Becoming habitat

^{New sage flourishing across the northern slope of Saddle Mountain, early Spring 2025. Inset: closeup of sage with dense seedheads. Photos by Mark Mease.}

This article is based on conversation with Mark Mease and Ernie Crediford.

Pauline Schafer, Education Manager at the REACH Museum, arrived in the Tri-Cities with a concept that has gained serious traction among local environmental educators and advocates: seed balls made of dirt, a binder, and seeds. The seed balls make mass planting of native species a fun activity for everyone! 

Over the years, different groups have tried various combinations to create seed balls; the effort became a legitimate citizen science endeavor. Early efforts by Debbie Berkowitz and Lindsay Gailey in the Leslie Groves Project paved the way for the modern seed ball mix. Their original recipe just needed some adjusting to produce actual balls that held together yet dissolved in the environment. 

Terri Knoke was a native plant expert volunteer with the Washington Native Plant Society, Cowiche Canyon, and Friends of MidColumbia River Wildlife Refuges. Knowing that she only had a short time left, Terri asked that her ashes be made into sage seedballs to restore plant life on the burnt north slope of Saddle Mountain. Her husband, Mark Mease, searched for an effective seed ball recipe online and discovered a ‘seed bomb’ mix. 

When Terri passed away five years ago, nearly 50 friends from her affiliated groups came together to make seed balls from her ashes, local sage seeds, and the ‘bomb’ mix. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service staff shuttled folks to the Saddle Mountain site for Terri’s memorial service. There was a eulogy, testimonials about Terri’s life, and a planting party. One 12-year-old participant carefully placed each seedball into a small dip in the soil, saying, “This is where the water will collect.” Terri the engineer would smile upon hearing that! 

Such a joyful (and sorrowful) volley of seed balls across the landscape is helping to restore the scorched earth with new plant communities, an ideal manifestation of Terri’s life and legacy.