Session: Plant Materials Programs in Practice: Local Scale
Thursday 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Ballroom 2
Christina Lund, Moderator
10:00 a.m.
Native Plant Materials Development in Southern Nevada - There is More to Life in Las Vegas than The Strip
Fred Edwards
Presentation (PDF)
The BLM Southern Nevada District (BLM) has long needed locally adapted native plant materials for rehabilitation and restoration projects. Limited availability, coupled with the need for large quantities, has forced BLM to rely on non-native species, cultivar varieties, seed from outside of the Mojave Desert, or do nothing at all. In the long run, developing local varieties and having seed commercially produced will be the solution to meeting this need. Using research and development funding, BLM and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Plant Materials Center (PMC) in Tucson, Arizona have developed two Mojave Desert regional varieties of riparian grasses, the Las Vegas sacaton and Moapa scratchgrass. NRCS in Nevada has conducted two experimental grow outs with local farmers. We are currently moving forward with a third grower. This talk will focus on the process and partnerships that made development of these two grass varieties possible and the next steps for the Southern Nevada District native plant materials program.
Fred Edwards is currently a botanist with the BLM Southern Nevada District. Prior that, Fred was a botanist with the Fish and Wildlife Service Ecological Services Office in Las Vegas. Fred has nearly 20 years experience developing and implementing habitat restoration and research projects in the west in a variety of different ecosystems. Fred got his BS in biology and MS in ecology from San Diego State University.
10:30 a.m.
Native Plant Materials for the Urban Environment
Ed Toth
Presentation (PDF)
New York City is home to over 9,000 acres of preserved natural areas scattered over all five boroughs in 23 distinct plant communities ranging from coastal salt marsh to serpentine grassland to upland hardwood forest... Approximately half of the original flora is still extant- about 1,000 species, including at least one globally endangered species. Since 1994, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation has operated the Greenbelt Native Plant Center in support of the management and restoration of these resources. The-13 acre site includes greenhouse, nursery and seed bank facilities. The GNPC has also initiated a program to produce founder seed stock of over 30 species of natives as a first step in providing local ecotypic bulk seed for City projects.
Edward Toth has been the director of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center since 1998. The 13-acre nursery, greenhouse, bulk seed and seed bank facility is owned and operated by the City of New York, Department of Parks and Recreation. Its mission is to provide native plants and seeds from local plant populations in support of the restoration and management of the City’s natural resources. Regionally, they collect and bank seed for use by regional partners and offer training for these partners in proper seed collection techniquess and in the use of local ecotypic plant materials. The GNPC is a cooperator in the conservation of the region’s native flora through numerous partnerships and programs ranging from local to global.
11:00 a.m.
Partnerships for Sustaining Native Plant Materials Programs: The Genesis of the Horning Native Plant Center
Claire Hibler
Presentation (PDF)
The Salem District BLM is partnering with the Casacade Pacific Resource Conservation and Development, Inc. and other committed agencies and organzations to provide a director and facility to meet native plant materials development needs which are otherwise, at times unmet. The BLM is providing the facility and some funding to start the center and Cascade Pacific Resource Conservation and Development, Inc. serves as the fiscal agent. This presentation could show practioners how they may be able to craft a similar program in other localities, should they have the need.
Claire has served as the Lead Botanist for the Salem BLM District since 2001 and has worked there for more than twenty years. She holds a B.S. in Forest Management from Oregon State Universtiy and a B.A. in General Biology from Humboldt State University. Claire was a founding member of, and participates on the steering committees for, the Northwest Weed Management Partnership and the Horning Native Plant Center, both of which are located in the northwest corner of Oregon and part of southwest Washington.
11:30 a.m.
Building a Native Plants Materials Program for BLM Wyoming: the Early Stage
Adrienne Pilmanis
Presentation (PDF)
This presentation will address issues related to building a Native Plant Materials Program within BLM Wyoming, where the need is driven by activity on public lands, for example: energy, mining, grazing, recreation. The talk will touch on the past, present, and future of Native Plant Materials use and development efforts by Wyoming BLM as well as its partnership activities.
Adrienne’s interest in public lands management began while doing seasonal ecological studies for a consulting firm on the Nevada Test Site and Yucca Mountain. She completed her BA in Biology at the University of Colorado (1992), and then did a Paleoecology MS in Botany at Duke University (1995, Vegetation & fire history throughout the Holocene in Northwesten Ontario). She pursued doctoral research (abd) in Biogeochemistry in the Botany Dept. at Duke (Spatial heterogeneity of soil resources & vegetation in a disturbed Chihuahuan Desert chronosequence), and then conducted biogeochemistry research at Needles District of Canyonlands National Park with the University of Arkansas (Global change scenario effects on nitrogen cycling in disturbed Colorado Plateau grassland). Adrienne joined the Bureau of Land Management Special Status Species Program in Portland, OR (2005) where her focus was on programmatic data stewardship and she represented BLM on a Departmental committee on biological resources data management. She detailed as Senior Technical Specialist with the North Slope Science Initiative in Alaska (2007) and then took the State Botanist position with BLM in Cheyenne, WY (2009).
