To restore and enhance healthy plant communities and sustainable ecosystems across America’s lands and waterways in the face of fires, floods, and other impacts from climate change, Federal agencies, Tribes, and non-federal partners are building the supply of native seeds for restoration and rehabilitation for the benefit of Americans and the plant and animal species that depend on them. Native plants are nature-based solutions and the true green infrastructure that support water, wildlife, and our quality of life. Native plants are key to a restoration economy that engages our next generation of farmers, conservation professionals, scientists and land managers. Like timber, native plants and our Nation’s native seed resources are critical natural resources to be recognized, valued, protected, and managed.

National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation and Restoration (National Seed Strategy) was created in 2015 to foster interagency collaboration to guide development, availability, and use of seed needed for timely and effective restoration. Reporting progress on the the National Seed Strategy is important to demonstrate effective inter-agency collaboration and achievements; highlight joint problem-solving for natural resource challenges; and highlight effective land management tools to sustain native ecosystems, improve wildlife habitat, promote recovery from natural hazards and other disturbances, and sustain multiple types of land use.

Here are the goals of the report:

• Summarize the state of the native seed for restoration and plant materials development

• Show the progress made on a national strategy across various agencies

• Highlight areas where more work is needed

 As America builds back better, the National Seed Strategy is needed now more than ever.  The progress made implementing the National Seed Strategy is helping to meet an increasing demand for seed to restore plant communities altered by natural or human-caused events on both public and private lands. In the past 5 years of implementing the National Seed Strategy, the scientific knowledge gained has worked to reduce erosion, reduce the spread of non-native invasive plants and promoted productivity and biodiversity of plant and animal communities. Through increased coordination and communication between the private and public sector, the pace and scale of restoration will be accelerated. 

Read the Progress Report here.

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