14 minute read
The Need for Seed: Navigating California’s Native Seed Supply Chain
By Keith Nevison, Director of Horticulture and Operations
Faced with the dual threats of climate change and biodiversity loss, the need for restoring habitats with native seed continues to grow each year. This is especially apparent in the state of California — with its large resident population (over 39 million), unique blend of habitat types (59 recorded), and sheer scale of plant diversity (over 6,000 native plant species) — which is increasingly threatened by natural disasters, continued human development in impacted zones, and the trend toward a warming, drier climate. To confront this challenge, the California Native Seed Strategy was launched in 2023 by the California Native Plant Society, along with input from federal and state partners forming the California Seed Strategy Steering Committee. Partners on the steering committee include the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, California Department of Food and Agriculture, and California Department of Fish and Wildlife, with additional reviews and contributors representing industry and nonprofit groups, including Denise Knapp, Ph.D., Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s director of conservation and research.
Based on the National Seed Strategy, and informed closely by the Nevada Seed Strategy, the California Native Seed Strategy is ultimately designed to bolster the supply of locally adaptive native seed by coordinating applicable policies and funding opportunities — and by bringing landowners and seed suppliers together to strengthen the market and the reliability of a steady supply of seed for restoration projects. Since California has the highest concentration of imperiled plants of any state in the nation (Bando, 2024) and an insufficient supply to meet current and future demands for restoration projects, it is especially important now to work on establishing a reliable network of seed growers who can grow a diverse array of species types. This diversity will be critical in meeting objectives to restore impacted properties into the future.
Growing California’s Native Seed
On a fundamental, broad level, one of the most efficient and effective ways to restore impacted natural habitats is through the sowing of native seed. Some smaller projects are designed to use container-grown plants transplanted into a project area for reliability and enhanced success, but this approach is expensive. To restore projects that span across acres, native seed is the primary resource necessary to bolster natural diversity in habitat areas that have been impacted by human development (e.g., agriculture or urbanization) and/or overtaken by nonnative, invasive plants.
Ensuring the success of a native seeding project takes several years of development prior to project implementation. Projects begin in the planning phase, where land suited for restoration is identified, permits are filed through applicable agencies, and funding is secured to pay contractors and others involved. The next phase is typically wild seed collection of targeted taxa because most projects require locally sourced genetic material to ensure no harm to adjacent natural habitats. From these initial collections of targeted wild seed by field contractors, farmers often receive material to plant in their fields in order to bulk up seed stocks. This allows them to produce enough seed from the initial, ethically harvested amounts to grow several rows or acres over ensuing growing seasons, depending on the scope of the project. The field establishment phase can take multiple cropping years to produce enough quantity and diversity of seed to move onto the execution phase of a restoration project. In the final stages before implementation, harvested seed is cleaned and tested for purity, which details the overall germination rate and what percentage of weed seeds are still present in each seed lot. Cleaned seeds are then transferred to the project installer where they can be stored for future growing seasons or sown into the targeted area, when the rate of establishment will be highest for success. After sowing and establishment, best practices in restoration will ensure that a site is monitored to document rates of establishment, along with any recurring issues with invasive plant reintroduction. It is estimated that the process from planning to execution and monitoring can typically take five to seven years, all of which adds to the uncertainty and cost of every restoration project.
Historically, California’s native seed industry has occupied a very small role within the much larger agricultural landscape in our state. Until now, much of the available native seed on the wholesale market has been grown on a small network of farms belonging to the NativeSeed Group, which includes S&S Seeds in Carpinteria with their growing facility in northern Santa Barbara County, and through Hedgerow Farms up in Yolo County. Recently, a few more farms have sprouted up to meet demand, including Heritage Growers — a venture of the nonprofit, Chico-based River Partners — which was founded to change the approach to large-scale habitat restoration in California.
Seeding California Restoration
Another major opportunity for native seed growers is presented through California’s ambitious 30x30 initiative, which aims to protect 30% of its lands and coastal waters by 2030. According to the most recent progress report published in September 2024 by Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Natural Resources Agency, the state has now protected 25.2% of its lands for conservation, adding nearly 1.5 million acres (607,028 hectares) since the announcement of the 30x30 effort, with the addition of 861,000 acres (348,434 hectares) in 2024. Much of this recent gain in protected land was due to the expansion of San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, along with the first-ever ancestral land return effort provided through the Tribal NatureBased Solutions Program. In California and across the Western states, most existing protected land is under the jurisdiction of the federal government, managed by agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and U.S. Forest Service. Enshrining protections for federal, state, and tribal lands is therefore critically important for safeguarding areas with existing unique native flora to provide potential areas for wild seed collection projects in the future.
