116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Iowa needs volunteers to plant wildflowers
FORT DODGE - Iowa is looking for volunteers to help transplant more than 2,000 native wildflower seedlings to help restore the state's prairies.
Volunteers can get their hands dirty on Feb. 15 at the Iowa Department of Natural Resource Center at Brushy Creek near Lehigh. Department biologist Bill Johnson said no experience is necessary, just patience. The seedlings are only about half an inch tall.
The seeds are put in trays to germinate. Those seedlings are then transferred into six-pack containers and allowed to grow to about 4 to 6 inches tall.
The agency said tall grass prairie once covered about 80 percent of Iowa with species such as big bluestem, butterfly milkweed and pale purple coneflower.
A bee buzzes on one of the black eyed susans that decorate the roadside along Secrist Road east of Marion on Wednesday, July 9, 2003.
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