00:00:03.354 --> 00:00:06.021
(pensive music)

00:00:09.571 --> 00:00:12.750
(wind whirring)

00:00:12.750 --> 00:00:16.830
- We're facing the twin
crises of climate change

00:00:16.830 --> 00:00:18.633
and biodiversity loss.

00:00:19.890 --> 00:00:22.293
We're losing whole ecosystems.

00:00:23.670 --> 00:00:27.030
And so for me, figuring
out ways how we can return,

00:00:27.030 --> 00:00:30.210
at least part of the function
and structure of those systems

00:00:30.210 --> 00:00:32.880
to continue to provide ecosystem benefits

00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:34.053
is really important.

00:00:35.160 --> 00:00:37.680
- Our landscapes started
to see some degradation.

00:00:37.680 --> 00:00:40.803
We started to see some disturbance
that were anthropogenic.

00:00:42.300 --> 00:00:44.250
We still, within our hearts,

00:00:44.250 --> 00:00:46.530
feel like we know we did something wrong

00:00:46.530 --> 00:00:47.910
that we need to fix

00:00:47.910 --> 00:00:50.340
and so the whole concept
of restoration is, okay,

00:00:50.340 --> 00:00:52.500
let's see what we can do to bring it back

00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:54.183
to more of its natural state.

00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:57.420
- [Olga] Native seed,
when used in restoration,

00:00:57.420 --> 00:00:59.370
are a nature-based solution

00:00:59.370 --> 00:01:01.230
that can help us tackle climate change

00:01:01.230 --> 00:01:03.597
and biodiversity loss.

00:01:03.597 --> 00:01:06.300
(instrument thudding)

00:01:06.300 --> 00:01:08.123
- Now we're just figuring
out how to use seeds

00:01:08.123 --> 00:01:10.080
so that we can do some of the repair

00:01:10.080 --> 00:01:12.498
that is needed on the landscapes

00:01:12.498 --> 00:01:15.248
(seeds rustling)

00:01:23.676 --> 00:01:26.259
(upbeat music)

00:01:36.523 --> 00:01:39.030
(wind whirring)

00:01:39.030 --> 00:01:41.970
- Globally, the UN has estimated

00:01:41.970 --> 00:01:46.440
that we need to restore 350
million hectares of land

00:01:46.440 --> 00:01:51.440
degraded by climate,
weather or just human use.

00:01:52.470 --> 00:01:53.880
We have estimated

00:01:53.880 --> 00:01:58.530
that we need 1.9 billion tons of seed

00:01:58.530 --> 00:02:00.993
to do that restoration.

00:02:05.160 --> 00:02:08.280
- One of the things that
fascinates me about seed

00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:13.257
is in that little teeny speck
is all the genetic programming

00:02:13.257 --> 00:02:17.559
that's necessary for that thing to know

00:02:17.559 --> 00:02:20.070
when the day length is right,

00:02:20.070 --> 00:02:21.957
when the precipitation is right,

00:02:21.957 --> 00:02:24.390
and when all the conditions are right

00:02:24.390 --> 00:02:25.789
for it to wake up to go,

00:02:25.789 --> 00:02:26.622
(Jason gasping)

00:02:26.622 --> 00:02:28.080
"It's time!"

00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:29.463
And just grow.

00:02:30.900 --> 00:02:32.400
- I really love seeds,

00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:35.130
because without seeds would be nothing.

00:02:35.130 --> 00:02:36.090
- Seeds are amazing.

00:02:36.090 --> 00:02:37.260
These are not dead things.

00:02:37.260 --> 00:02:39.660
These are living organisms,
they are breathing!

00:02:39.660 --> 00:02:40.980
- Native seeds are important,

00:02:40.980 --> 00:02:43.830
because first off, plants are important.

00:02:43.830 --> 00:02:46.350
Plants are, without a doubt,

00:02:46.350 --> 00:02:49.050
the most important layer on the planet.

00:02:49.050 --> 00:02:51.713
Without them, we wouldn't have
the base of the food chain.

00:02:52.972 --> 00:02:53.805
(bird calling)

00:02:53.805 --> 00:02:56.730
- When we talk about native
versus agricultural seed,

00:02:56.730 --> 00:02:58.320
native seed collected in the wild

00:02:58.320 --> 00:03:02.070
is going to have grown
up in that wild setting.

00:03:02.070 --> 00:03:04.680
It's going to have been
battered by the winds,

00:03:04.680 --> 00:03:06.480
its parent is going to have lived

00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:08.730
through all sorts of
trials and tribulations.

