Camas Planting Project

elsalawrence

Hello,

My name is Elsa Lawrence and I live on Lopez Island. I am planning on doing a Camas planting with a few hundred bulbs this fall. I am currently completing an Ecosystem Restoration Design course and am working to design my own project now. My plan is to increase biodiversity for pollinators and to continue to enrich the soil in a degraded area. Im also continuing to learn about the significance of Camas as an indigenous food source and sustainability practice.

    I have a couple questions for all of you. The first is any knowledge people may have about planting Camas successfully.  I've done lots of research but would love to hear more from people who have done this in the area. My other question is that I am looking for the proper location to do the planting. If there were an area anyone had in mind that had some disturbance or could use help to build its soil i'd love to know. I am going to plant in clusters and probably fence the area to protect from deer initially. Please reach out if you have any ideas of places in the islands. Thank you so much!

wildcatkin

elsalawrence Elsa! how wonderful! can you tell me, us, first where you are studying Ecosystem Restoration Design? I am very keen to know.

I planted about 150 camas bulbs in a garden around the Family Resource Center here in Friday Harbor… not, alas, locally sourced plants but it was what we could do initially. They did very well in a very difficult situation. But I did spray with deer repellant.

The camas were planted within a very designed, contrived actually, native flowering “meadow”. I believe I posted the list of taxa here on one of the forums about sharing projects. The plants have mostly thrived. Any failures are due to my own delays in planting last autumn and the drenching rain.

I am hoping to one day invite some teachers and students to learn more about native plants and their uses. Sharon Massey from Spring Street School has brought her science students over and we hope for more of that in the coming year.

I am intrigued by your plan to increase biodiversity as that is ours as well: especially in this particular part of town which is fairly barren. I am also hoping to start to gather data about which insects we have now and how they might increase, same for birds and other small creatures and life forms. Without even trying to notice we see tremendous numbers of bees, wasps and flies all over the planting and making nests in the sand and gravel we mulched with. It is so encouraging.

We are planning to increase the garden area here and will be making disturbance sometime in the next couple of seasons.. so if you would like to be part of this I would be thrilled. Otherwise I am wondering about Sally’s Garden in Lopez Village. I was part of the original design/execute team (long ago) on that site and I can’t help but believe that a small camas meadow would be possible somewhere on that site in the village; native plants were the bulk of that design.. we did plant 3 Garry oaks there and they are huge now but perhaps the foot traffic is too great. Just an idea.

I have become acquainted with a landscape architect in Seattle who designed the new camas meadow at the brand new Burke Museum. I have been meaning to take a trip to see it and she has kindly offered to show me around. If things settle out sometime I wonder if we could make a field trip- some of us Camas Clubbers. It sounds like the installation has been quite successful and it has involved indigenous folks from the start and with the maintenance.

for now, Jenny

ElizaHabegger

You could also consider planting camas from seed, though this requires some site preparation. It would be interesting to compare the two methods.

I’ll follow up with you offline about possible sites. In general camas can succeed in a lot of sunny, grassy sites, provided they will remain that way either due to human management or because of site conditions.

PeterGuillozet

Hi, Elsa. Although the Sally’s Garden suggestion seems promising, if you are unable to line something up on Lopez I could likely accommodate a small camas planting project at Turtleback Mountain Preserve.

elsalawrence

PeterGuillozet

Thank you for getting back to me Peter. I would love to make it work to do some planting on Turtle Back Preserve. How big of a space do you think would be available there?

[unknown]

Thank you for the helpful response! I have been studying through Gaia Education; a non profit in Scotland that offers environmental education courses.

  Thats so good to hear that your Camas planting was successful. What kind of deer repellent did you use? Also what month did you plant them in? I love the idea of sharing information about this amazing plant with more people in the islands. I would love to be a part of increasing your garden space. Do you know when you will be starting this? I am only in the San Juan Islands for another couple months so hopefully I will still be here at that time.

Again thank you for all the information and suggestions! Exciting!

ShaunHubbard

Here’s more on the Burke Museum’s Camas Prairie. [https://www.burkemuseum.org/exhibits/landscape-native-plants](https://)
Thanks to the generosity of a private landowner, the seeds came from Dinner Island in Griffin Bay off of San Juan Island.
The Burke also planted lupine in the same meadow which quickly overtook the camas. Here is an excerpt from a Burke announcement in June 2021: “Despite recent efforts to trim back the lupine, the meadow remains overgrown. As a result, the museum—in consultation with Herbarium staff, the UW Grounds team, and our Tribal Liaison—is taking more aggressive, proactive measures to prune back the lupine and create the conditions needed for a blooming meadow of vibrant camas, a key feature of our museum’s welcoming landscape.”

Janet-Alderton

Shaun, Do you the species of lupine that overgrew the camas at the Burke Museum? There is a very dwarf lupine that grows on a rocky point near me in Deer Harbor. It is only about 3 inches tall.

wildcatkin

Janet-Alderton Lupinus albicaulis I believe at the Burke camas meadow.

ShaunHubbard

I’m sorry I do not know which lupine. The Burke letter just called them “purple lupine”.
Here’s the
they sent in May 2021.

Janet-Alderton

That lupine is definitely not 3 inches tall.
Thanks for the photo, Shaun!

https://calscape.org/Lupinus-albicaulis-()
Three to four feet tall!

wildcatkin

Janet-Alderton

I have an invitation - for any of us - to meet on site at the Burke with Bernie Alonzo and hopefully Shannon Nichol, from GGN, for a tour someday when we feel okay to do so.

Shannon says that COVID had a big impact on maintenance of the planting as it went in right before lockdown and everything sort of ground to a halt thus the lupine situation and other things that get worked out in the first year of any planting design.. a lot to learn from it I think.

Please let me know if any of you wish to be part of this potential visit with guide!

jenny

Janet-Alderton

Sounds wonderful, Jenny.
But I am still dealing with being immunocompromised by my arthritis medications.
Until there is a reliable test to determine if a person has developed a robust response to vaccination, I am being super careful.
I have been following the latest science on covid-19 since March 2020 when my daughter fell ill. She is still disabled with long covid.
Better than at her worst, but unable to return to work.
My background as a cell and molecular biologist gives me the technical background to follow the science.

ElizaHabegger

Definitely interested in the Burke tour. Let me know if this idea becomes a reality.