There is an increasing demand in the Rogue Basin for locally sourced native plant materials. These native species are needed to restore ecosystems after wildfire and other disturbance, provide habitat for pollinators and wildlife and deliver ecosystem services. Unfortunately, this growing demand is not always met with the appropriate supply of native plant materials. This deficit has negative impacts on wildlife, pollinators, and recreation.

Despite the growing need for native plant materials, the barriers to increasing the local production of native plant species are numerous. The planning and coordination required to successfully source and produce appropriate native plant materials is a complex and time-consuming task. In order to produce these plants, project plans and species priorities must be established, seed must be collected from the wild, and a contract must be drafted to have the plants grown-out.

Native plant production presents unique challenges to growers. The grow-out phase often requires a multi-year commitment from growers and a willingness to experiment with propagation protocols for new species. This can be problematic because many agencies see year-to-year fluctuations in their budgets and severe fire and flooding events make multi-year planning difficult. In addition, more diverse plant mixes for restoration activities often requires the use of small lots. These small lots are less desirable to growers because of the added risk and complexity of managing many different species as opposed to a few common ones. These challenges often make it difficult for growers to achieve a stable business strategy and may also deter new farms from expanding into the native plant production arena.

Because of this intricacy, it is often far easier for land managers and growers to rely on a few “workhorse species” that are moderately appropriate in a wide range of scenarios, than it is to source and grow the right species. It is becoming clear however that this simplistic approach, based on a few common species, does not adequately support pollinators or wildlife and may inadvertently reduce resiliency and diversity on public and private lands.

We at the Rogue Native Plant Partnership (RNPP) are currently working with a group of land managers from across the Rogue Basin to build a formal partnership between federal agencies, NGO’s, private growers and others. The group aims to facilitate diverse resilient ecosystems in tandem with a more robust native plant materials economy in the Rogue Basin by taking on many of the challenges in the native plant procurement process. This partnership will simplify the native plant procurement process for its partner organizations by coordinating current native plant inventories, seed collection efforts and grower contracting.