Partnering with Tribal Landowners for Native Prairie Seed Production

Grant Information
Categories	Environment
Location	United States
Cycle Year	2025

Organization Information
Organization Name (provided by applicant)	PHOENIX CONSERVANCY
Organization Name (provided by automatic EIN validation)	PHOENIX CONSERVANCY
Secondary Addressee
EIN	81-3858018
Website	https://www.phoenixconservancy.org

Contact Information
Contact Name	Dr. Christopher Duke
Phone	(425) 757-6890
E-mail	mail@phoenixconservancy.org
Address	PO Box 977 Pullman WA 99163

Additional Information
Used for	Funds will be used to cover costs for 1) cleaning and preparing previously collected native prairie plant seeds for planting; 2) equipment and tools for preparing land for planting; 3) planting native seeds in prepared cultivation area. From our field work in 2025, The Phoenix Conservancy has collected seeds of high-value native forb species from the central South Dakota region. In partnership with private landowners from the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and Fort Pierre National Grassland, we are seeking to use a portion of these collected seeds to establish the first local native seed production in the region to supply large-scale restoration efforts underway.
Benefits	This funding would deepen a growing partnership between The Phoenix Conservancy, the USDA Forest Service, local ranchers, and the Lower Brule Sioux tribe to restore critically-endangered, multi-use prairies on US public and tribal lands. Chronic shortages of native plants and seeds are a universal limitation in ecosystem restoration, and establishing production on private tribal land would foster a novel local economic opportunity, while greatly decreasing barriers for indigenous youth to engage in STEM, horticulture, and conservation careers. In addition to the ecological relevance of this vital first step to restoring prairie across the Great Plains, we seek to demonstrate a framework for engaging stakeholders from opposing ideologies to advance common-ground conservation priorities that benefit biodiversity and communities.
Proposal Description	Project Overview Chronic shortages of locally-sourced native seeds and plants has been identified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine as the most pressing issue hampering ecosystem restoration nationwide. Largescale restoration efforts in critical grassland areas such as Ft. Pierre National Grassland (FPNG), South Dakota are vital for the future of imperiled grassland biodiversity. Success of such projects in creating high-value habitat depends heavily on availability of cost-effective, local-ecotype native plants and seeds. Collecting, processing, and cultivating native seed is extremely time-intensive, however, limiting potential for managers to adequately meet this need with limited staff. To compliment large-scale restoration efforts underway by the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and USDA Forest Service in FPNG and to facilitate other restoration efforts in the central South Dakota region, The Phoenix Conservancy (TPC) seeks to establish in-ground native plant production in partnership with private tribal landowners, building from successful pilot work in 2022-2025. In doing so, TPC works to enable high-quality restoration of more than 6,000 acres of habitat for prairie birds over the next two years. The proposed work emphasizes native forb diversity of high value to imperiled grassland wildlife, including Greater Prairie Chicken, Sprague's Pipit, Baird's Sparrow, black-footed ferret, monarch butterfly, and regal fritillary butterfly. Increasing local native plant production will also benefit multiple private restoration projects in the area, while also establishing a novel economic opportunity in the region. Work Plan Private tribal landowners have reached out to TPC to express interest in establishing native forb production on small pieces of land (landowner names redacted here to protect anonymity; letter of support available upon request). In order to make this a reality, native forb plant material collected during the 2025 field season must be manually processed to clean and prepare seed for planting via seed drill, a time and resource-intensive task estimated to take our relatively small staff approximately 2 months to complete over Winter 2025. In very early spring 2026, prepped seed of at least 5 high-value, local-ecotype native forb species will be drilled into plots prepped by our landowner partner, and tended through the growing season of 2026. As the initial 5 species to be used (Echinacea angustifolia; Ratibida columnifera; Dalea purpurea; Amorpha canescens; Solidago rigida) are perennial species, seed production is likely to be low during the first year, but rapidly increase each year. At the landowner's discretion, seed produced during this season will then be collected, prepped, and either sown again in fall 2026 to expand the size of the plots or sold to the USDA Forest Service and other restoration projects. Additional species of cultural importance, or economic and ecological value will be added as seed becomes available, emphasizing species used in traditional medicines and food production. Regular maintenance of the site (e.g. weeding) will be achieved by creating part-time job opportunities for indigenous youth, under the discretion and supervision of the landowner, with the goal of the available hours increasing as production capacity increases. Ultimately, the long-term goal of this work is to establish a new land use that functions both as high-quality habitat for prairie biodiversity, and as a novel economic opportunity to meet growing demands for native plant materials across the Great Plains. By ensuring that indigenous landowners and communities are involved from the inception of this project, we seek to ensure that direct benefits of restoration flow to the historic landowners first and foremost, whether human, plant, or animal. In doing so, we seek to build self-reinforcing restoration in the region as the project grows, unlocking thousands of acres of prairie restoration that cannot proceed without access to affordable, abundant native seeds.