Still, even with the opportunities present in the native seed sphere, much work remains to help secure the necessary quantities and diversity of native seed to meet ecological restoration challenges in the future. At present, there is a distinct lack of locally sourced material for large-scale projects. There are no economic guarantees for growing a diversity of native seed, and that makes it a risky proposition for farmers and growers. They are understandably cautious to commit to growing field crops to bulk up seed, only for projects to potentially get delayed through multiple competing regulatory requirements, resulting in lost income for that season. Growers have reported their reservations to the National Academies, saying they could produce much more seed with more diversity “if they have access to the necessary source material to begin production and a clearer and more consistent signal for demand” (Smith, 2023). To illustrate this major floral diversity challenge, Julia Michaels, Ph.D., vice president of scientific and public affairs at Hedgerow Farms, explains, “There are 6,000 species of California native plants, but I’d say 25 species are commonly used in restoration projects across the state. For those 25 species, we have plenty [of seed] in our warehouses. But there has to be money and a few years’ lead time to expand beyond that.”
Enter again the California Native Seed Strategy, which is designed to rally support to enhance the availability of native seed for restoration projects. It does this by offering a pathway that addresses many layers involved in a project, including suggesting grants to help fund farmers so they can commit to growing more seed with more species diversity, which ultimately increases the odds of a restoration project achieving success (Ladouceur et al., 2017).
Incentivizing the production of native seed for restoration projects would help to stabilize demand, creating more guarantees for farmers to focus on what they do best — production — while assuming fewer economic risks to their livelihood. This in turn will help to address a major existing issue around sourcing that restoration practitioners repeatedly face when planning their projects. According to a report by the National Academies, “45 percent of governmental agencies from western states that responded to a survey sent out by the Academies reported they frequently bought native seed from a different geographical location than the one they were restoring, either because they didn’t have the budget (35 percent), weren’t able to get the right seed quickly enough (61 percent), or the seed they wanted was completely unavailable (81 percent)” (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2023). To address this need, the California Native Seed Supply Collaborative (CNSSC) was created to bring together multiple growers, nonprofit groups (including the Garden), and state agencies to promote better communication and coordination for restoration projects in the Golden State. As part of this effort, CNSSC has offered a two-year road map to grow the supply of native seed and plant materials by preventing bottlenecks using existing funding vehicles and regulations. Their guidance is specific in many cases, including allowing seed development costs as allowable expenses in planning grants for large-scale projects and suggesting incentives to growers willing to invest in scaling up production of new or hard-to-produce ecotypes (species localized in a certain area or habitat). Also proposed are adding seed storage refrigeration to extend viability and expand availability, and creating public-facing tools to enable seed consumers to better source and obtain seed needed for their projects.
Seeding National Restoration
Beyond the state level, there is increased federal recognition and funding becoming available to strengthen the supply of native seed for public lands projects. In February 2024, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the new National Seed Strategy Keystone Initiative, an $18 million effort that also aims to create a National Interagency Seed and Restoration Center. As Secretary Haaland put it, “A reliable, abundant and diverse supply of native seeds is foundational to ensuring that the ecosystems we all cherish can thrive for current and future generations.” Bicameral legislation for the National Interagency Seed and Restoration Center Establishment Act has been introduced, with endorsements from the Garden Club of America, California Native Seed Supply Collaborative, National Wildlife Federation, Western Watersheds Project, Chicago Botanic Garden, and other groups, but the bill is presently stalled in Congress. The Biden-Harris administration supported many of these federal native seed efforts through the $1 billion priority initiative America the Beautiful — which is the federal counterpart to California’s 30x30 initiative — aiming to conserve 30% of federal lands and waters by 2030.
Two Emerging Models of Success in California
River Partners led the charge to restore the 1,600-acre (647-hectare) Dos Rios Ranch, located at the confluence of the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers just outside Modesto. Dos Rios is California’s newest state park, which opened in June 2024. The efforts at Dos Rios were impressive: 350,000 native trees and shrubs were grown by River Partners and planted, 8 river miles (14 kilometers) were restored, 250 jobs were created, and 7,000 acre-feet (863 hectare-meters) of water were “retired” due to the ending of farming on this former agricultural site (Schiller, 2023). The Dos Rios project is a great model for restoring farmland to wild habitat. Many similar projects (likely using native seed) will surely be in the pipeline for years to come. Under terms from California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) — along with overall warming and drying associated with climate change — the state is poised to require transitioning over 1 in 10 acres (.4 in 4 hectares) of irrigated farmland into retirement in the San Joaquin Valley by 2040, as reported by Bay Nature. That’s 500,000 acres (202,342 hectares) poised to come out of agriculture to comply with SGMA irrigation limits, so the Dos Rios Ranch serves as an amazing early example of a collaborative approach to restoring land with several methods, including native seed.
