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<span style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif">Please see article written by our Nevada partners and their announcement for the annual Nevada Native Seed Forum.</span></div>
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<span style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Originally published</b>: </span><span style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> KEVIN BADIK Rangeland Ecologist/The Nature Conservancy
in Nevada; Nov. 5, 2020</span><span style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
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<span style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Reprinted</b>: Elko Daily Free Press (<span style="margin:0px;font-size:14px;font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol";color:rgb(34, 34, 34);background-color:white;box-sizing:border-box">Elko</span><span style="margin:0px;font-size:14px;font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol";color:rgb(34, 34, 34);background-color:white">,<span style="margin:0px"> </span></span><span style="margin:0px;font-size:14px;font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol";color:rgb(34, 34, 34);background-color:white;box-sizing:border-box">NV</span>); <span style="margin:0px;background-color:white">Sara
Cobble/The Nature Conservancy & Rebecca Allured/<span style="margin:0px;background-color:white">Nevada Department of Agriculture</span>; </span>Dec 31, 2020</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A surprising fact: most native seeds planted in Nevada are not actually grown here. Most seeds come from sources outside the state, in other parts of the West and North America, often
from places that differ from Nevada’s unique, dry climate.</span><br>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> But the Nevada Native Seed Partnership (NNSP) is trying to change that. The coalition of 11 agencies and organizations
in Nevada, including The Nature Conservancy and the Nevada Department of Agriculture, has a mission to keep Nevada lands diverse and functioning by using the right seed in the right place at the right time, and a goal of creating an adequate supply of locally
adapted native seeds that can meet Nevada’s restoration and rehabilitation needs.</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> “Our goals for participating in the partnership are to help growers ensure Nevada will have the right seeds available
at the right time to address the needs of restoration, reclamation, and rehabilitation,” Meghan Brown, Plant Industry Deputy Division Administrator for NDA, said. “The NNSP supports the NDA’s mission to protect, preserve and promote Nevada agriculture by providing
farmers with opportunities for diversification of production, providing the possibility of successful restoration and rehabilitation after wildfire for livestock operators, and creating important partnerships across the state.”</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Kevin Badik, rangeland ecologist for TNC in Nevada, says there are many ecological benefits of native seeds. By increasing
native seed use, more materials are available for restoration, which leads to using less water, helping prevent catastrophic wildfires and providing a new source of income for local growers.</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> “Every native seed that successfully establishes is one less opportunity for cheatgrass to come in. It’s one more
step in reducing extreme fire behavior,” Badik added. “Using seed that’s locally adapted increases the likelihood that the seed will successfully establish.”</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><b><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How it started</span></b></div>
<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Inspired by the National Seed Strategy, which was developed in 2015 by the Plant Conservation Alliance to address widespread
shortages of native seed, three federal agencies in northern Nevada (Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service) began having conversations in early 2016, laying the foundation for what is now the NNSP.</span><br>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The partners came together to better understand
the roles and abilities of each agency and the opportunities that could be created by working together to increase the availability of native seed in Nevada. Monthly meetings began in fall 2017, and the partnership has now grown to include TNC, NDA, USDA Natural
Resources Conservation Service, Nevada Division of Forestry, Nevada Division of Conservation and Natural Resources – Conservation District Program, Nevada Department of Wildlife, University of Nevada, Reno, and Walker Basin Conservancy.</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><b><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why native seeds are important</span></b></div>
<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Healthy native plant communities (sustained by native seeds) not only support humans and wildlife; they are “resilient and
resistant to disturbances and are instrumental in combating some of our biggest ecosystem challenges such as drought, wildland fire, and invasive species,” Sarah Kulpa, restoration ecologist and botanist for USFWS, said.</span><br>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“We are trying to change how restoration is currently
being done in Nevada,” Kulpa said. “This is quite ambitious, but the loss of the sagebrush ecosystem to wildfire and invasive or non-native species is what keeps me up at night. The loss of the sagebrush ecosystem would be devastating to Nevada’s wildlife,
people, communities, and economies.”</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The process of increasing native seed availability
starts with identifying a source population, such as seeds from wildland collections. Once enough seeds are collected, they are turned over to a farmer or grown in a small greenhouse to increase a bank of starter seeds, then given to another farmer to grow
pounds of it in fields for use in restoration projects.</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><b><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Attend the virtual forum</span></b></div>
<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that the NNSP has a strategy and vision in place, the next steps will be doing more outreach, connecting with communities
on the importance of native seeds, and raising awareness of the importance of investing in them in Nevada. This includes participating in the Nevada Native Seed Forum, an annual meeting first hosted by NDA in 2017, that connects growers with other native seed
stakeholders.</span><br>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> After surveying attendees and other stakeholders, the NNSP will host the Nevada Native Seed Forum virtually in short
sessions spread out over the course of two days, March 16-17. The forum will focus on sharing the stories of growers, how they go into the native seed business, and began selling. The benefit of a virtual form means Nevada growers will get to hear from producers
who have been successfully selling native seed in their states.</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> To register to attend, please email your RSVP to Melissa Russell at NDA:<span> </span></span><a href="mailto:m.russell@agri.nv.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" title="m.russell@agri.nv.gov" style="margin:0px"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif">m.russell@agri.nv.gov</span></a><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif">.</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> “We could have all the seed technology we want, but if the seed is not available, it’s doesn’t matter. It’s not just
about having seed, it’s about increasing the likelihood that each one will be successful,” Badik said. “We are looking for smarter, more efficient and innovative solutions to our restoration problems. We are exploring different ways we haven’t been thinking
about before.”</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> There is a demonstrated market for native grown seed in Nevada, and the long-term success of the Nevada Native Seed
Strategy depends on continued collaboration between all the partners of the NNSP and Nevada’s growers.</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"> “In the long term, if we are successful, we will end up with a flourishing native seed market, including Nevada growers
increasing plants sourced from Nevada, and managers putting them out on the landscape where they are most likely to establish and persist,” Beth Leger, a biologist with UNR, said. “Establishing plants in the desert is a major challenge, but we have to try.”</span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;font-size:12pt;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin:0px;font-family:Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif">Link to online article: https://elkodaily.com/news/state-and-regional/meeting-restoration-needs-with-native-seeds-grown-by-nevada-farmers/article_1560f183-59ea-51b3-8fec-c0a8234c1ba5.html</span></div>
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