00:03:09.720 --> 00:03:13.470
Native seed is really, we're
trying to focus on preservation

00:03:13.470 --> 00:03:16.650
of that history, that
evolutionary history.

00:03:16.650 --> 00:03:18.270
We're trying to preserve the genes

00:03:18.270 --> 00:03:19.710
that are in this environment.

00:03:19.710 --> 00:03:21.892
We're trying to preserve that legacy.

00:03:21.892 --> 00:03:23.340
(pensive music)

00:03:23.340 --> 00:03:26.553
- To contextualize plant
materials and history,

00:03:27.660 --> 00:03:30.060
the indigenous people that were first here

00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:33.180
had a rich and deep
connection to the plants

00:03:33.180 --> 00:03:34.560
that were here already

00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:38.160
and there was management for those plants.

00:03:38.160 --> 00:03:39.930
They had their nurseries of their own,

00:03:39.930 --> 00:03:41.640
burning of the landscape

00:03:41.640 --> 00:03:45.360
using certain plants and
transplanting plants.

00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:46.860
From a restoration standpoint,

00:03:46.860 --> 00:03:50.580
how can we interweave
traditional ecological knowledge?

00:03:50.580 --> 00:03:52.470
We can repair some of the landscape

00:03:52.470 --> 00:03:54.720
and some of its ecological functions,

00:03:54.720 --> 00:03:58.323
but then also keep ties with
those cultural context as well?

00:04:00.720 --> 00:04:03.470
- The native species are
really the stuff of diversity.

00:04:05.760 --> 00:04:08.640
Weeds, while they do some of
the things that natives do

00:04:08.640 --> 00:04:11.700
are far less diverse
in any particular area,

00:04:11.700 --> 00:04:13.230
but natives are not

00:04:13.230 --> 00:04:16.290
and they are highly diverse
in any particular location

00:04:16.290 --> 00:04:19.170
and they turn over very
much from place to place.

00:04:19.170 --> 00:04:21.720
- This diversity just
naturally develops over time,

00:04:21.720 --> 00:04:24.330
either through evolution
or through dispersal.

00:04:24.330 --> 00:04:26.820
You have plants evolving to be early.

00:04:26.820 --> 00:04:28.860
You have plants evolving to be mid-season.

00:04:28.860 --> 00:04:30.180
You have plants evolving to be late.

00:04:30.180 --> 00:04:31.950
You have tall plants and short plants.

00:04:31.950 --> 00:04:33.915
Plants, that like it dry years plants,

00:04:33.915 --> 00:04:34.748
plants that like wet years,

00:04:34.748 --> 00:04:37.233
it is the natural state of
communities to be diverse.

00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:42.360
- The majority of public land

00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:45.330
in the United States is in the west

00:04:45.330 --> 00:04:49.803
and that's where the
largest native seed need is,

00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:53.580
but when you talk about restoration,

00:04:53.580 --> 00:04:56.100
immediately people think of trees.

00:04:56.100 --> 00:04:58.140
They were not thinking about the seed

00:04:58.140 --> 00:04:59.310
that were in the understory,

00:04:59.310 --> 00:05:00.960
they weren't thinking about the seed

00:05:00.960 --> 00:05:01.920
that are in the deserts,

00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:03.570
they weren't thinking about the seeds

00:05:03.570 --> 00:05:06.630
that are in different
biomes than the forests.

00:05:06.630 --> 00:05:10.140
There's degraded lands
all over the United States

00:05:10.140 --> 00:05:13.380
and the world that need more than trees.

00:05:13.380 --> 00:05:14.880
- You can look at a clear cut

00:05:14.880 --> 00:05:17.430
and you can say, "Oh,
those trees are missing!"

00:05:17.430 --> 00:05:19.500
And anybody can do that,

00:05:19.500 --> 00:05:22.650
but to look at the sagebrush
step of the grasslands

00:05:22.650 --> 00:05:25.350
and say, "The native species aren't there,

00:05:25.350 --> 00:05:27.510
there's this invasive grass."

00:05:27.510 --> 00:05:30.420
That takes a little bit of education.

00:05:30.420 --> 00:05:32.700
- Some introduced species
can become invasive

00:05:32.700 --> 00:05:34.560
and displace native species

00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:37.740
and then eventually turn
into essentially monocultures

00:05:37.740 --> 00:05:39.780
that are no longer providing the services

00:05:39.780 --> 00:05:41.670
that native plants provide.

00:05:41.670 --> 00:05:44.873
- If I could snap my fingers
and make it either wetter

00:05:44.873 --> 00:05:46.713
or make cheatgrass go away,

00:05:47.670 --> 00:05:49.920
I would make cheatgrass go away.

