-steppe. Fragrant yellow blossoms cover each shrub. Rodents and ants cache seeds. Continue Reading →
Curious About … Going Native In Your Yard?
Using native plants as home landscaping gardens can result in easy-care, beautiful displays that support native pollinators and use little water. Continue Reading →
Curious About … Western Skink?
Western Skink are common lizards in North Central Washington. These active little lizards are often characterized by their vibrantly colored blue tail, but this beautiful coloration is partly temporary and fades with age Continue Reading →
Announcing the Wenatchee Area Field Guide
The Wenatchee Area Field Guide is light-weight, waterproof, and fits into your pocket. Use to help identify common native plants and animals Continue Reading →
Shrub-steppe Sprouts from a Forgotten Seed Cache
Forgotten seed caches sometimes sprout in the shrub-steppe. Rodents like deer mice, voles, and pocket gophers cache seeds from antelope bitterbrush and lupine that if un-eaten, sprout and grow in to the next generation of plants. Continue Reading →
WENATCHEE NATURALIST STORIES: CHAPTER 13
During the Wenatchee Naturalist course, each participant visits their own field site and makes weekly field journal observations. At the end of the course, each person creates a presentation, sharing Continue Reading →
Central Washington’s Rebounding Pygmy Rabbits
Situated north of Ephrata on state-owned lands in a sagebrush-covered coulee, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is successfully running an innovative, semi-wild pygmy rabbit recovery program, now in Continue Reading →
The Amazing Tale of Sagebrush Galls
If you’ve stopped trailside to look at a big sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata), it’s likely you’ve noticed grape-like growths attached to a leaf or stem. Some are round, smooth and reddish, Continue Reading →