Keeping Seeds Native in Alaska

While BLM Alaska’s Seeds of Success works with several others to collect and promote the use of native seeds, a big helping hand comes from interns from the Chicago Botanical Garden Conservation Land Management Intern program.

The interns serve a five-month term, during which the group looking at Artemesia telesii in the outdoor box garden. Eric Geisler (BLM program lead), SOS interns (Charlotte Crowder & Bonnie Bernard), Lubo Malev (PMC seed program), Brianne Blackburn (PMC Manager), Alan Peck (SWA). Photo by Kim Mincer, BLM.y work under the direction of the Alaska Natural Heritage program. That partner program helps the BLM decide where to collect seeds each year, and which species to focus on.

The usual emphasis is on species for revegetation or workhorse species, but the Natural Heritage program and the interns collect as many other species as are available from the sites they visit. These collections are sent to a third partner, the Alaska Plant Materials Center, for processing. Each year, seeds are collected from more than 50 geographically distinct plant varieties. 

At the Alaska Plant Materials Center, the seeds are cleaned, tested, and stored. The center also refreshes seed stock from Seeds of Success, if needed, and also cultivates the seeds into plants to produce more seeds.

For the past few years, they’ve also provided native seed packets for BLM Alaska to hand out at the Alaska Sportsman Show and other events. The packets include messages that encourage the use of native seeds in Alaska. These seeds also become available for long-term storage, research, federal contractors, and other federal agencies involved with Seeds of Success. The program’s goal is to have sufficient quantity of each variety for planned revegetation projects.

The Seeds of Success program began when Congress created the Native Plant Materials Development Program in 2001. The program helps ensure a stable and economical supply of genetically appropriate native plant materials for use in restoration and rehabilitation efforts on public lands as well as preserving the genetic diversity through long term storage at the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins, Colo. The BLM administers the program and promotes cooperation among agencies.