Today’s column is mostly for readers to stay informed of the activities of the federal government to address a little-known need of concern for gardeners. The information comes from a study of the Committee on an Assessment of Native Seed Needs and Capacities, sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued a report in January to expect an insufficient supply of seeds from native plants. The report warns that shortages may present major barriers to ecological preservation and revegetation projects across the United States. The NASEM would like to see a robust native seed supply and industry.
The report recommends:
• Bureau of Land Management should identify and conserve natural native plant communities that provide significant reservoirs of native seeds for restoration. Natural plant communities provide the ultimate sources of native seeds for ecological restoration, the report says. Public land agencies should use protective designations to actively recognize and protect them for future restoration needs.
• The Bureau of Indian Affairs should promote and expand tribal nurseries in partnership with the Inter-Tribal Nursery Council. The report highlights the importance of involving tribal leadership in planning, conducting, and applying results from projects related to seed production and conservation, native plant restoration, and ecosystem management on tribal land.
• Federal agencies and partners should collaborate on seed infrastructure for storage and seed cleaning that can be cooperatively cost-shared regionally to reduce costs and increase access with fluctuating needs. Additional storage can improve the availability of seed ready for restoration when urgent but hard-to-predict needs arise. The report says the BLM’s Seed Warehouse system also needs to be expanded, especially its capacity for cold storage.
• The federal government should commit to a research agenda aimed at expanding and improving the use of native seeds in ecological restoration, including supporting basic research, building technical knowledge, and adaptive planning. A more uniform system for developing “seed zones” would streamline communication between buyers and suppliers about the suitability of seeds for different regions.
Sources of native seed inTexas: Douglass King Seeds, San Antonio, (210) 661-4191; Wildseed Farms, Fredericksburg, (800) 848-0078; Native American Seed, Junction, (325) 4463600; Turner Seed, Breckenridge, (800) 722-8616; Watley Seed, Spearman, (806) 659-3838; Browning Seed, Plainview, (806) 293-5271; Farmer’s Nursery, Leander, (512) 259-4111; Coulter Gardens, Amarillo, (806) 359-7432; The Natural Gardener, Austin, (512) 288-6113; Calloway’s Nursery, Ft. Worth, (817) 923-9979; Native Texas Nursery, Austin, (512) 276-9801.
TEXAS DOVE
BEGINS SEPT. 1 Ellen Peffley Harp, a retired professor of horticulture at Texas Tech University, writes about gardening for several Texas newspapers.
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