Inmates grow thousands of native plants for Idaho wildfire recovery

KUNA (CBS2) — Thousands of native plants grown by incarcerated individuals at the Idaho State Correctional Center will soon leave the facility and be used in habitat restoration projects in Idaho.

The effort is part of the Sagebrush in Prisons Project, a partnership involving the Idaho Department of Correction, the Institute for Applied Ecology, and Idaho Fish and Game. Participants grow native species including sagebrush, bitterbrush, and rabbitbrush from seed before the plants are harvested and transported to restoration sites.

According to participants in the program, they began this year’s season with roughly 60,000 seedlings and expect about 55,000 plants to be sent out following harvest.

The growing season typically begins in the spring. Participants spend months filling containers, planting seeds, watering, fertilizing, and treating the plants before harvesting them in the fall.

From inside the facility, crews carefully remove each plant from its container before they are boxed and prepared for transport.

Tana McDonald, education program manager at the Idaho State Correctional Center, said the program is made possible through collaboration between several organizations.

“So here at this facility they’ve been doing this since 2014,” McDonald said. “You’ve got the Department of Corrections, you have BLM land management, and then we also have the Institute for Applied Ecology. Idaho Fish and Game also is part of this, too.”

McDonald said Idaho Fish and Game will collect the plants and transport them to locations where they will be planted.

The plants are intended to help restore areas impacted by wildfire and provide habitat for wildlife across the state.

“We can put that sagebrush in areas specifically impacted by wildfires,” McDonald said. “And we’re able to recreate that environment that’s still providing a safe space for our other animals and creatures who need it too.”

For participants Aaron and Jerry, the project provides an opportunity to experience something different.

“We’re outside almost every single day,” they said. “Gives you something to do in an otherwise bitter place.”

Aaron said working with tens of thousands of plants requires attention and consistency throughout the growing season.

“It’s taught me a lot of patience. You need a lot of patience for it.”

Jerry, who worked as a paid employee in the program this year, said the experience has given him skills he hopes to use after his release.

“It’s taught me a lot, especially since I’m getting out soon,” he said. “If I wanted to volunteer for Idaho Fish and Game, I have an in because of doing this.”

Though the participants at the facility are not the ones doing the planting, Jerry hopes to stay involved with projects like this following his release.

“It’d be nice to actually go out and plant these,” he said. “When I’m out, I can go do it. I can volunteer and go do it. So that’s what I plan on doing.”

McDonald said programs like this are designed to benefit both Idaho’s environment and the people who take part in them.

“If we’re giving these guys a skill that they can go do something else, then maybe what put them in here, we’re giving them an option to not resort back to crime,” she said. “We’re giving them a chance to build a new job, a new life.”

With harvest underway, the plants will soon leave the correctional center and head to restoration projects in the surrounding areas, where years of work inside the facility will begin a new chapter outdoors.