00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:53.190
We think that cheatgrass
came in as a seed contaminant

00:05:53.190 --> 00:05:54.600
with European settlers,

00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:57.615
probably in feed or in animal hide.

00:05:57.615 --> 00:05:59.640
(dramatic music)

00:05:59.640 --> 00:06:02.580
- A lot of the immigrants
who settled the west

00:06:02.580 --> 00:06:07.350
came from either European or
Northern European lineage,

00:06:07.350 --> 00:06:10.950
so when they came here, they
brought their European ideas

00:06:10.950 --> 00:06:14.640
of grazing and animal husbandry with them

00:06:14.640 --> 00:06:18.780
and it wasn't really
compatible with the West,

00:06:18.780 --> 00:06:22.560
'cause we're a desert, we're
not in the Netherlands.

00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:25.410
They moved their sheep and
their livestock on the mountain

00:06:25.410 --> 00:06:28.443
and they mowed everything
right down to the rocks.

00:06:29.580 --> 00:06:31.560
- [Elizabeth] People
were grazing at levels

00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:34.350
that are just kind of
unbelievable, hard to imagine,

00:06:34.350 --> 00:06:36.930
you see these pictures of sheep lined up

00:06:36.930 --> 00:06:38.760
like sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep.

00:06:38.760 --> 00:06:40.260
You could walk on the back of sheep

00:06:40.260 --> 00:06:41.340
and never touch the ground

00:06:41.340 --> 00:06:43.110
- With all that vegetation missing,

00:06:43.110 --> 00:06:44.610
the snow falls, the rain falls,

00:06:44.610 --> 00:06:45.900
there's nothing to hold it back

00:06:45.900 --> 00:06:48.510
and so it would just rush
out of those canyons.

00:06:48.510 --> 00:06:51.150
- There was massive floods
from that overgrazing

00:06:51.150 --> 00:06:54.240
that actually almost wiped
several of the towns off the map

00:06:54.240 --> 00:06:55.800
here in Utah.

00:06:55.800 --> 00:06:58.140
- [Jason] And that was
happening in one form or another

00:06:58.140 --> 00:07:02.370
all over the West, erosion from range land

00:07:02.370 --> 00:07:05.220
and mountain land, degradation
was a serious issue.

00:07:05.220 --> 00:07:06.570
- That unfortunate timing

00:07:06.570 --> 00:07:09.600
of really doing a hit on our
native plant communities,

00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:12.720
at the same time, we bring
in a very weedy plant,

00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:15.930
really seems to have sort
of exploded that invasion

00:07:15.930 --> 00:07:17.013
across the West.

00:07:18.120 --> 00:07:23.120
- Annual grasses are driving
even more intense wildfires.

00:07:25.170 --> 00:07:27.330
- In the last 20 years,

00:07:27.330 --> 00:07:30.810
we have burnt over 150 million acres

00:07:30.810 --> 00:07:33.183
across the United States.

00:07:34.080 --> 00:07:36.390
- As a lot of arid lands will experience,

00:07:36.390 --> 00:07:39.870
what you'll find in a
native ecosystem are shrubs

00:07:39.870 --> 00:07:42.270
with large interspaces in between them

00:07:42.270 --> 00:07:44.580
with a few grasses mixed in,

00:07:44.580 --> 00:07:46.800
perennial bunch grasses and forbs,

00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:49.500
but there's still quite a
bit of bare ground naturally

00:07:51.150 --> 00:07:53.790
and with invasive annual grasses,

00:07:53.790 --> 00:07:57.210
what they do is fill in
all of that interspace

00:07:57.210 --> 00:08:01.020
and they dry out within a
couple months of growing,

00:08:01.020 --> 00:08:03.960
so by the time it's storm season,

00:08:03.960 --> 00:08:06.150
they are literally just kindling,

00:08:06.150 --> 00:08:09.840
sitting in between all of
these shrubs and grasses

00:08:09.840 --> 00:08:13.353
and the smallest spark will
just set off a wildfire.

00:08:15.210 --> 00:08:17.790
- Native plants, they can deal
with a little bit of fire,

00:08:17.790 --> 00:08:21.180
but they cannot deal
with fire every 10 years.

00:08:21.180 --> 00:08:22.620
Cheatgrass does very well with that,

00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:25.470
it's totally fine if it
burns every single year.

00:08:25.470 --> 00:08:27.930
- So when a wildfire
comes through these areas,

00:08:27.930 --> 00:08:30.660
the only thing you'll find
coming back up on its own

00:08:30.660 --> 00:08:33.960
are these invasive annual
grasses, because guess what?

