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.