Closer to home, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is in the beginning stages of our three-year U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Equity in Conservation Outreach Cooperative Agreement. This is aimed at developing climate-smart conservation practices in the Cuyama Valley that conserve soil and water — and benefit agricultural productivity — through the creation of diverse native habitats. This equity grant funded by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service was among 139 projects selected nationally. Our conservation project in Cuyama is also designed to educate farming families in the valley about native plants. Our hope is to equip them with the right know-how to successfully grow native plants in an effort to combat erosion and provide environmental benefits as they transition to fallowing fields (to meet compliance with the SGMA).
Driving Change With Your Support
Clearly, these are exciting but challenging times for native seed growers and restoration practitioners. As California becomes hotter and drier and experiences larger wildfires and more intense floods, the need for seed and plants to restore landscapes is huge and ever increasing. Here at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, we’ll continue to add our expertise and support in assisting state and federal partners on efforts like our Cuyama Conservation and Outreach Project, as well as our longstanding seed banking efforts, which have resulted in restoration, recovery, and occasional delisting of once endangered plant species. Thanks to the support of our members, volunteers, and donors, we will continue to harness native plants to preserve biodiversity across the central coast and state — and to showcase the beauty of California’s unique flora and fauna through the Garden.
CITATIONS
30x30 California. (2024). Pathways to 30x30 California Progress Report. https://resources. ca.gov/-/media/CNRA-Website/Files/2024_30x30_Pathways_Progress_Report.pdf
Bando, J. (2024). California has the highest concentration of plants at risk of extinction in the nation. Sierra Nevada Alliance. https://sierranevadaalliance.org/california-has-the-highestconcentration-of-plants-at-risk-of-extinction-in-the-nation-opinion/
Biogeographic Data Branch. (2024). Wildlife Habitats - California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System. https://wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CWHR/Wildlife-Habitats
California Native Plant Society. (2024). California Native Seed Strategy. https://www.cnps.org/ biodiversity-initiatives/california-seed-strategy
California Native Seed Supply Collaborative. (2024). A ROADMAP Growing the Supply of Native Seed and Plant Materials. https://canativeseedcollaborative.wordpress.com/wp-content/ uploads/2023/06/a-roadmap-growing-the-supply-of-native-seed-plant-materials-1.pdf
Gómez-Van Cortright, G. (2023). The Rewilding of California’s Parched Central Valley. Bay Nature Magazine: Summer 2023. https://baynature.org/article/in-a-drying-central-valleyfarmers-must-fallow-land-their-choices-will-shape-the-california-to-come/https://baynature. org/article/in-a-drying-central-valley-farmers-must-fallow-land-their-choices-will-shape-the-california-to-come/
Grenier, L., Panlasigui, S., Pickett, C., & Sencan, G. (2021). Advancing Ecosystem Restoration with Smarter Permitting. Public Policy Institute of California. https://www.ppic.org/publication/ advancing-ecosystem-restoration-with-smarter-permitting-case-studies-from-california/
Ladouceur, E., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Marin, M., De Vitis, M., Abbandonato, H., Iannetta, P. P. M., Bonomi, C., & Pritchard, H. W. (2017). Native Seed Supply and the Restoration Species Pool. Conservation Letters. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12381
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2023). An Assessment of Native Seed Needs and the Capacity for Their Supply: Final Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26618
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. (2023). On the 50th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, Channel Islands Plant Species Declared Fully Recovered. https://sbbotanicgarden.org/press/channel-islands-plant-species-declared-fully-recovered/
Schiller, A. (2023). Collaboration and strategic land repurposing: An interview with Julie Rentner, President of River Partners. Environmental Defense Fund. https://blogs.edf.org/ waterfront/2023/04/03/collaboration-strategic-land-repurposing-interview-julie-rentner-riverpartners/
Smith, H. R. (2023). The Native Seed Gold Rush: Big environmental dreams—and disasters— have created demand. Now it’s time to worry about supply. Bay Nature. https://riverpartners.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Bay-Nature-Magazine_The-Native-Seed-Gold-Rush.pdf
U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management. (2024). National Seed Strategy. https://www.blm.gov/programs/natural-resources/native-plant-communities/national-seedstrategy
