Agronomist/Native Plant Materials Specialist, The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Factors influencing native seed price and the implications for habitat biodiversity in agricultural landscapes of the central United States

Co-authors: Justin Meissen, Andy Olsen, Laura Jackson (Tallgrass Prairie Center, University of Northern Iowa); and Rich Iovanna (FSA-USDA)
In the intensively managed agricultural regions of the Upper Midwest and Great Plains, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is often the main tool for providing critical support for threatened pollinators and the monarch butterfly across more than 3 million acres. The success of CRP habitat programs relies on diverse, regionally appropriate native seed that is consistently affordable. However, native seed cost and availability is subject to complex supply and demand forces. Through our research under a cooperative agreement with the USDA Farm Services Agency, the Tallgrass Prairie Center at the University of Northern Iowa, and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, we are interested to see how a clearer understanding of the factors that affect native seed cost can be applied to build seed mixes and plantings with higher biodiversity and to create sustained, stable demand for native seed suppliers. We will present our preliminary findings on the relationships between native plant and seed traits and seed cost, summary statistics of seed suppliers, and a chronology of the development of the native seed industry in the Upper Midwest and Great Plains from the 1930s to the present.