Volunteer makes big impact at Plant Materials Center

Conservation is already a passion for 15-year-old Nathaniel Tilley. As soon as he was eligible to become an Earth Team volunteer, he got his father Derek Tilley, the director of the NRCS Plant Materials Center in Aberdeen, Idaho, to sign him up. Since joining the Earth Team in June of 2015, he has put in more than 130 hours of time despite being a full-time high school student with other extra-curricular activities. In 2016, he has already contributed 76 hours to projects at the Plant Material Center (PMC).

One of those projects included planting seeds for a planned wetland restoration at Yosemite National Park. “It’s amazing that we’re able to help with restoration for places hundreds of miles away, and that we have the know-how to grow these plants,” Nathaniel said.

In addition to assisting with planting and with field evaluations, Nathaniel has been sifting through germination bags from the center’s Forb Island study and tallying seeds that have germinated -- or not.

“Evaluating germination bags helped me understand what’s going on in the soil and the different effects of the treatments on the plants. I love figuring out what’s going on,” he said. Along the way, he figured out a technique that reduced the processing time by half. It is an advancement that will assist the center as it progresses through the Forb Island study’s subsequent phases.

But not content to simply work on work that the PMC needed done, Nathaniel also created an Eagle Scout project involving planning and installing a pollinator garden at the center. It is a project that benefitted both the center and a key national NRCS initiative. Nathaniel’s project provides both habitat and food for native pollinators, many of which are experiencing precipitous declines in their populations.

PMC Director Derek Tilley said, “Nathaniel has been great to work with. He doesn’t just put in the work, but really seems to get into the science of the project. You can see him thinking about it as he goes.”

Thinking ahead to future challenges, Nathaniel said, “I would definitely consider a career working in botany and with NRCS. I like that NRCS helps with conservation as opposed to all the wastefulness we see today.”

Apparently, botany has been a lifelong interest for Nathaniel.  “He has been working in the field with me since he was tiny,” Tilley said. “I remember when he was about 4, I took him to the Plant Materials Center in Bridger, Montana, and the people there showed him around the greenhouse. We walked in and Nathaniel looked at the flowers and said, ‘Oh, Helianthus!’ ”

Curtis Elke, NRCS state conservationist for Idaho, said, “Earth Team volunteers are invaluable to the agency. They bring passion, dedication and the ability to look at projects from a different point of view to NRCS. It is especially gratifying when we have volunteers like Nathaniel, who are conservation minded at such a young age and see a future helping others discover the benefits of conservation.”