BLM Collects Native Plant Seeds for Conservation 

LAKEWOOD, CO – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Colorado, through its Seeds of Success project (SOS), is collecting the seeds of native plants across the state for conservation purposes. The collected seeds are identified, catalogued and then preserved and stored in the Millennium Seed Bank for future use in restoration projects throughout the state.

The SOS project was created by the BLM to support the conservation of national public lands’ plants by preserving seeds for restoration. Colorado’s public lands are experiencing a loss of plant and animal biodiversity due to the expansion of development, climate change, and recreation activities. The project coordinates the collection of native seeds in the United States to use for stabilizing, rehabilitating and restoring public lands. SOS provides seeds to growers, researchers, and administrators of seeds in the US.

BLM has joined with the Student Conservation Association (SCA) to help collect native dry land seeds across Colorado. The SCA is a non-profit organization that focuses on placing volunteers in positions across the United States in order to further conservation efforts. In Colorado, a group of volunteers, Jessica Shade, Jessica Wilkerson and Masha Kraskik, are collecting seeds all summer on BLM lands.

Based out of BLM Colorado’s State Office in Lakewood, the SCA volunteers are traveling throughout the state in order to ensure a widespread and representative sample of Colorado’s plants.

“It is empowering and exciting to be outdoors…, making real headway in the conservation effort,” says Jessica Wilkerson, as she stuffs handful after handful of seeds into a bag attached to her hip. “Seeds of Success is an inspiring and responsible project.”

 Collections are not allowed to exceed twenty percent of the available seeds in each population to avoid any impact on the long-term survival of the wild plant population. There are several other SOS/SCA teams placed throughout the US, including locations in Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Montana, California and Ohio.

 The SOS project is part of an international collaboration with the Millennium Seed Bank Project, which is attempting to collect and preserve ten percent of the world’s native, dry land plant species by the year 2010. Half of the seeds are used in restoration and research and half of the seeds are stored at the Royal Botanic Gardens KEW in London, England for future needs.

 The BLM SOS Project would like to thank the SCA volunteers for their part in conserving Colorado’s native plants. For more information please contact Jessica Shade at 303-239-3988 or seedsdenver@earthlink.net.

- BLM -