[PCA] Opportunity to comment on revised National Seed Strategy from the PCA Non-Federal Cooperator Committee

[Andrea Kramer]

As you may know, the National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation and Restoration is currently under review. After incorporating comments from the first round of reviews in February, the Plant Conservation Alliance Federal Steering Committee has made substantial changes to the Strategy. All Plant Conservation Alliance Non-Federal Cooperators have been invited to provide comments on this revised and nearly final draft (at http://tinyurl.com/PCANFCC-REVISEDSeedStrategy) to help make the Strategy an effective tool to restore diverse native plant communities across the country. This also your opportunity to register your organization's support of, and interest in participating in, the Strategy.  Comments must be submitted by Friday, May 8th, 2015. See below for details on how to provide comments.

All members of the PCA Non-Federal Cooperator Committee that have provided us with their email addresses have already received this message. If your organization is not currently a Cooperator, or you are not registered as a Cooperator contact, I encourage you to join the PCA NFCC (visit http://plantconservationalliance.org/join-us) so you will automatically receive messages like this in the future.   

Sincerely, Sophia Shaw (Chair, Plant Conservation Alliance Non-Federal Cooperator Committee)

HOW TO COMMENT: Download the draft National Seed Strategy at http://tinyurl.com/PCANFCC-REVISEDSeedStrategy. All comments must be made using a Comment Spreadsheet (http://tinyurl.com/PCANFCC-StrategyComments) as a template, and should be emailed to info at plantconservationalliance.org by 5pm Pacific on Friday, May 8, 2015. Results will be compiled and shared directly with the PCA Federal Steering Committee.  

The Comment Spreadsheet provides a template for your responses, as well as a few example responses. At minimum, we suggest: 1) indicating whether your organization is supportive of the Strategy and Plan, and 2) listing specific components of the Strategy where your organization would like to be indicated as a collaborator (and listed in the "Other Participant" column for specific actions - see pgs. 46-52).  

Strategy Background: The National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation and Restoration outlines a plan to expand and accelerate efforts to increase native seed supplies, conduct research, improve decision tools and enhance communication in order to restore healthy native plant communities across the United States. This Strategy is national in scope and engages both federal and non-federal partners working toward restoration on public, tribal, state, municipal and private lands over the next 50 years. Download the Executive Summary here (http://tinyurl.com/PCANFCC-SeedStrategyExecSum). 

The Strategy outlines the following 4 goals; (1) Identify seed needs and ensure the reliable availability of genetically appropriate seed reserves, (2) Identify research needs and conduct research to provide genetically appropriate seed reserves and to improve technology for seed production and ecological restoration (3) Develop tools that enable managers to make timely and informed seeding decisions for ecological restoration, and (4) Develop strategies for internal and external communication.

The development of this draft National Seed Strategy was coordinated by the Plant Conservation Alliance (PCA) Federal Steering Committee, working through four working groups drawn from the federal membership of the PCA. The draft is being reviewed by all the federal agencies that participate in the PCA, the Western Governors Association and its constituent members, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and the non-federal members of the PCA. The federal agency partners include Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Federal Highway Administration, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, United States Botanic Garden, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service, Forest Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Natural Resources Conservation Service.

NOTE: For additional information, please visit the Plant Conservation Alliance's Non-Federal Cooperator Committee website at www.plantconservationalliance.org