00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:37.320
They are adapted to this fire
and without intervention,

00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:40.290
oftentimes the native ecosystem
plants won't come back

00:08:40.290 --> 00:08:41.123
on their own.

00:08:41.123 --> 00:08:44.580
- We've created this problem,
what are we going to do about it?

00:08:44.580 --> 00:08:46.650
(dramatic music)

00:08:46.650 --> 00:08:50.250
- The ultimate goal of this is restoration

00:08:50.250 --> 00:08:51.810
and to do that,

00:08:51.810 --> 00:08:54.690
we need to get the right
seed in the right place

00:08:54.690 --> 00:08:56.486
at the right time.

00:08:56.486 --> 00:08:58.290
(seed rustling)

00:08:58.290 --> 00:09:02.160
The restoration need for
locally adapted native seed

00:09:02.160 --> 00:09:06.120
is outpacing the supply that's available

00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:08.010
for us to buy commercially.

00:09:08.010 --> 00:09:11.340
- The native seed supply chain
is the steps or the process

00:09:11.340 --> 00:09:14.310
it takes, from seed
collection from the wild,

00:09:14.310 --> 00:09:16.893
all the way to seeding
at a restoration site.

00:09:24.420 --> 00:09:29.420
- Why it's worth developing
the native seed supply chain,

00:09:29.460 --> 00:09:33.210
I think our very existence
depends upon this,

00:09:33.210 --> 00:09:36.930
I think our food security
depends upon this.

00:09:36.930 --> 00:09:38.340
- When we talk about restoration,

00:09:38.340 --> 00:09:40.050
I'm glad that there's
really wonderful people

00:09:40.050 --> 00:09:41.910
who have a heart and a passion to do it,

00:09:41.910 --> 00:09:43.860
because it's like looking
towards the future

00:09:43.860 --> 00:09:45.600
and it's about preserving our landscape,

00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:47.250
the only landscapes that we have.

00:09:54.660 --> 00:09:59.250
- When we go and do restoration
work, it's hard to get seed

00:09:59.250 --> 00:10:01.413
and it's not always
there when you need it.

00:10:02.466 --> 00:10:03.960
And the science of restoration

00:10:03.960 --> 00:10:07.410
has only been around for
a hundred years or so

00:10:07.410 --> 00:10:09.540
and when we talk native seeding,

00:10:09.540 --> 00:10:13.143
it's really only been
around for maybe 40 years.

00:10:13.980 --> 00:10:15.660
We're really in our infancy

00:10:15.660 --> 00:10:18.590
of figuring out how to even do what we do.

00:10:20.520 --> 00:10:24.690
- Having native seed
for resilient landscapes

00:10:24.690 --> 00:10:29.220
is not as easy as getting a bag of seed

00:10:29.220 --> 00:10:31.743
from the hardware store.

00:10:32.670 --> 00:10:36.690
The seed supply chain
is going to take time,

00:10:36.690 --> 00:10:40.350
it's going to take planning,
it's going to take money,

00:10:40.350 --> 00:10:42.420
it's going to take infrastructure

00:10:42.420 --> 00:10:45.960
and it's going to take us
working with the farmers

00:10:45.960 --> 00:10:47.130
across the United States

00:10:47.130 --> 00:10:50.313
who are interested in working
with us to develop it.

00:10:52.980 --> 00:10:55.560
- Seed need planning is understanding,

00:10:55.560 --> 00:10:57.630
first off, what are the restoration needs

00:10:57.630 --> 00:11:00.300
going to be in the next few years?

00:11:00.300 --> 00:11:02.070
And working back from that.

00:11:02.070 --> 00:11:03.960
Then we can ask, "Okay,

00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:06.240
what are the species we're going to need?

00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:08.167
When do they need to go into production?

00:11:08.167 --> 00:11:09.300
(vehicle reverberating)

00:11:09.300 --> 00:11:12.390
And then we can go out and
plan the wild seed collection

00:11:12.390 --> 00:11:13.690
that's going to support that.

00:11:16.170 --> 00:11:18.840
Restoration is needed
for a variety of reasons.

00:11:18.840 --> 00:11:22.440
It may be to come in after a
disturbance that was planned,

00:11:22.440 --> 00:11:24.563
like building a dam or a road.

00:11:24.563 --> 00:11:26.780
(train horn beeping)

00:11:26.780 --> 00:11:28.800
It could be needed after a wildfire

00:11:28.800 --> 00:11:31.560
or after some other kind
of catastrophic disturbance

00:11:31.560 --> 00:11:32.583
like a hurricane.

