Serving the greater Bozeman area, including Gallatin, Park and Sweet Grass counties.
For more information contact Gretchen Rupp (406) 586-8363 beesgrmt@gmail.com. Or visit our Facebook Page.
Interested in Native Plant Landscaping in our area? For newly revised and brand new documents, click here.
2023 Summer Field Trips
Mid-June – Plant survey of the Crazy D Ranch (Melville, Sweet Grass County) All day. Jeff Copeland and Matt Lavin will lead a field trip on the Crazy D Ranch, a large, conservation cattle ranch. Ranch habitats include native grasslands, agricultural lands/disturbed grasslands (tame wheatgrass/dryland alfalfa), sagebrush steppe, riparian, and wetland. Sweet Grass Creek runs through the property, with cottonwood gallery forest, and beavers are actively being encouraged to pioneer the area. The ranch operators are interested in MNPS visiting and conducting a plant survey. The exact date of the field trip will be determined after a preliminary reconnaissance, and registered participants will be notified by text in early June. Contact Jeff Copeland (ceeland777@protonmail.com) or Matt Lavin (mlavin@montana.edu) to register.
Saturday, July 1 – Floral Response in the Bridger Foothills Fire (Bozeman). 9:00 am. Join Vicki Saab and Beth Madden to explore the pioneering plant life within the 2020 Bridger Foothills Fire perimeter. This is an opportunity to visit a recent burn and learn about post-fire ecology, including plant responses and relationships to forest fires and burned landscapes. Since the fire, glacier lilies, pasqueflower, and prairie smoke have been profuse in the early spring, followed by an abundance of western showy aster, larkspur, arrowleaf balsamroot, sticky geranium, and flowering shrubs. Birders may want to bring binoculars to enjoy the post-fire bird community as well. Limit 12 people. Registration required. For more information or to register contact Beth Madden at bethmadden64@gmail.com
Friday, July 14 – Crail Ranch Garden Tour and Hike (Big Sky) 1:00 p.m. Top off your visit to the Big Sky Wildflower Festival with a tour of the Crail Gardens located at the Historic Crail Ranch. Built in 2019, the gardens use native plants that are wildlife friendly, water wise, and sensitive to the historic landscape. The garden tour will be followed by a guided hike to view blooming plants in the meadow and surrounding forests. We’ll hike at “plant identification pace” for about 1.5 miles, but folks are welcome to continue on and enjoy the full four mile loop if they like. This event is part of the Big Sky Wildflower Festival, that runs July 10-14, with a variety of free and fun events and educational workshop throughout the week. Full details can be found on the events page of www.gallatinisa.org. Crail Gardens is located at 2100 Spotted Elk Road, Big Sky. Contact leader Jen Mohler of the Gallatin Invasive Species Alliance for more information: jen@gallatinisa.org or 406-209-0905.
Projects
The Valley Flowers Chapter maintains a native-plant garden in central Bozeman, to demonstrate the principles of gardening to benefit pollinators. Here is a fact sheet about the garden.