Soda Fire Re-Seeding Pictures and Video

Rick and Carly had the opportunity to help re-seed the area the Soda Fire started.  Here's pictures and video.

We kicked things off at 8 a.m. at the main office for The Idaho Fish and Game.  We drove close to an hour meeting up with the rest of the volunteers in Marsing.

Over 100 volunteers showed up to plant Sagebrush and Bitter-brush.

This is what bitter-brush looks like after going through a wild fire.  Hundreds of thousands of these plants destroyed.  Bitter-brush feeds deer and adds protection for birds, rodents, and insects.

The Idaho Fish and Game have great people that taught us how to properly plant bitter-brush and sagebrush so that it would last.  We planted 3,900 plants and the Idaho Fish and Game is hoping for a 90% success rate for the plant's survival.

You can see the ground is just leveled.  Everything's flat but it's also good to see grass, flowers, and other shrubbery starting to grow back.

I was a digger and this is what a digger's hand looks like after three or four hours.  Lots of rocks would slow the process down.  Each digger needed to stay ahead of three planters to keep the work moving properly.

Carly was a planter.  It's important to plant correctly so the roots take hold, the deer don't pull the plant up, and it can survive wind, rain, and other weather related difficulties.

One of the most beautiful places we stumbled on while working.

You can see the protective netting around some of the sagebrush and bitter-brush in the distance.  This gives them a better chance of survival.  The sun will break up and disintegrate the netting in two to four years.

Here's a video of our journey with some of the coolest people on the planet.  Everyone had different reasons for being there, but one thing was clear.  We all came together because we care about where we live and what happens to Idaho along with the land, animals, and us as people.