Government influence for pollinators

In 2014, a Presidential Memo came out of the White House directing all federal agencies to improve pollinator habitat. This was a huge boost to the national awareness of the problems that are facing insects, butterflies, moths, and various pollinator animals.

Although this was directed at all federal agencies, I think the land management agencies are the ones that have the greatest responsibility to help improve the problem. The US Forest Service (FS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and National Park system oversee huge amounts of land, most especially in the west. These lands are set aside for public use and it is the responsibility of the FS and BLM to walk the fine line to keep these lands healthy, while allowing recreation (hiking, camping, fishing, and off-road vehicle use), forest harvesting, energy and mineral development, livestock grazing and hunting. The National Parks have a different mandate and allow only specified recreation, so they can more simply preserve their lands closer to their original conditions.




In response to this Memo, there is an increase in the research of collecting wildflower seed, growing these seeds in commercial production gardens and then replanting native wildflower seed. In the past, it was mostly grass varieties that were seeded during revegetation projects for improving wildlife habitat or reseeding after a fire. Grasses are easy to grow commercially and easy to harvest, because they grow like wheat and can be harvested by machine.

Native lupine

Native wildflowers on the other hand, might bloom over a period of a month and the seed will ripen over weeks. Some species spread their seed using “umbrellas” like dandelions. Others like lupines, pop open their seed pods to shoot their seeds away from the parent plant.

All this variety makes commercial seed collection turn into hand labor, rather than mechanical harvesting. Hand labor makes seed expensive. This isn’t like a pack of radishes, where you get 50 seeds and that’s all you need. These agencies are reseeding vast amounts of land and need actual tons of seeds. Think of the huge areas burned by wildfire. Anyway, this is all just to explain why an order from The Top to improve wild lands habitat to help pollinators has been such a great thing. More native wildflower seed is being produced by seed growers, and is being used in reseeding mixes, even though it is more expensive than native grass seed.

Native Gaillardia in seed

This is a win for pollinators, for ecosystem diversity on public lands, for the seed production industry, and for me.


Part of my job is to analyze which local wildflowers species might be successful in commercial production, and then to collect a portion of the seed in various wild populations and send it off to a seed trial garden. Best.Job.In.The.World!