April Family Days Celebrates Native Plant Month

The Yellowstone Gateway Museum in Livingston celebrates Native Plant Month during the next Family Days on Saturday, April 27, from 10am to 12pm. Staff and volunteers provide activities that celebrate native plants for students, youth, and their families. Activities are available for all ages.

During April people across Montana and the nation celebrate native plants by planting native trees, shrubs, perennials, vines and grasses. They also remove non-native plants and restoring native habitats to allow birds, bees, butterflies and all wildlife to flourish. Come to the museum and enjoy various activities that raise awareness about our beautiful, native plants.

Members and volunteers of the Livingston Tree Board are planting native plants on the museum grounds on Saturday, April 27. Participants can plant seeds to take home and use their senses to learn to identify herbs. Coloring sheets of Montana native plants are provided with a color key.

During Family Days, the museum’s Montana Native Plants Teaching Trunk will be on display. Park High School students collected fifteen specimens from the area around historic Fort Parker, east of Livingston, preserved them and researched how native peoples used the plants for food or medicine, which is included in the trunk. (Educators can check out this and other Indian Education for All trunks at the museum for classroom use.) In addition, copies of pages from the scrapbooks created by Olga Fraser from specimens she collected in Yellowstone National Park (with permission) in the 1970s will be on display. 

Family Days is held on the last Saturday of each month. Families can visit the museum and participate in different activities that encourage exploration of the museum through different themes. Admission is free.