{"id":86193,"date":"2025-06-10T17:39:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T17:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/?post_type=stories&p=86193"},"modified":"2025-06-10T20:10:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T20:10:44","slug":"seeding-success","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/news\/seeding-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeding Success"},"content":{"rendered":"
Native grass plantings check an important box in EWU\u2019s Palouse Prairie restoration.<\/h6>\n

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\"eth
Seth McCullough loads a drill seeder during a previous prairie planting. McCullough, a biology major and McNair Scholar earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Af<\/span>ter overcoming<\/span> obstinate weeds and uncooperative weather, members of Eastern Washington University\u2019s prairie restoration team earlier this year announced another milestone in the project\u2019s development \u2014 the seeding of native grasses across the whole of its 120-acre restoration site.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an important step, Prairie Restoration Project leaders say, in advancing the university\u2019s plan to devote a third of its campus land to reestablishing a patch of natural Palouse Prairie \u2014 an ancient ecosystem largely lost to agricultural development. When completed, the restoration will become a \u201cliving laboratory\u201d for interdisciplinary collaborations and research.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned a lot through this seeding process,\u201d says project head Erik Budsberg, director of sustainability at EWU. \u201cLiving systems are very dynamic, and there are always going to be complications that come in, challenges that you weren\u2019t expecting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those challenges was the persistence of invasive, broadleaf weeds that, in earlier testing, had proven lethal to native grasses. Taming the floral interlopers involved repeated mowing, tilling and, eventually, herbicide applications to completely clear the ground. Eventually, it worked. \u201cI think we got the site looking about as pristine as you possibly can,\u201d Budsberg says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve learned a lot through this seeding process,\u201d says project head Erik Budsberg, director of sustainability at EWU. \u201cLiving systems are very dynamic, and there are always going to be complications that come in, challenges that you weren\u2019t expecting.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Sadly, Mother Nature then stepped up to offer a new complication: a warm, wet, early winter. Counterintuitively, prairie grass seeds require sustained cold to sprout in spring. \u201cWhat they need is called \u2018cold moisture stratification,\u2019 \u201d says Erin Endres, an EWU nursery services specialist whose work is crucial to helping the prairie bloom again. \u201cThat means they have to be planted in the cold to break their dormancy and germinate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting the timing right fell to Chris Fitzner, a local farmer with an interest in sustainable agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris just had to sit and wait for the right conditions,\u201d says Budsberg. \u201cWe needed it to get cold, and then to stay cold, so that the seeds wouldn\u2019t germinate too early.\u201d There were also issues with the soil not freezing sufficiently for the drill seeder \u2014 specialized planting machines developed for no-till farming \u2014 to operate effectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he had to wait until we got a good ground freeze,\u201d Budsberg continues. \u201cWhen it finally came, Chris went out at ten o\u2019clock at night and seeded the site until three in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sort of dedication bodes well for the project\u2019s future; a future that is increasingly coming into focus. \u201cWith getting these grasses in the ground, I think we\u2019re truly at a turning point,\u201d Budsberg says.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Native grass plantings check an important box in EWU\u2019s Palouse Prairie restoration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":484,"featured_media":86195,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-86193","stories","type-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","stories_categories-campus","stories_tags-prairie-restoration-project","stories_tags-spring-summer-2025"],"acf":{"subheading":"","featured_image_format":"cover","display_byline":false,"display_featured_image":false,"display_date_published":false,"featured_video":"","Links":false,"Resources":false,"page_override_title":"","page_hide_sidebar":false,"page_enable_page_nav":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/86193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/484"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/86193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86379,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/86193\/revisions\/86379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}