00:11:33.540 --> 00:11:36.300
Fire damage is becoming a pressure

00:11:36.300 --> 00:11:39.750
that is changing the need for native seeds

00:11:39.750 --> 00:11:43.350
in ways that we haven't
seen in decades past.

00:11:43.350 --> 00:11:47.490
- It is very hard to predict
what wildfires are going to do,

00:11:47.490 --> 00:11:51.180
what reactive needs are going to be.

00:11:51.180 --> 00:11:53.100
For some of the fires now,

00:11:53.100 --> 00:11:55.470
it's not just hundreds
to thousands of acres,

00:11:55.470 --> 00:11:58.140
it's tens to hundreds
of thousands of acres

00:11:58.140 --> 00:12:01.860
that are being affected
and needing to be treated.

00:12:01.860 --> 00:12:04.830
- So we have to keep asking
one another, "What do we need?"

00:12:04.830 --> 00:12:08.515
Because our predictions
aren't always right.

00:12:08.515 --> 00:12:11.520
(container squeaking)

00:12:11.520 --> 00:12:13.740
- You'll have years where
there's virtually no demand,

00:12:13.740 --> 00:12:16.230
like this year demand is very low.

00:12:16.230 --> 00:12:18.723
We've had comparatively few wildfires.

00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:24.412
Then you'll have a year where
like the whole world burns

00:12:24.412 --> 00:12:29.412
and there's so much need
that no one can keep up.

00:12:29.970 --> 00:12:34.080
- Private growers, contractors
who grow native plants

00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:37.683
for a living are farmers and
so it's a risky business.

00:12:41.460 --> 00:12:43.653
- We're just a little mom-and-pop player.

00:12:44.970 --> 00:12:46.110
I think it's hard to believe

00:12:46.110 --> 00:12:48.690
that we're actually hand cutting
the stuff this day and age.

00:12:48.690 --> 00:12:52.470
It seems sort of archaic but it works.

00:12:52.470 --> 00:12:56.070
That's gorgeous seed, just gorgeous.

00:12:56.070 --> 00:12:58.410
The native industry has
always been volatile.

00:12:58.410 --> 00:13:00.690
There's a whole bunch one year,
the next year there's none.

00:13:00.690 --> 00:13:03.870
The price goes from nothing to a fortune.

00:13:03.870 --> 00:13:06.960
Agriculture has also
the protection of USDA,

00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:08.760
crop improvement programs,

00:13:08.760 --> 00:13:11.040
disaster programs, insurance programs

00:13:11.040 --> 00:13:15.240
and a stable market
supply, demand and pricing.

00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:18.720
- One way that we're encouraging
farmers to work with us

00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:22.320
is through the process
of forward contracting

00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:25.590
and that basically takes
the risk off the farmer

00:13:25.590 --> 00:13:27.000
and puts it on the government.

00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:29.790
- If we can do what we
call forward contracting,

00:13:29.790 --> 00:13:32.730
where we're identifying a
certain quantity of seed

00:13:32.730 --> 00:13:34.290
for different species and seed zones

00:13:34.290 --> 00:13:35.520
that we want to purchase

00:13:35.520 --> 00:13:38.490
and we have to obligate the funds upfront

00:13:38.490 --> 00:13:41.760
for those contracts,
they're guaranteed payment,

00:13:41.760 --> 00:13:44.883
so they're less prone to
the whims of the market.

00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:49.740
- The most challenging part
about working with native seed

00:13:49.740 --> 00:13:53.520
is the fact that we want to
retain diversity and wildness.

00:13:53.520 --> 00:13:56.790
What we've done with farming
is create the opposite.

00:13:56.790 --> 00:13:59.700
We've created plants that
have rapid germination,

00:13:59.700 --> 00:14:02.880
that have uniform growth,
that retain their seed,

00:14:02.880 --> 00:14:05.040
all bloom at the same
time, 'cause it's easy.

00:14:05.040 --> 00:14:08.400
It's easy to go through and
harvest a bunch of plants

00:14:08.400 --> 00:14:11.100
whose seeds are all ripe at
one time and just stay on.

00:14:12.180 --> 00:14:13.770
When we're talking about restoration,

00:14:13.770 --> 00:14:15.300
we don't want to have plants

00:14:15.300 --> 00:14:18.180
that have this super narrow gene pool

00:14:18.180 --> 00:14:19.410
and all have the same traits.

