Coordination of GBNPSIP Plant
Materials Development, Seed
Increase and Use
2010
Berta Youtie
Eastern Oregon Stewardship Services
Prineville, Oregon
Objectives:
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Collaborate with GBNPSIP, BLM field offices and
native seed growers to increase native plant
materials from the Great Basin for research and
commercial production.
Facilitate private seed grower capacity to
produce seed of native forbs and grasses of the
Great Basin.
Augment seed collections of needed GBNPSIP
research materials, new plant material for BLM
offices within the Great Basin, and research
collections for ARS, OSU and USFS scientists.
Methods:
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Buy-back program is a good tool to persuade
native seed farmers to grow GBNPSIP high
priority forb species.
Monitored native seed fields at commercial farms
in the Columbia Basin, WA and Treasure Valley
OR, ID.
Collected relatively large quantities of seed to
transfer to native seed grower.
Assisted with developing a workshop to transfer
technical data to commercial seed growers.
Six native seed growers from OR, WA and ID
are contracted to grow eleven species.
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Achnatherum thurberianum
Astragalus filipes
Chaenactis douglasii
Eriogonum heracleiodes
Eriogonum umbellatum
Lomatium triternatum
Machaeranthera canescens
Penstemon acuminatus
Penstemon cyaneus
Penstemon speciosus
Sphaeralcea munroana
Thurber's needlegrass
basalt milkveth
dusty maiden
Wyeth buckwheat
sulfur flower buckwheat
nine-leaf desert parsley
hoary aster
sharpleaf penstemon
blue penstemon
royal penstemon
Munro globemallow
EOSS gathered 43 research collections of two
species for ARS and USDA-FS scientists.
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Achnatherum thurberianum - Thurber’s
needlegrass
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Elymus elymoides – bottlebrush squirreltail
EOSS collected 33 seed lots from 12 species
for GBNPSIP growers in 2010
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Chaenactis douglasii
Cleome lutea*
Eriophyllum lanatum*
Eriogonum umbellatum
Lomatium nudicaule*
Lomatium triternatum
Macaranthera canescens
Penstemon accuminatus
Penstemon speciosus
Phacelia hastata*
Phacelia linearis*
Sphaeralcea monroana
hoary chaenactis
yellow bee plant
Oregon sunshine
sulphur buckwheat
barestem biscuitroot
nine-lvd desert parsley
hoary aster
sand-dune penstemon
showy penstemon
whiteleaved phacelia
threadleaf phacelia
Munroe’s globemallow
Workshops and Conferences
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Assisted with organizing “ Seed Production of Native
Grasses and Forbs Workshop” held in Ontario, OR
February 23, 2010. Attracted over 120 participants
mostly from private industry. Highlighted new
restoration species entering the market, genetics
and seed zones, stand establishment, irrigation
requirements, weed control, pollinators and seed
predators, native seed certification and BLM
contracting.
Organized special sesssion “Farming for
Restoration:Building Bridges for Native Seed. 7 th
European Conference on Ecological Restoration.
Avignon, France 23-27/08/2010. Five GBNPSIP
cooperators presented and collaborated with
European colleagues.
Management Implications:
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Increased communications and collaboration has
led to better seed distribution to growers for
seed development of new forb species that may
be used in BLM seed buys and restoration
projects.
Technical information was transferred to native
seed farmers to assist them with their seed
production. The workshop also helped us recruit
some new growers to the program.