Plant Materials - Montana and Wyoming

The Plant Materials Program

The mission of the Plant Materials Program is to assemble and test plant species for use in conservation programs to solve natural resource concerns. Beneficial plant uses include improving rangeland and soil health, pollinator habitat enhancement, post-fire rehabilitation, biomass production, carbon sequestration, erosion reduction, water quality improvement, riparian or wetland restoration, low maintenance native landscaping, and more. Staff at Bridger Plant Materials Center (MTPMC) assemble, test, and select superior plant populations for addressing specific natural resource conservation needs in Montana and Wyoming. They develop cultural techniques for species successful establishment and use by land managers, landowners, and seed producers. After selections are proven, they are released to the private sector for commercial production. Over 600 commercially available and cost-effective conservation plants in the United States were selected and released by the USDA-NRCS Plant Materials Program. Work at Bridger PMC is carried out cooperatively with state and federal agencies, conservation districts, commercial businesses, and seed and nursery associations.

Publications from the Bridger PMC

The Montana and Wyoming Plant Materials Program has over 200 technical documents available for conservation application. We’ve helped refine your document search by providing the following lists with links to MTPMC publications:

Publications from the Bridger PMC can also be found by entering "MTPC" in the search box on Plant Materials Technical Documents Search.

Plant Materials Guides and References for Montana and Wyoming

Conservation Trees and Shrubs for Wyoming

Find the following Montana references in the Field Office Technical Guide (FOTG):

• Conservation Trees and Shrubs for Montana
• Hand Planting Guidelines for Containerized Stock
• Hand-Planting Guidelines for Bareroot Trees and Shrubs
• Photo Series for Appraising Timber Slash in Montana 

Plant Material Webinars

The following plant materials webinars were developed for improving seeding in the intermountain west. The webinar series is meant to be used as a unit; information may be referenced between webinars. Watch this webinar series.

• Overview of the Montana and Wyoming Plant Materials Program
• Planning a Seeding, Webinar I    
• Developing Seed Mixes, Webinar II
• Seed Quality and Seed Labels, Webinar III    
• Seeding Calculations, Webinar IV    
• Seedbed Preparation and Planting, Webinar V    
• Seeding Evaluation and Maintenance, Webinar VI

Also see the Calibrating a Seed Drill for Conservation Plantings Webinar.