The art of growing native seed in California

Aerial image of Heritage Growers farm in Colusa, California. Photo used with permission by John Brennan/Heritage Growers.

Sandwiched between fields of almonds, walnuts and rice in the Sacramento Valley near the agricultural town of Colusa, is an unlikely burst of colors, sounds and aromas, all emanating from a native seed farmstead.

Pat Reynolds, general manager at Heritage Growers, in their demonstration garden. Credit: Joanna Gilkeson/USFWS.

Heritage Growers, a venture of the Chico-based riverway restoration nonprofit River Partners, is one of only a handful of farms in California that specializes in growing native seeds for wildland restoration projects, and an important partner for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Pat Reynolds, general manager for Heritage Growers, attests to the fact that although extremely rewarding, native seed farming is not for the faint of heart. "It requires a high-level of coordination, organization and specialized knowledge, as well as custom-made equipment," said Reynolds, while pointing to a specially made seed drill (a farming machine that sows seeds at a specific depth and in a controlled amount, usually in rows). "Growing native plants at scale is a complex web of these elements and more including timing, weather, soil, water, partnerships, luck and land - the lynchpin behind a successful operation."

The farm leases just over 200 acres from Davis Ranches and the Wallace Brothers, long held family-owned farms, which in the case of Davis Ranches dates back to the early 1800s. During growing season, the land is a mosaic of purple, yellow and orange from flowering native plants like milkweed, gumweed and coyote mint. The seeds and plant plugs grown by Heritage Growers go directly back to the areas where they were collected in places like East Bay Regional Parks, San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge and the Klamath River dam removal and restoration sites.

A CURRENCY AS GOOD AS GOLD: NATIVE SEEDS

The importance of native plants and locally sourced seeds is gaining momentum, but the industry is in its infancy when compared to established horticultural enterprises. Because of the complexities necessary to grow native plants and seeds, the supply of native seed needed to keep up with growing statewide restoration goals is far from adequate. At the same time, the product is in high demand.

Rows of native plants at Heritage Growers prouduce native seed for restoration projects. Credit: Joanna Gilkeson/USFWS

"Seeds are the latest California gold rush, thanks to the perfect storm of events," Reynolds said."They [native seeds and plants] are incredibly important to saving our landscape and the suite of bold conservation and restoration initiatives California launched in the last decade. This includes the state's far-reaching 30X30, climate, biodiversity, water supply, wildfire, and community resilience campaigns that we need to advance quickly if we're going to stave off the worst impacts of a changing climate."

Between 2012 and 2021, more than 7.9 million acres burned in California, or nearly 25% of the state's forest land. As California becomes hotter and drier, and experiences more intense flooding and large wildfires, the need for seeds and plants to restore landscapes has catapulted into high gear.

Botanically diverse landscapes are resilient ones. Native plants are typically adapted to both drought and fire, and once established, very resilient and hardy if planted in the right location. Many are considered fire-resistant (not fire-proof) and do not readily ignite a flame or significantly contribute to excess fuel.

Reynolds and Heritage Growers' operations manager, Michele Ranieri, complement each other well in sharing deep knowledge of native seed farming. Ranieri explains the most successful restoration projects are achieved by using locally sourced seeds that are adapted for specific climates in California.

Heritage Growers staff, Haleigh Holgate, seed collection coordinator, and Michele Ranieri, operations manager, admire fields of woollypod milkweed at the farm with Carolyn Kolstad, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. Credit: Joanna Gilkeson/USFWS

"Even though you may find the same plant in Southern and Northern California, chances are the two plants will look different and prefer different growing conditions," she said. "For example, you can collect California milkweed seeds from the San Joaquin Valley and from the San Diego area. They're the same species but the seeds are locally adapted to their environments and will do best in the climates they're accustomed to. If you're putting all of this effort into restoration, you want those plants to survive and take hold and local seeds will do that."

PUBLIC LANDS ARE PART OF THE SOLUTION

"How do we increase seed collection and supply for restoration?" asked Carolyn Kolstad, biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Well, there's a whole lot of untapped native seeds on public lands."

