Interior's Haaland announces $18M to ensure native seeds amid climate change

Feb. 7 (UPI) -- The Biden administration has invested $18 million in ensuring the United States has a ready source of seeds to combat climate change and enhance landscape resilience, Interior Department officials announced Wednesday.

"A reliable, abundant and diverse supply of native seeds is foundational to ensuring that the ecosystems we all cherish can thrive for current and future generations," said Secretary Deb Haaland. "The new initiative we are launching today, supported by historic resources from President Biden's Investing in America agenda, will help ensure we get the right seeds, in the right place, at the right time to restore our public lands and bolster climate resilience."

The Interior Department called the money "the largest climate investment in history." It's part of the National Seed Strategy Keystone Initiative, which Haaland announced during remarks at the National Native Seed Conference.

Soil erosion, habitat loss, longer wildfire seasons and extreme weather events threaten native plants across the United States. As the plants are lost, the ecosystems they create also are damaged, which can lead to non-native species invasion, even more soil degradation and ecological damage.

"Collecting, producing and procuring native seeds is critical for restoring native vegetation on public lands, and special facilities are required to store seeds and safeguard their genetic diversity," Interior officials said in the announcement.

The new funding will help pay for the infrastructure, tools, research and labor force needed to work on bolstering the native seed supply.

It will also help greenhouse facilities on America's Tribal lands transition from high-water to low-water crops and connect historically under-served communities in Native communities with seeds they need for subsistence and to increase production capacity.

"Nature has spent thousands of years designing plants that fit in place, so we can't do better than to use that instruction -- native seed -- in our restoration efforts," Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning said. "Native seeds stand a better chance of long-term success."

The investment in ensuring a native seed supply is part of the larger Investing in America agenda, which has earmarked $2 billion over five years to put people to work restoring natural resources.

The money also is being used to restore white bark pine trees, convert 500 acres of degraded rangelands in Colorado to short grass prairie and sage shrub land, and to work with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe in Montana to upgrade and expand the tribe's greenhouse facilities to improve its ability to grow and restore native seedlings in the region.