NRCS Plant Materials Centers Support the National Seed Strategy

Plant development and studies at PMCs are a critical component of the multi-agency National Seed Strategy to ensure that private and public lands have the seed they need for revegetation and restoration projects.
Native plant communities are nature-based solutions that provide essential environmental benefits, such as buffering against extreme weather, improving soil health and water, and conserving biodiversity. A new progress report showcases how partnership and federal investment have advanced the National Seed Strategy, a pragmatic tool for restoring healthy ecosystems.
NRCS Plant Materials Centers (PMC) have been developing conservation plants and releasing them to the public and commercial growers for more than 90 years. Our conservation plants and the methods for establishing and management them form the foundation of tools used for many of the NRCS conservation practices and by other Federal agencies, state and local entities, and the public to protect and enhance our nation’s natural resources.
PMCs cooperate in the National Seed Strategy, developed in 2015, to increase the native seed supply commercially for restoration, thus ensuring ecosystem resilience and the health and prosperity of future generations, including rural, agricultural, and tribal communities. The Plant Conservation Alliance a public-private partnership of organizations that share the same goal: to protect native plants by ensuring that native plant populations and their communities are maintained, enhanced, and restored has released their most recent report highlighting the accomplishments of federal agencies and their partners in achieving the goals of the National Seed Strategy in 2022-2023.
Notable examples of PMC-led native plant projects include

- Developing new native plants, such as plains muhly (Muhlenbergia cuspidata) and cup plant (Silphium
- perfoliatum) at the Bismarck PMC in North Dakota, curlycup gumweed (Grindelia squarrosa) at the Aberdeen PMC in Idaho, and Indian ricegrass (Achnatherum hymenoides) at the Great Basin PMC in Nevada,
Evaluating rare species found in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and the work of the Corvallis PMC in Oregon to study germination and propagation techniques, outplanting methodologies, and seed production,

- Testing the adaptation of released conservation plants at PMCs throughout the Southeast United States,
- The Cape May PMC in New Jersey evaluating saltmeadow cordgrass (Spartina patens) and other coastal species as agricultural crops alternatives on coastal lands that are subject to saltwater intrusion resulting from rising oceans, and
- Evaluation of bush muhly (Muhlenbergia porteri) and big galleta (Pleuraphis rigida) at the Tucson PMC in Arizona, in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management
For additional information on specific species of plants in the report, please see the USDA PLANTS database. Technical information and guidance on the use of conservation plants to address resource concerns can be found on the Plant Materials Program website or contact the nearest Plant Materials Center or plant materials specialist.