Cattle grazing and misplaced priorities (v2.0)
-- Field Studies --
During the field season in 2001, I visited the site many times.
I installed pollinator exclusion devices of various designs on many
flowers. Some of these field tests were very complicated, and all
required careful monitoring.
Approximately 65 flowers were involved in the study. The above photo
shows what a typical clump of plants, flagged for study looked like in
the early spring, shortly after snow melt.
As always, I worked
to ensure the impact upon the delicate bog was negligable.
After several spring trips to this relatively remote site, my experiment
was complete. I simply had to wait for the fall, collect my 65 flower heads,
and apply statistical tests to the seed yields. Some of the results of my
experiments were to be distributed (free of charge, of course)
to seed banks around the world for
enthusiastic horticulturists who were hoping to grow specimens of
this site's rare color morph of Cobra Lily.
