February 25, 2016 | 10:30 AM
The National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation and Restoration 2015-2020 provides a coordinated approach for stabilization, rehabilitation, and restoration treatments on lands across the nation. The strategy provides a framework for actively working between land managers and private industry to respond appropriately to disturbances and other stressors that threaten important plant communities and ecosystem services. The Seed Strategy Panel will consist of a series of brief talks about the National Seed Strategy and then will open the floor to questions for the panel.
Session lead: Francis Kilkenny
U.S. Forest Service, Research Biologist, 322 E Front Street Suite 401, Boise, Idaho 83702;
Phone: 208-373-4376; ffkilkenny@fs.fed.us
Speakers Include:
What is the National seed strategy? And, the relationship between Secretarial Order 3336 and the National Seed Strategy
Peggy Olwell, Bureau of Land Management,1849 C Street NW, Room 2134 LM, Washington, DC 20240, polwell@blm.gov
Peggy Olwell is a leading advocate for botanical conservation. Employed as the Plant Conservation Program Lead, USDI BLM, she has successfully championed the conservation of native plant species for over twenty years with the Bureau. Her work establishing Seeds of Success and in ecological restoration is internationally recognized. Peggy is Chair of the Federal Committee of the Plant Conservation Alliance. Previously Peggy has worked for the National Parks Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Center for Plant Conservation.
Why should managers care about using the native seed in the Great Basin and greater sagebrush ecosystem?
Ted Koch, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 1340 Financial Blvd., Suite 234 Reno, NV 89502 Reno NV, ted_koch@fws.gov
Ted Koch is the Field Supervisor of the Reno office of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, overseeing Ecological Services programs in northern and central Nevada and eastern California, including endangered species, fisheries restoration, private lands, federal agency support, and other programs. He has worked with private landowners, states, Native American Tribes and federal agencies for over 25 years to conserve fish and wildlife habitats in the western United States.
How is the strategy being implemented in the Great Basin and greater sagebrush ecosystem?
Fred Edwards, Bureau of Land Management - Nevada State Office, 1340 Financial Blvd, Reno NV 89502, fsedwards@blm.gov
Fred Edwards is the BLM Great Basin Ecoregional Coordinator. Fred's job is to help the BLM and its partners in the Great Basin procure genetically appropriate native seed for all vegetation management activities. Fred has been struggling to get native seed for restoration projects for almost 25 years. First as a graduate student at San Diego State University, then as a Peace Corps volunteer in Chile, as a staff research associate at UC Riverside, as a private consultant, and most recently as a botanist with the Fish and Wildlife Service and BLM. He is optimistic we can finally figure out how get it right.
What do we need to know to move forward with ongoing research and future research needs?
Francis Kilkenny, USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station, 322 E Front Street Suite 401, Boise, ID 83702, ffkilkenny@fs.fed.us
Dr. Francis Kilkenny is a USFS Research Biologist and lead of the Great Basin Native Plant Project, an interagency project between the BLM Plant Conservation Program and the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station. His research interests include the ecological and evolutionary impacts of climate change on native and invasive plant species, the evolution of local adaptation in native and invasive plant species, and the use of ecological genetics in restoration.