As fires increase in frequency and intensity across the archipelago, having seeds on hand for immediate habitat rehabilitation and restoration has been identified as a significant resource need

This Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) under the Endangered Species Recovery Implementation (CFDA 15.657) Federal Grant Program provides $2,796,875 to the State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) for an effort to collect and bank native plant seeds in Hawaii. The goal is to support post-wildfire habitat rehabilitation and restoration on Department of the Interior (DOI) lands and nearby non-DOI lands through collaborations with local watershed partnerships. The project will expand upon an existing USFWS and National Park Service seed collection initiative to better represent genetic diversity across the state's provisional seed zones. This will ensure more genetically appropriate plant materials are available for restoration efforts on both DOI and non-DOI lands. The award has an initial performance period from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2029.

In 2024, the USFWS and NPS initiated an effort to collect seeds of native plants in hawaii to bank and propagate for post-wildfire restoration for department of interior (DOI) lands in hawaii. This project will expand collection efforts on nearby non-DOI lands through island-wide collaborations with the hawaii association of watershed partnerships and the state of hawaii department of land and natural resources native ecosystems protection and management. The watershed partnerships in hawaii are voluntary alliances among more than 70 state, local, private, and federal land managers and total more than two million acres having shared watershed management goals and plans committed to protecting forested watersheds for ecosystem services, including water recharge. Access to near-DOI lands owned and managed by governmental and non-governmental partners will allow for better genetic representation of populations across the entirety of provisional seed zones, leading to more genetically appropriate collections for both DOI and other landowners across entire watersheds.