"Participants in the Sagebrush in Prisons Project are raising seedlings for planting in areas damaged by wildfire."
"In prisons across Western states, incarcerated people are raising tens of thousands of plants to restore sagebrush habitat, a vanishing ecosystem home to the iconic endangered greater sage-grouse and hundreds of other species.
Participants in the Sagebrush in Prisons Project, coordinated by the nonprofit conservation group Institute for Applied Ecology, sow about half a million sagebrush seeds each year and nurse the young plants for several months. In the fall, the seedlings are handed off to partners so they can be transplanted into areas of sagebrush steppe damaged by wildfire.
Sagebrush grows in about a dozen states from the Dakotas to California. Development destroyed much of this habitat. Now wildfires and invasive species threaten what remains."
Bridgett Ennis reports for Yale Climate Connections October 9, 2023.
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