Volunteers amass 150,000 seed balls to plant hope in Bastrop

Original article published in American-Statesman Dec. 23, 2011. Ryan Fleming says she just wanted to give a little something back to the people whose land was reduced to ashes in the Bastrop fires. "I wanted to let them know we were thinking about them," said Fleming, a member of the Capital Area Master Naturalists in Austin. Her idea has evolved into 150,000 marble-size balls of clay, compost and native plant seeds put together by about 300 groups of children at schools, churches and youth groups in Williamson, Travis, Hays, Caldwell, Milam and Bell counties, said Sue Wiseman, a fellow member of the Capital Area Master Naturalists. The seeds are from more than 50 varieties of plants found in the Bastrop area, such as little bluestem, black-eyed Susan and Indian blanket. Each ball has nine or 10 seeds and should grow with a little water, the naturalists said. They will be available to Bastrop residents whose land was damaged by the fires. "This is coming from our hearts and from the hands of children, and we are just praying they will grow," said Wiseman, who lives in Williamson County and is also a member of the Williamson County chapter of the Native Plant Society. Wiseman said Fleming came to her with the idea in October, and Wiseman presented it to members of the Native Plant Society in Williamson County. The group raised $1,800 to buy compost, clay and a special seed mix from the Native American Seed Co. in Junction. Dennis Terz, a member of the Native Plant Society, then held a workshop at his barn outside Georgetown in October where adult volunteers put the compost, clay and seeds into 450 kits to be sent to youth groups, which then added water to the ingredients and rolled the balls, he said. Terz said he watched children at the Boys and Girls Club in Georgetown make the balls with one of the kits while he talked to them about the environmental effects of the fires in Bastrop and the benefits of re-vegetating with native plants. "We are making young people aware of things we weren't aware of when we were their age," Terz said. Carrie Knox, executive director of the Pines and Prairies Land Trust, a nonprofit group in Bastrop, said she provided a truck to pick up the seed balls recently from Williamson County. They are being stored in the warehouse of a Bastrop businessman, she said. "I think they are the most wonderful, out-of-the-blue, unexpected gift that these folks from Williamson County made happen," she said. Meredith Longoria, a biologist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and Roxanne Hernandez, an administrator for the Bastrop County Lost Pines Habitat Conservation Plan, are distributing the seed balls to residents. For more information, call Longoria at 512-332-7280 or Hernandez at 512-332-7284. cosborn@statesman.com; 246-0040