00:14:19.410 --> 00:14:23.370
So it's challenging to farm a plant

00:14:23.370 --> 00:14:26.343
when you're trying to
retain these wild qualities.

00:14:27.180 --> 00:14:29.160
- We are working with species

00:14:29.160 --> 00:14:31.830
nobody has ever worked with before,

00:14:31.830 --> 00:14:35.850
so there's some really
basic biological information

00:14:35.850 --> 00:14:38.670
that we don't know about the species

00:14:38.670 --> 00:14:42.003
that we really want to
use for restoration.

00:14:44.310 --> 00:14:46.910
- Native plants have been
here for millions of years

00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:51.390
and then humans come along
and we change everything

00:14:51.390 --> 00:14:53.737
and so in my lab we spend a
lot of time thinking about,

00:14:53.737 --> 00:14:55.230
"Okay, what are the responses?

00:14:55.230 --> 00:14:57.360
The rapid evolutionary responses

00:14:57.360 --> 00:14:59.250
that plants can make to
this new environment?

00:14:59.250 --> 00:15:02.250
Can we figure out what works now?

00:15:02.250 --> 00:15:06.180
Not what worked a hundred
years ago, but what works now?"

00:15:06.180 --> 00:15:09.750
- There's a lot of common
gardens across the West

00:15:09.750 --> 00:15:11.400
and it's considered common

00:15:11.400 --> 00:15:13.260
because it is the same environment

00:15:13.260 --> 00:15:15.420
for every seed being planted in,

00:15:15.420 --> 00:15:17.940
regardless of where that seed came from.

00:15:17.940 --> 00:15:21.360
- We use common gardens to
develop seed transfer zones,

00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:25.110
which can be used as a
guideline for managers

00:15:25.110 --> 00:15:26.790
and other restoration practitioners

00:15:26.790 --> 00:15:30.090
to determine where they can
plant certain sources of seed.

00:15:30.090 --> 00:15:32.880
What we would like to
do is try to get seed

00:15:32.880 --> 00:15:34.860
that matches as much as possible,

00:15:34.860 --> 00:15:38.760
both genetically and
climatically to the location

00:15:38.760 --> 00:15:40.950
where that restoration is happening.

00:15:40.950 --> 00:15:44.010
- A seed zone is a geographic area

00:15:44.010 --> 00:15:47.820
that says it's okay to move
seed sources or populations

00:15:47.820 --> 00:15:49.440
around within that area

00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:53.280
and it'll be expected to
be adapted to that zone.

00:15:53.280 --> 00:15:55.050
- Whereas if you were to move seed

00:15:55.050 --> 00:15:58.230
outside of that seed zone, it
might not necessarily survive,

00:15:58.230 --> 00:15:59.730
it might not establish

00:15:59.730 --> 00:16:02.010
and it might not become
the native community

00:16:02.010 --> 00:16:03.207
that you're hoping to restore

00:16:03.207 --> 00:16:07.710
and you really do need those
locally adapted native plants.

00:16:07.710 --> 00:16:10.590
- Common gardens look basic,

00:16:10.590 --> 00:16:13.080
but this kind of information
is one of the best gifts

00:16:13.080 --> 00:16:15.510
we can give future generations

00:16:15.510 --> 00:16:18.600
who are going to have to
pick seeds for new climates

00:16:18.600 --> 00:16:21.270
and we can say, "Well
from our observation,

00:16:21.270 --> 00:16:22.890
this is the strategy that works

00:16:22.890 --> 00:16:25.200
under this particular kind of climate."

00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:26.520
Do you just love this plant?

00:16:26.520 --> 00:16:27.640
- [Participant] They're just so cute!

00:16:27.640 --> 00:16:28.473
(Both laughing)

00:16:28.473 --> 00:16:29.820
- I know!

00:16:29.820 --> 00:16:31.570
- I could not love this plant more!

00:16:42.251 --> 00:16:44.918
(pensive music)

00:16:53.532 --> 00:16:56.040
(bag rustling)

00:16:56.040 --> 00:16:59.280
- So this is bitterbrush
and it's very important food

00:16:59.280 --> 00:17:01.233
for mule deer in the winter.

00:17:02.520 --> 00:17:05.790
The seed collection is
kind of the first step

00:17:05.790 --> 00:17:07.803
in the restoration process.

00:17:10.410 --> 00:17:13.590
As a seed collector, I get contracts

00:17:13.590 --> 00:17:16.350
from usually the BLM or forest service

00:17:16.350 --> 00:17:17.910
to collect native seed

00:17:17.910 --> 00:17:20.883
that's going to be used in restoration.

