Grassland Restoration Forum

Southern Alberta Native Seed Collaborative

Southern Alberta Native Seed Collaborative

Issue:

There is a lack of suitable high quality, regionally adapted native seeds to restore existing and planned industrial and infrastructure disturbances, and restoration projects within the Grassland, Parkland and Rocky Mountain Natural Regions of Alberta.

Vision:

To serve as a network for the sharing of knowledge, equipment, person power and seed, that will further the goal of building a reliable, high-quality native seed source for restoration projects in Southern Alberta.

Members:

Members may include any organizations or individuals with a need for native seed, jurisdiction over lands where native seed may be collected, or expertise in native seed collection, within the geographical area covered by the collaborative.

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Examples of Potential Collaborations:

  • Resource sharing including harvesting equipment (tow behind vs. hand-held harvesters; hydro-seeders; steamers), seasonal staff, seed storage and cleaning facilities and information (e.g., local phenology charts; create central library of literature resources);
  • Adoption/development of consistent methodologies including collaborative training events for seasonal staff each spring;
  • Interagency access to harvestable areas;
  • Communication of knowledge development opportunities (e.g., workshops and conferences) and materials (e.g., workshop notes, literature, presentations, websites, etc.);
  • Development of joint knowledge development opportunities;
  • Collaborative development of education materials for internal and/or public distribution (e.g., additional opportunities outside of agency distributions may exist through NCC and WBRA); 
  • Joint seed harvesting events that could include local landowners and/or volunteers (could be regularly scheduled monthly, weekly, etc.);
  • Seed exchanges and joint compilation of extra seed to send to market to fund future collaborations;
  • Joint facility tours (e.g., MD of Ranchlands gravel pit); 
  • Investigation of grant opportunities and partnerships; 
  • Exploration of alternative seed harvesting and propagation models (native haying; joint renting of a greenhouse; farmer grow and share program [Last Mountain Lake, SK; Tee Pee, BC; Rosetown, AB]); 
  • Creation of a local research plot and joint tours of past planting/harvesting areas to review site success/limitations/issues (e.g., WLNP gravel pit reclamation sites; MD of Ranchlands harvested pastures); and
  • Regular meetings.
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Event Cancellation

How to Use the Range Plant Community Guides and Recovery Strategies

Unfortunately with a number of late cancellations for the Range Plant Community Guides & Recovery Strategies Workshop scheduled for September 13th, 2023 we’ve had to make the tough decision to cancel the workshop for this fall due to insufficient registrations for a cost recovery event.  We will be offering the same workshop in conjunction with the CLRA Conference in March 2024.  The GRF Mailing list will receive notice/announcements about the event as details become available.

We are still proceeding as planned with the Grassland Assessment Classroom & Hands on Field Training on September 14th at the Cassils Hall/Antelope Creek Ranch.

Apologies for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.