Locally Sourced Seed is a Commonly Used but Widely Defined Practice for Grassland Restoration

Abstract

With continued losses, the need for grassland restoration increases, and other contemporary threats, such as climate change, may require new techniques for restorations to be successful and resilient. The conservation community has promoted the use of locally sourced seed for grassland restorations, but it is unclear how widespread the practice has become. Furthermore, rethinking how seed is sourced for grassland restorations is one potential strategy to facilitate climate change adaptation. We surveyed practitioners (anyone conducting grassland restorations) across the U.S. and Canada in 2017 regarding organizational, state/local government, or individual policies for using locally sourced seed in grassland restorations, how local was defined, and whether climate change was considered in these policies and decisions. We received 494 responses from 40 U.S. states and 5 Canadian provinces. Policies and individual decisions supporting locally sourced seed were common, with only 3.6% reporting no consideration of local seed sources in restorations. However, the definition of local varied widely with relatively large geographic areas, such as ecoregions, considered as a local source. Some practitioners considered climate change, but it was not the greatest concern when making seed-sourcing decisions. When they did consider climate change, their most reported strategy was expanding seed zones used for their seed mix. Although there was a heavy upper Midwest bias in the survey responses, the number and geographic scope of responses provides a snapshot of seed sourcing strategies used by practitioners. Our results suggest practitioners are concerned about maintaining adaptation, given the focus on local seed sources, and outreach could be useful to help practitioners incorporate climate adaptation strategies into seed sourcing practices.