00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:26.010
A lot of the contracts
are three year contracts,

00:17:26.010 --> 00:17:29.433
because each species
doesn't give seed each year.

00:17:30.390 --> 00:17:33.000
When I thought that we were getting close

00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:36.720
to the seed being mature,
I can usually guess,

00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:39.270
knowing when it's the
right time to harvest.

00:17:39.270 --> 00:17:43.623
I believe that's the art,
it's not just science here.

00:17:47.310 --> 00:17:50.340
During my career in this sagebrush step,

00:17:50.340 --> 00:17:52.410
which has been about 50 years,

00:17:52.410 --> 00:17:55.470
I've seen the disappearance

00:17:55.470 --> 00:17:58.440
and the degradation of acres and acres

00:17:58.440 --> 00:18:03.440
and there's not very many
pristine native areas left

00:18:04.830 --> 00:18:09.180
and it's important to capture
that genetic material.

00:18:09.180 --> 00:18:12.180
We want to preserve it and I
think it's really important

00:18:12.180 --> 00:18:14.100
to try to protect what we have

00:18:14.100 --> 00:18:16.953
and to try to restore areas that we can.

00:18:27.870 --> 00:18:31.410
- So we are out here collecting
bottlebrush squirreltail

00:18:31.410 --> 00:18:34.050
with the Bureau of Land
Management, The Forest Service,

00:18:34.050 --> 00:18:35.400
and Fish and Wildlife Service

00:18:35.400 --> 00:18:38.310
and we're here about 10 miles
outside of Reno, Nevada.

00:18:38.310 --> 00:18:40.170
So we're really interested in this site,

00:18:40.170 --> 00:18:41.850
because these are the plants

00:18:41.850 --> 00:18:44.760
that have the traits and adaptations

00:18:44.760 --> 00:18:48.360
for surviving in a really
hot and disturbed area.

00:18:48.360 --> 00:18:50.940
So the seeds that we
collect here do really well

00:18:50.940 --> 00:18:52.380
in restoration sites,

00:18:52.380 --> 00:18:54.993
just because they're so
accustomed to disturbance.

00:18:55.950 --> 00:18:58.470
When we are collecting and choosing sites

00:18:58.470 --> 00:18:59.910
where we want to collect seeds

00:18:59.910 --> 00:19:01.950
to ultimately produce and then send out

00:19:01.950 --> 00:19:03.240
into restoration sites,

00:19:03.240 --> 00:19:05.880
it's really important to do a few things.

00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:09.060
If you have a big team,
you'll split up the landscape,

00:19:09.060 --> 00:19:11.340
so you're not sort of
on top of each other,

00:19:11.340 --> 00:19:13.830
kind of create quadrants to work in.

00:19:13.830 --> 00:19:16.707
Want to find the populations
that are really large

00:19:16.707 --> 00:19:18.900
and that also helps them sustain

00:19:18.900 --> 00:19:20.640
the sort of stress of collection.

00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:23.340
- Practices for not
harming the population is,

00:19:23.340 --> 00:19:27.180
you don't want to take that
much seed from your site,

00:19:27.180 --> 00:19:29.040
especially if it's a smaller site.

00:19:29.040 --> 00:19:32.100
- We'll never collect more than 20%

00:19:32.100 --> 00:19:34.410
of the available seed on a site,

00:19:34.410 --> 00:19:35.243
- But for plants

00:19:35.243 --> 00:19:37.680
that you can't necessarily
count all of those seeds,

00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:41.280
like a bush, you might want
to do every fifth plant.

00:19:41.280 --> 00:19:42.480
- [Sarah] So at a site like this

00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:44.490
it's really important to make sure

00:19:44.490 --> 00:19:47.460
you're collecting exactly
what you're looking for,

00:19:47.460 --> 00:19:50.760
without inadvertently
getting this nasty cheatgrass

00:19:50.760 --> 00:19:52.020
in our bags as well.

00:19:52.020 --> 00:19:55.323
This cheatgrass seed looks
exactly like squirrel tail seed.

00:19:57.780 --> 00:20:00.600
- We want to make sure that
this is a quality collection

00:20:00.600 --> 00:20:02.460
that has the full range of diversity

00:20:02.460 --> 00:20:04.893
from that population, from that species.

00:20:05.910 --> 00:20:10.830
It is so easy to only look at
the biggest plants out there,

00:20:10.830 --> 00:20:14.640
they really catch your eye
or the most blue flowers,

00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:17.640
but you really do want to
collect evenly and randomly,

00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:21.180
to ensure that you're getting
all of those genotypes

00:20:21.180 --> 00:20:22.650
and then you also want to ensure

00:20:22.650 --> 00:20:25.380
that you're collecting
from at least 50 plants

00:20:25.380 --> 00:20:29.220
to ensure that we're
getting 95% of the alleles

00:20:29.220 --> 00:20:30.423
within the population.

