Providing knowledge and technology to increase the availability of native plant materials across the Great Basin Desert

Pollinators
Two women reading a vegetation plot
Monitoring seeding transects post-fire
Eriogonum spp. in flower growing at a rock site
Eriogonum spp. in flower growing at a rock site

This is a collaborative effort of the USDI Bureau of Land Management, the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station's Maintaining Resilient Dryland Ecosystems Research Program, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Our major objectives are to improve the availability of native plant materials and to provide the knowledge and technology required for their use in restoring diverse native plant communities across the Great Basin. More than 20 federal, state, and private cooperators have been involved in this project since 2001.

US Forest Service logo
BLM logo
US Fish and Wildlife Service
GBNPP March 25-01

Objectives

  • Increase availability of native plant materials for restoring disturbed Great Basin rangelands.
  • Provide an understanding of species variability and their potential response to climate change.
  • Develop seed technology and cultural practices for producing native seed in agricultural settings.
  • Collaborate with regulatory agencies and the private seed industry to improve native seed supplies.
  • Examine interactions of native restoration and invasive species to formulate seeding prescriptions.
  • Develop new application strategies to improve native seeding efforts.
  • Develop demonstration areas, manuals, publications, and websites to communicate research results.
Dodecatheon
Chaenactis douglasii (Douglas's dustymaidens) and moss
Innovative seed collection using a vacuum
Innovating seed collection at UNR