The weekend of June 5th-8th, 14 Rare Care volunteers traveled to the Okanogan Highlands in the Tonasket Ranger District of the Colville National Forest and surrounding Bureau of Land Management land for our annual Monitoring Weekend. Almost every person found and surveyed our target species for the weekend – northern blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium septentrionale). Six of the ten populations surveyed were larger in size than reported in the 90’s, some 10-100 times larger. 

We expected this survey season to be difficult with a hot and dry spring and summer causing shorter and earlier windows for finding rare plants. However, our volunteers, ever dedicated to the cause, rose to the challenge.
Sarah Stolar knew success would require arduous effort to reach a fern-leaf goldthread (Coptis aspleniifolia) population after Rare Care’s last three attempts couldn’t reach the location. 

Along the rutted road to Colockum Creek Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), remnant patches of 7-foot-tall big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) give a glimpse of what the ACEC might have looked like before
recent wildfires. Today, most of the site is covered by a near-monoculture of nonnative cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and tumble mustard (Sisymbrium altissimum) because the site has burned three times since 2013. 

Jacob Maki was Rare Care’s 2025 seasonal field technician. Maki started as a volunteer monitor with Rare Care in 2021. After graduating with a degree in plant biology from the University of Washington last year, he decided to take a stab at a full season of Rare Care.
Assisting with seed collections, outplantings, and monitoring, he traveled across the state from the Olympic Mountains to the basalt cliffs of the Columbia River, and even to channeled scablands in Odessa, WA. 

In August, Rare Care Program Manager Wendy Gibble attended the Plant Conservation Leadership Summit at the Atlanta Botanic Gardens. Over 100 leaders from 64 botanic gardens and affiliated organizations across the US convened to strategize how to advance plant conservation objectives in this new environment of severely reduced federal funding. Nearly all organizations have been impacted by the termination of federal grants and/or the lack of new funding opportunities. 

Meet Arturo Zazueta, horticulturist at the Washington Park Arboretum!

One of the many gems in our oak collection is Quercus graciliformis, Slender Oak or Chisos Oak, which is endemic to a very limited area in the Chisos Mountains in western Texas. Read on to learn about how the Washington Park Arboretum participates in tree conservation and research, particularly in the case of oaks, maples, magnolias, and hollies.

This month we head over to the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH) to meet horticulturist Kristen Johnson!

Scientific Name: Juncus effusus ‘Spiralis’
Common Name: Corkscrew rush
Family: Juncaceae
Native Range (of Juncus effusus): Throughout North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
The straight species of corkscrew rush, Juncus effusus, has a plethora of common names – including common rush and soft rush – and can be found in temperate climates all over the globe. Juncus is hardy in USDA zones 1-11. 

Ilex vomitoria may not be much to look at, but dig just a little deeper to learn its interesting story!