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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2022
New hope for rare plant in Washington
By COURTNEY FLATT
Northwest News Network
Wildfi res, invasive spe-
cies and climate change are
seriously threatening the
Hanford Reach National
Monument, and with it, a
rare plant that grows only in
one place in the world.
This winter, a team of
plant researchers is giving
the Umtanum desert buck-
wheat new hope. Research-
ers and volunteers planted
a second outcropping at
the Cowiche Canyon Con-
servancy near Yakima,
Washington.
Successfully
growing
more plantings of Umtanum
desert buckwheat is critical
to the survival of the threat-
ened plant, said Tara Cal-
laway, Washington state
recovery coordinator for
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
“We literally have all of
our eggs in one basket in that
one spot,” Callaway said.
In 2017, the Silver Dollar
fi re burned at least half of all
the Umtanum desert buck-
wheat at Hanford Reach.
The increasing frequency
and severity of wildfi res in
the area are particularly con-
cerning, Callaway said. A
single fi re could wipe out the
only Umtanum desert buck-
wheat in the world.
In addition, invasive spe-
cies, such as cheatgrass,
crowd out the Umtanum
desert buckwheat. Climate
change also will shrink its
habitat.
“By having a second pop-
ulation, it provides some
assurance that if disaster
strikes in the form of wild-
fi re or invasive species, the
species as a whole may still
persist,” Callaway said.
A lot of work went into
giving the plant a head start.
Instead of planting seeds
straight into the ground, the
University of Washington
Botanic Gardens Rare Care
Program fi rst grew the seeds
into seedlings.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Umtanum desert buckwheat only grows at Hanford Reach National Monument. Now, researchers are trying to plant it at
Cowiche Canyon Conservancy, which would be the second population of the plant in the world.
“We let them sit for weeks
and see what combination of
time, temperature and light
will produce the best ger-
mination of the seed,” said
Wendy Gibble, Rare Care
Program manager.
Then, researchers tested
diff erent soil mixes and con-
tainers to see how the plants
continued to grow best.
Moreover, east of the
Cascades, the program has
helped a variety of rare and
threatened plants, includ-
ing the White Bluff s blad-
derpod at Hanford Reach,
the Wenatchee Mountains
checkermallow, and the
showy stickseed, near Leav-
enworth, Washington, Gib-
ble said.
Rare plants often make
‘WE LITERALLY HAVE ALL
OF OUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET
IN THAT ONE SPOT.’
Tara Callaway | Washington state recovery coordinator
for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
up an important part of a
diverse, healthy ecosystem,
Gibble said.
For example, the Umta-
num desert buckwheat
blooms in the middle of
summer, when most other
plants no longer bloom, Gib-
ble said.
“What pollinators and
insects is this species sup-
porting, through a period of
the summer that’s incredibly
harsh with not a lot of other
nectar sources?” she said.
Rare plant species often
have these types of niche
purposes within an ecosys-
tem, Gibble said.
Callaway said of the blos-
soms, “It’s beautiful when
you stand up on the ridge
at Hanford Reach, and you
can see these clusters of all
yellow.”
Researchers also hope
the plantings will provide
those unique summer blos-
soms at the Cowiche Canyon
Conservancy.
Over two cold and foggy
days this winter, a group of
volunteers hiked along the
canyon.
Researchers planted the
246 seedlings of Umta-
num desert buckwheat at
a slightly higher elevation,
which will hopefully protect
this group of plants from cli-
mate change, Callaway said.
“We’re hoping that at this
particular site it will have a
little bit more moisture and
will also have cooler tem-
peratures,” Callaway said.
The volunteers dug into
the rare, rocky soil. The
group planted the seedlings
into three diff erent plots,
Callaway said.
Although earlier attempts
to plant Umtanum desert
buckwheat were unsuccess-
ful, Callaway said she hopes
plants in this area eventu-
ally will survive. In earlier
attempts, the soil was too
rocky, she said. Wildfi res
also burned the area right
after the plantings.
Establishing these new
seedlings at the conservancy
may take several years and
multiple tries, but research-
ers have to be tenacious,
Gibble said.
This spring, researchers
will head back to the area to
see if the plants survived the
winter.
The U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service and volunteers
with the Cowiche Canyon
Conservancy will continue
to water the plants and watch
as the Umtanum desert buck-
wheat grows, Callaway said.
The Cowiche Canyon
Conservancy owns the land
where the Umtanum desert
buckwheat seedlings were
planted.
Umtanum desert buck-
wheat can grow for more
than 100 years, Callaway
said. In the last 20 years,
Callaway said new seedlings
in study areas at Hanford
Reach haven’t survived until
adulthood, around when the
plants reach fi ve years old.
Researchers said they
aren’t sure why the seeds
haven’t grown successfully.
Callaway said it could be
that the young plants need
perfect conditions to survive.
Meanwhile, the Rare
Care Program is growing
more Umtanum desert buck-
wheat seedlings, Gibble said.
The group plans to plant this
batch of seedlings at Han-
ford Reach this fall.
“These are pretty harsh
conditions where this plant
lives,” Gibble said. “Some-
times you have a lot of suc-
cess with some species, and
with some species you have
a lot of failure. You just have
to keep on plugging away at
it.”
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