Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program

Vermillion Cliffs--Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT

Utah



BLM>Utah>More >Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program

Print Page

Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program - Plant Materials Development Program

The Vision of the Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program is a
Colorado Plateau that supports healthy and resilient native
plant communities now and for future generations.

Welcome to the Homepage for the Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program (CPNPP) – Native Plant Materials Development Program. This website provides information and tools to assist public land agencies (federal and state) as well as non-government organizations in collecting and propagating native plant materials, and designing and implementing effective revegetation projects.

The Colorado Plateau in the American Southwest is a land of extremes. With elevations near 2,000 feet at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, to over 12,500 feet at the top of Humphries Peak near Flagstaff and Mount Peal in the LaSal Mountains, the Plateau experiences hot summers with monsoonal rains, and cold winters with significant snow depths at the higher elevations. The plant communities of the Colorado Plateau are representative of the highly variable and extreme conditions that occur here. More information on the Ecology and Plant Communities of the Colorado Plateau is available here.

Program Goals
The major goals of this effort are to increase the availability of native plant materials and to provide the knowledge and technology required for their use in restoring diverse native plant communities across the Colorado Plateau. We follow the BLM’s National Native Plant Materials Development Program protocol (see figure below) to ensure successful establishment and persistence of native plant species and communities.
Native Plant Material Development Protocal

Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program

What's New

National Native Seed Conference
April 9-12, 2013

The Native Seed Network will be hosting the 2nd National Native Seed Conference this April in Santa Fe, NM. It will be held at the Eldorado Hotel on the square with rooms for all conference attendess at prevailing federal per diem rates, currently $83.00 per night plus taxes. For more information visit the Native Seed Network at http://nativeseed.info/.

Where Can I Buy Native Seed?

National Native Plant Materials Development Protocol

The Bureau’s seed-buying record is unpredictable, and has historically been dependent on the severity of the fire season. What is predictable is that if the BLM has a bad fire season, we will buy a large amount of seed. Industry is willing to produce the native seed needed for fire restoration, but in order to do so they need a more stable native seed market. One focus of this program is to integrate the Bureau’s fire rehabilitation need with short-term reclamation and long-term restoration needs, thus providing a more stable market for the seed industry.

GOAL 1 - Identify Existing and Future Needs for Native Plant Materials for Restoration Purposes on the Colorado Plateau.

GOAL 2 - Follow the National Native Plant Materials Development Protocol to develop an adequate supply of diverse, economical, and regionally-adapted native plant materials for restoration efforts on the Colorado Plateau.

GOAL 3 - Identify existing methodologies and work with partners to develop and test new methodologies to ensure successful establishment and persistence of native plant materials.

GOAL 4 – Communicate within agencies, partners, and the public regarding the roles, responsibilities, values, and products of the CPNPP.

Globemallow These goals are described in more detail in the Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program 5-Year Strategy and Action Plan – March 2011

A Manager’s Guide to Roadside Revegetation Using Native Plants, FHWA-WFL/TD-07-006 (3.4 MB)

Contact Wayne Padgett, Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program Coordinator at wpadgett@blm.gov if you have any questions about the content of this website.

What are Native Plants?

Native plant species are defined by the National Park Service as “all species that now occur, have occurred, or may occur as a result of natural processes”. While there is still much to learn about the values of native vegetation, there is an understanding that native species maintain the biological diversity and the ecosystem processes that naturally occur on the landscapes. It has been noted that the loss of any native species from an ecosystem should be considered as a loss of the resilience of those ecosystems. Native vegetation provides habitat for native fauna and for the pollinators whose roles in maintaining healthy ecosystems are only now being fully recognized. Healthy ecosystems, in turn, provide for ecosystem services, such as the protection of water quality, prevention of land degradation, and maintenance of long-term ecosystem productivity.