Natural Resources 101 : Tomer Butte

Any time that you can get out of the classroom and into the real world is a great break from the constraints of school. About week 7  of the Fall semester here at the University of Idaho, the Natural Resource 101 class took a lab field trip to Tomer Butte in Moscow, ID. Located on the historical Palouse Prairie, Timer Butte offers a plethora of ecological and managerial teaching points. From wildlife to plants, from untouched prairie to CRP ground.

As a range major, it was awesome to see that there is a place nearby that has such a huge rangeland history. A huge thank you to Professor Karen Launchbaugh for leading the class on a mini scavenger hunt and providing the students with such an impactful experience. 

Groups started off hiking up to the first location, where we were given a bag of soil and prompted to identify it. Then students hiked up the butte, marking and identifying animal signs and different vegetation species on a map. 

The second location showed the students a few native plants of the Palouse and documented their medicinal properties. Two of the plants shown were balsamroot, which was commonly used for tea to treat headaches, and whose leaves were used as a poultice for burns. Another plant highlighted was western yarrow, used to decrease inflammation and indigestion. It was really cool to see these plants’ uses and compare them to today’s Advil or pepto bismol. 

The last activity for the students was to calculate forage density and compare them from reclaimed rangeland, restored rangeland, as well as CRP ground. It was really cool to use some of the tools that a real rangeland manager would use, like a grazing stick. And understanding the differences between the three land classifications.

The whole goal of NR101 is to broaden the outlook of Natural Resource students. Giving them experience in a multitude of different natural resource professions and career pathways. I truly think that this field lab did an amazing job at outlining what a career in rangelands, or restoration ecology would look like.

Written by: Andrew Zellars