SDSU Leading Effort to Increase Native Plants and Seeds

By Addison DeHaven

Native plants are crucial to vibrant and healthy ecosystems. They also provide key habitat for wildlife and pollinators. But native plants have been pushed out by human activity and invasive species. South Dakota State University researchers are working to bring them back.

Through the Northern Great Plains Native Seed Partnership, SDSU is a leading a collaborative effort to increase the availability and accessibility of native seeds. While there is increasing interest in native grasses and wildflowers in South Dakota, a lack of available seeds is providing a significant challenge. This was underlined in a 2023 report from National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which found a better native seed production and distribution system in the Northern Great Plains was needed.

SDSU professor Lora Perkins, who leads the Native Plant Initiative, is spearheading a collaborative effort to build a better native plant and seed system. The Northern Great Plains Native Seed Partnership was formed and includes SDSU, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Intertribal Buffalo Council, the Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute.

"We want our cropland to perform as well as it can," Perkins said. "So, we should also want our non-crop land to perform as well as it can too. Native plants on the landscape are how it can do that."

To build a better seed system, Perkins, in conjunction with SDSU assistant professor Krista Ehlert and assistant professor Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek, Emily Rohrer from the USDA and Amy Symstad from the USGS, have produced a strategy guide.

"This strategy aims to provide all stakeholders with information and tools to build a robust and resilient native seed system," Perkins said.

"The Northern Great Plains Native Seed Strategy" describes six goals of the Northern Great Plains Native Seed Partnership, each with specific objectives and supporting action items. The goals are:

1. Identify knowledge gaps, needs and production capability in the Northern Great Plains native seed system.
2. Conduct research to improve native seed production and use in land stewardship activities.
3. Improve reliable availability of ecologically appropriate seed.
4. Develop and implement decision-support tools that enable participants in the Northern Great Plains native seed system to collect, produce and use native seed to meet their objectives.
5. Develop and implement strategies for internal communication within the Northern Great Palins Native Seed Partnership.
6. Develop and implement a multipronged approach for external communication to increase public awareness of native plants and the native seed system in the Northern Great Plains.

Perkins wants SDSU's Native Plant Initiative to serve as the research hub for achieving the strategy's goals. The research, Perkins said, will focus on identifying the native plants growers and seed collectors are most interested in. They will also focus their research efforts on improving native plant growth in fields.

"Native seeds operate on a different timeline that traditional crops," Perkins said. "Our challenge is understanding these complexities."