Liaison, Bureau of Land Management

Peggy Olwell is the Plant Conservation & Restoration Program Lead for the Bureau of Land Management in Washington, DC. Peggy built the BLM's nationally recognized Native Seed Program, which promotes the use of native plants in habitat conservation and restoration projects. She was instrumental in developing the Plant Conservation Alliance in 1994, a partnership of 12 federal government agencies and over 380 state and private organizations. She has served as chair of the PCA Federal Committee and led the effort on the 2015 National Seed Strategy. Peggy co-edited an Island Press publication entitled Restoring Diversity: Strategies for Reintroduction of Endangered Plants. Recently, Peggy co-authored the Springer book Seeds of Restoration Success: Wild Lands and Plant Diversity in the U.S. Peggy has worked on plant conservation and endangered species issues for more than 30 years in positions with the National Park Service, Center for Plant Conservation , and US Fish and Wildlife Service. Peggy received her undergraduate degree in Botany from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her masters degree in Biology from Southern Methodist University.