The national seed strategy promotes establishment of coordinated networks to identify and resolve organizational, ecological, and financial challenges of restoration and revegetation at scale

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded a $140,303 five-year Cooperative Agreement to Oregon State University under the Endangered Species Recovery Implementation program (CFDA 15.657) to support the establishment of the East Cascades Native Plant Hub in Bend, Oregon. The hub will coordinate a regional network to address organizational, ecological, and financial challenges in restoration and revegetation of sagebrush ecosystems, with a focus on increasing the availability of site-appropriate native plant materials. Key activities include: 1) establishing a facility to store native plant seed collected from Conservation Seed Areas (CSAs) for long-term viability; 2) initiating a consistent seed collection program in collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and 3) developing a collaborative native seed collection and storage program based on seed zones and ecological site criteria. This effort aligns with the National Seed Strategy and recent Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to support sagebrush ecosystem conservation and sage grouse habitat restoration.

More recently, the bipartisan infrastructure law directed significant funding to the U.S. Fish and wildlife service and other federal agencies to emphasize protection and enhancement of core sagebrush ecosystem habitats. This keystone initiative specifies activities that support prevention of annual grass invasion to reduce wildfire risk, reducing other negative impacts from fire, and advancing the sagebrush conservation design, all of which require greatly expanded access to site-appropriate native plant materials for restoration of sagebrush ecosystems. This is particularly true for habitat restoration efforts focused on sage grouse, which typically involve reincorporating grass and forb species into a sagebrush matrix. The east cascades native plant hub in bend, oregon, was launched to spearhead development of a regional plant material network (consistent with the national seed strategy) that serves the east cascades, columbia plateau, blue mountains, klamath mountains, snake river plain, and northern basin and range ecoregions. Key activities of the hub include seed collection and increase, propagation, restoration and out-planting, success evaluation, and effectiveness monitoring focused on sagebrush steppe ecosystems. The plant hub is developing the capacity to function as an information clearinghouse and coordinator of activities among partners (BLM, USFWS, NPS) and provide economy of scale through pooling of funds, added staff capacity, and leveraging of expertise for broad impact. The hub has already developed greenhouse capacity for production of plugs and containerized stock, initiated seed collection programs (NPS), and is collaborating with BLM and other partners on seed collection and increase projects in the region.specific objectives include: 1) establish a scalable facility in central oregon where native plant seed harvested from csas in the state can be stored for maximum long-term viability 2) initiate a dedicated and consistent seed collection program focused on csas in the prineville and burns BLM districts in collaboration with USFWS and partner agencies 3) establish a collaborative native seed collection and storage program for sagebrush ecosystems based on provisional seed zones and ecological site criteria.