STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
The Sawtooth Botanical Garden and Idaho Native Plant Society will launch their popular summer wildflower walks on Saturday with a trip to Centennial Marsh near Fairfield.
The free trip on Saturday, May 19, will take a look at botany and birds in the area near Fairfield. Participants should meet at 8:30 a.m. at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden four miles south of Ketchum on Highway 75.
It will go rain or shine. Participants should bring appropriate clothing, sturdy walking shoes, water, sunscreen hat and lunch. The walk is open to children 7 and older but Fido should stay home.
Other hikes this summer:
June 1-2: Rare Plants of Craters of the Moon with Botanist Lynn Kinter of the Idaho Fish and Game. This will include and all-day field trip and evening talk. Starts 8:30 a.m.
June 13: Jeanne Cassell will lead a hike looking at some of the first wildflowers to emerge in the Wood River Valley. 9:30 a.m.
June 27: Jeanne Cassell will review more of the early wildflowers of the wood River Valley. 9:30 a.m.
July 14: Wildflower enthusiasts will head to 4th of July Lake, a mostly flat trek of about a mile. 8:30 a.m.
Aug. 11: Botanist Lisa Horton will lead a trip through the meadows of Apollo Creek—a colorful trek. 8:30 a.m.
Sept. 15: John Shelly, INPS President and retired U.S. Forest Service plant special will take participants to “one heck of a big tree.” 8:30 a.m.
Oct. 6: Jim Rineholt, retired Forest Service forester, will introduce walkers to autumn color. 8:30 a.m.
For information, contact Kristin Fletcher, education director at Sawtooth Botanical Garden at Kristin@sbgarden.org or 208-726-9358.