After the wildfire: Bringing sage back to steppe

BADGER MOUNTAIN — On a cold Saturday morning, a group of volunteers gathered around a garage on Badger Mountain with bags strapped to their sides and gardening shears in hand.

This group, all wearing face masks and standing 6 feet apart, was brought together by the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust to help save sagebrush on the Spiva Butte Nature Preserve near Mansfield. The volunteers were cutting ripe seed heads from sage and placing them into the bags to spread later.

The Pearl Hill Fire burned almost 100% of the Spiva Butte preserve, said Al Murphy, a retired forester for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

read the entire article here in the Wenatchee World