The U.S. Fish and wildlife services partners for fish and wildlife program (PFW), a program of the national wildlife refuge system, generally provides habitat restoration assistance on private lands…

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) awarded a $375,000 Project Grant under the Partners for Fish and Wildlife (CFDA 15.631) program to River Partners, a non-profit organization based in Chico, California. The grant funding will support efforts to increase the diversity and availability of native plants for habitat restoration projects across California. Specifically, the grant will enable River Partners to:

1. Collect source-identified native plant seeds from public lands and amplify them through cooperative agreements with local growers, creating a regional hub for native plant material development. This will improve the supply of genetically appropriate native seeds for post-fire habitat restoration on public lands.

2. Develop best management practices for native seed production and share knowledge with the broader California native seed expert and grower community. This will help retain lessons learned and support the retention of this expertise as a public good.

The goal of this 4-year project is to increase the quantity, diversity, and effectiveness of native forbs and grasses to support the restoration of wildlife habitats, rehabilitation after wildfires, and climate change resiliency on public lands in California.

The U.S. Fish and wildlife services partners for fish and wildlife program (PFW), a program of the national wildlife refuge system, generally provides habitat restoration assistance on private lands and technical assistance on a variety of other restoration related practices. Habitat restoration depends on having readily available plant materials appropriate for the ECO-region and specific project objectives, which has been an ongoing barrier to many restoration projects throughout the state of california. By increasing the diversity and availability of native plants through cooperative agreements with native seed producers, we will create a system where restoration materials will be more readily available for projects. The partners for fish and wildlife program is partnering with both national park service (NPS) and the bureau of land management (BLM) to create regional hubs for native plant material development. The department of interior (DOI) team is using a strategic approach by placing seeds of success (SOS) collection teams throughout the state to collect source identified stock seeds to be used for habitat restoration and rehabilitation plant material development with local growers. First, these seeds must be cleaned and propagated before they can be amplified to a quantity appropriate for seeding large projects. Many of the species the teams are collecting have never been produced at scale, adding a layer of research, risk, and complexity to accomplishing this work. Public lands contain a diversity of native plant communities and DOI units in california contain a wide array of species and protect some of the most iconic landscapes in the country. The program goal is to increase the quantity, diversity, and effectiveness of native forbs and grasses for restoration of wildlife habitats and rehabilitation after wildfires and other disturbance. While there is an ancillary benefit to the parks and refuges, the program serves a public purpose by increasing the resilience of public lands to climate change, mitigating for increases in wildfire severity and intensity, and allows for public land managers to preserve and enhance our nations biodiversity for the enjoyment of the public. By implementing the national native seed strategy, a public collaboration among and between DOI agencies, we will collectively improve the availability and utilization of native seed for restoration. This project develops genetically appropriate native plant material for use in post-fire habitat restoration that will allow public land managers to assess and implement seed-based restoration techniques in a geographically strategic area. These efforts will protect biodiversity and public land from further degradation and provide for the public enjoyment of native ecosystems and biodiversity. Furthermore, the implementation of the program of work will include the development of best management practices for production of individual species. This includes the transfer of knowledge from heritage growers, a program of river partners (hereafter the recipient) to the broader community of native seed experts and growers in california to provide for the retention of lessons learned as an additional public good.