Kolstad works to link up private landowners and seed sources like Heritage Growers to restore lands with native plants, often providing funding through the Service's Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program. Through a series of fateful events, including these connections, Kolstad entered the world of native seeds and is now the Fish and Wildlife Service's lead for the California Native Plant Strategy. She began building new relationships with people across California whose vision to restore California with native plants aligned with her work and Heritage Grower's mission.

Kolstad joined the effort of fellow Department of the Interior seed specialists, including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Heritage Growers and others, to secure $1.8 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is a once-in-a-generation investment in the nation's infrastructure and economic competitiveness. We were directly appropriated $455 million over five years in BIL funds for programs related to the President's America the Beautiful initiative.

Learn more about Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Burned Area Rehabilitation funding in 2024 to increase seed supply. The project - implementing the California Native Seed Strategy across Department of the Interior lands - has lofty goals to increase seed collection statewide by focusing on public lands. It includes 17 national park units, nearly three dozen national wildlife refuges, and many sites across the BLM's 15 million acres in the state. 

"The size and potential impact of this project is really exciting," said Kolstad. "If we can get this thing right by working together to scale up seed collection on public lands, we can increase availability of locally sourced seeds and get those seeds back on the landscape."

To kick-off the project, native seeds were collected from 85 native plant species at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex, including and San Joaquin refuge, by Seeds of Success interns, a Bureau of Land Management initiative, and Heritage Growers this summer. In this case, the plant plugs and seeds produced at Heritage Growers will make their way back to the San Joaquin Valley for post-wildfire restoration or placed in long term storage facility for future use.

Nick Rocha (right) and Kyle Nguyen (left), Heritage Growers seed collection team, collect native plant seeds for Heritage Growers at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex in July 2024. Photo Courtesy of River Partners.

Collecting the seed is an art. Seeds of Success interns must focus on collecting limited plant material while harvesting as much seed as possible, while avoiding cross-contamination with noxious weeds. It is detail-oriented, and the collection method may differ depending on the seed and how that seed is processed at Heritage Grower's farm. In 2023 - 2024 alone, the farm grew out more than 50 separate new wildland seed collections and planted 200,000 plugs to ensure an adequate supply of quality seed for customers, Reynolds said.

Upon collection, the seed will either be sent to a Bureau of Land Management warehouse or to Heritage Growers. Once at the farm, there's a complex seed cleaning, germination and planting process, and it varies by species. When asked which is the hardest to grow, Ranieri responded without missing a beat. "Definitely Asclepias californica(California milkweed) and Asclepias eriocarpa(woollypod milkweed)," Ranieri remarked. "They're some of the most important species - the host plant for monarchs. They're really tough to get established but we're getting close to cracking the code."

A monarch butterfly nectaring in a field of coyote mint at Heritage Growers in the Sacramento Valley, California. Credit: Joanna Gilkeson/USFWS

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

"We're already thinking about the future - how to expand the seed production process and invest in satellite growers across the state to increase availability of locally adapted seeds," Kolstad said. "We're already thinking about how to grow more seeds and plants for this summer's wildfires, like the Park Fire near Chico. We have big ideas, and we'll see who we can bring together to make it happen."

The work to scale up native seed production and fine-tune growing methods for fickle species is full speed ahead while the energy to build a native plant industry in California is growing. While challenges remain ahead, dedicated people like Reynolds, Ranieri, Kolstad and many more, are putting the plant puzzle pieces together and are committed to seeing their vision through; using public lands for the public good and to successfully restore large swaths of land in California.

Implementing the California Native Seed Strategy across Department of the Interior lands is a joint effort lead by the National Park Service. Partners include the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Native Plant Society, U.S. Forest Service, California Botanic Garden, River Partners, Heritage Growers, Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, Great Basin Institute, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, East Bay Regional Parks District, University of California, Davis, and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.

A field of coyote mint at Heritage Farms with project partners in the distance. Credit: Joanna Gilkeson/USFWS

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