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Magpie Forest is like something out of the Wizard of Oz,
a strange green land in the middle of a field.
Nestled in a 33-acre parcel of wheat north of Pullman, the
14-acre tract is a remnant of the original Palouse prairie. Last
spring, Washington State University purchased the property from a
local landowner to protect it from being developed.
Accessible only through a network of game trails, the spot is
covered with hawthorn thickets, quaking aspen, mountain ash, and
native shrubs, grasses, and flowering plants. The University hopes
to upgrade these trails and encourage people to visit the property.
Plans for an access road and parking lot are underway.
The University wanted to preserve one of the last relatively
untouched pieces of Palouse prairie left, says Mel Taylor, WSU's
director of special projects and external relations. The site will
serve as a research facility for students and faculty to study the
wide variety of native plants found in the Palouse.
Rod Sayler, associate professor of natural resource sciences,
says that many groups already use the site for study. Thanks to the
school's preservation of the land, he hopes to be able to cultivate
plants there that were once found throughout the Palouse, and
re-introduce them in other sites. He also wants to increase the
size of the existing forest.
The local community has welcomed the move to purchase the forest
and protect the native prairie at a time when land around it is
being developed into student apartments, says Tom Lamar, executive
director of the Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute, based
in nearby Moscow, Idaho. "It's great WSU has taken on the
challenge," he says.
-Lisa Stone '06
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