celebrating wildflowers
SELF-GUIDED WILDFLOWER TRAIL:
MAY 20-28
Our annual Self-Guided Wildflower trail will be active May 20nd-28th on Mount Helena! That week you can find wildflower signs along the trail to help identify many of our local flower species.
You can also use our Guide to Mt. Helena Wildflowers any time you go out this Spring! You can also print out our 2020 Checklist and Scavenger Hunt to keep track of the species you see!
CELEBRATING WILDFLOWERS 4TH GRADE ART CONTEST!
RESULTS STILL PENDING FOR 2024
2023 Art Contest Winners
The Celebrating Wildflowers Art Contest asks 4th grade students to illustrate a book of traditional stories about native Montana wildflowers and plants. The 2023 art contest booklet, with winning art included can be viewed here:
Feel free to peruse the following links to learn about our curriculum:
Wildflower Slideshow – A presentation of the 14 wildflowers students will be able to illustrate this year. There are some fun facts after each picture in the slideshow.
Wildflower Stories – The 14 stories we asked the students to illustrate (this is a blank booklet shared with teachers).
Thanks to everyone who spread the word and participated in our contest. Winning artwork will be featured on a billboard in May, and top 3 finalists will receive a prize featuring their art.
At the end of May, participating students hike on Mt. Helena to view first-hand the unique and beautiful range of native plant species found in their community’s backyard.
history of the program
The Celebrating Wildflowers program was created in 1991 by the USDA Forest Service in response to a public request for information about native plants and their conservation. Other agencies soon joined as botanists, interpreters and the public became enthusiastic about the Celebrating Wildflowers program.
The Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, in cooperation with the Montana Discovery Foundation and the Kelsey Chapter of the Montana Native Plant Society, is now in the seventeenth year of Celebrating Wildflowers. The partners, working with area teachers, encourage 4th grade students to read the wild plant stories you’ll find on this page. The students who participate are required to read and research the native plant of interest, then draw a picture to illustrate their selected story.
For more information visit: http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/