b'International Year of Plant Health /ProtectionThe Road to RecoveryNative seeds help drive sustainable ecosystem restoration.Melissa Shipman melissanshipman@gmail.comSAND-COVEREDfloodtions are joining together as well, plains, wildfire scorched forestscreating new partnerships andthe effects of natural disas- seeing more progress than ever ters are far-reaching and long last- before. Its a journey the industry is ing, with ecosystem recovery in thetaking on together.face of climate change spanning decades. Its a long, hard road, withSeeds of Successno clear shortcut in sight.Seeds of Success (SOS) is a As 2020 is the International Yearnational native seed collection pro-of Plant Health, one of the goalsgram, led by the Bureau of Land mapped out by the InternationalManagement (BLM) in partnership Plant Protection Convention fromwith a variety of federal agencies the United Nations Sustainableand non-federal organizations. Development Goals, is No. 15: ToTheir mission is to collect native protect, restore and promote sus- seed for research, development, tainable use of terrestrial ecosys- and germplasm conservation, tems, sustainably manage forests,as well as ecosystem restora-combat desertification, and halt andtion. It began in partnership with reverse land degradation and haltthe Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew biodiversity loss. Millennium Seed Bank (MSB), to Stephanie Greene, plant physiol- collect rare flora, but Peggy Olwell, ogist and seed curator for the U.S.BLM Plant Conservation and Department of Agriculture (USDA),Restoration program lead, saw a Agricultural Research ServiceStephanie Green serves as a plant physiologist and seeddifferent vision.(ARS) believes the seed industry iscurator for the USDA-ARS.We already have the Center in a unique position to develop andfor Plant Conservation, a con-market native species that can bechallenged to plant the right seed in the right place atsortium of 62 institutions, that used for revegetation after environ- the right time. collects those endangered plant mental disasters.Jill Wheeler, head of sustainable productivity forspecies, but we did need native Restoring landscapes usingSyngenta in North America, says the future success ofseeds, Olwell says. When we did native plant species serves us in thethe industry is not only based on reducing biotic andrestoration plantings, we couldnt long term because we can restoreabiotic stresses that chip away at the full yield potentialfind native seed on the commer-the essential ecosystem servicesof seeds, but also risk management, and perhaps mostcial market. At that time, we were that native landscapes provideimportantly, collaboration. buying maybe 70% non-native such as watershed protection,One of the most important things we can do asseed to put in after wildfires and carbon sequestration, and pollina- an industry is talk more openly about what we arethat is just not going to work well tor conservation, Greene says.seeing in the environment and what we can do tofor habitat restoration.In addition, the National Seedmanage ecosystems more sustainably, Wheeler says.The long-term conservation Strategy for Rehabilitation andCollaboration will increasingly be needed to addressoutcome of the SOS program is Restoration provides guidancethese ever-larger challenges. to support BLMs Native Plant to federal land managers to useIn 2019, Syngenta announced a multi-year globalMaterials Development Program, native plant materials as much ascollaboration with The Nature Conservancy for thatwhose mission is to increase the possible on public lands, and arevery reason, and many other companies and organiza- quality and quantity of native plant 8/ SEEDWORLD.COMFEBRUARY 2020'