00:20:35.430 --> 00:20:37.320
- So sometimes you can think,

00:20:37.320 --> 00:20:39.840
if you look around this area
there's a lot of poa secunda,

00:20:39.840 --> 00:20:42.360
but a problem we have with
our grasses in the Great Basin

00:20:42.360 --> 00:20:44.250
is they don't always fill their seed

00:20:44.250 --> 00:20:46.080
and especially under drought conditions,

00:20:46.080 --> 00:20:47.850
and so you can be scouting something

00:20:47.850 --> 00:20:50.190
and monitoring a species phenology

00:20:50.190 --> 00:20:53.340
and then go actually to harvest the seed

00:20:53.340 --> 00:20:55.860
and do the cut test and it's all blanks.

00:20:55.860 --> 00:20:58.380
You think you have seed and you don't.

00:20:58.380 --> 00:20:59.520
- They'll do a cut test

00:20:59.520 --> 00:21:04.520
to calculate how many ripe
and healthy seeds there are.

00:21:04.860 --> 00:21:07.500
- Once we find a couple seeds,

00:21:07.500 --> 00:21:12.040
we take a razor blade and
we cut those seeds in half

00:21:14.430 --> 00:21:18.090
and then from, there we look
at the inside of the seed.

00:21:18.090 --> 00:21:21.900
So this seed is completely white and full

00:21:21.900 --> 00:21:23.252
on the inside of it

00:21:23.252 --> 00:21:27.780
and then this one is empty
and black on the inside,

00:21:27.780 --> 00:21:29.193
which is a non-viable seed.

00:21:30.335 --> 00:21:33.120
(upbeat music)

00:21:33.120 --> 00:21:35.610
- There's a lot of different
methods you can use

00:21:35.610 --> 00:21:36.480
to collect seeds,

00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:38.970
like grasses, you'll always
want to hand strip them.

00:21:38.970 --> 00:21:43.050
- The grasses and the
forbs are so specific

00:21:43.050 --> 00:21:45.270
that you almost have to pick

00:21:45.270 --> 00:21:47.973
one individual flower at a time.

00:21:49.710 --> 00:21:54.710
For shrubs, we have a hopper
or I use a big plastic dish

00:21:55.260 --> 00:21:56.921
that I stick under there.

00:21:56.921 --> 00:21:58.860
(instrument rustling)

00:21:58.860 --> 00:22:00.330
Well we got a bunch there!

00:22:00.330 --> 00:22:03.060
You want all the seed to fall into your,

00:22:03.060 --> 00:22:05.610
either hopper or whatever you have.

00:22:05.610 --> 00:22:09.030
If I'm whacking in and
I'm not getting any seed,

00:22:09.030 --> 00:22:11.040
then it's not ready.

00:22:11.040 --> 00:22:13.860
I only use a racket for the bitterbrush.

00:22:13.860 --> 00:22:18.720
Sagebrush has a really tiny
little seed in the fall,

00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:22.023
I like to strip the flower heads off.

00:22:23.220 --> 00:22:26.970
- If you collect at one site
and then drive to another site,

00:22:26.970 --> 00:22:29.400
you don't want to just leave
those seeds in the car,

00:22:29.400 --> 00:22:31.320
like you wouldn't leave
your dog in the car,

00:22:31.320 --> 00:22:32.580
it gets too hot.

00:22:32.580 --> 00:22:34.350
So what a lot of folks will do

00:22:34.350 --> 00:22:37.170
is they'll put them under
the truck in the shade,

00:22:37.170 --> 00:22:39.150
but typically you do want
to get things shipped

00:22:39.150 --> 00:22:41.373
to a cleaning facility
as soon as possible.

00:22:44.100 --> 00:22:46.920
- I've been at a lot of sites
where I've collected seeds

00:22:46.920 --> 00:22:49.950
and then two months later
the site burned down

00:22:49.950 --> 00:22:52.500
and those plants are just gone forever.

00:22:52.500 --> 00:22:54.930
But part of me feels like,
well I did something,

00:22:54.930 --> 00:22:57.900
it's really hopeful to have
seeds in a bag from that site,

00:22:57.900 --> 00:23:00.540
because you took a
snapshot of what was there

00:23:00.540 --> 00:23:02.643
and you can hopefully reestablish it.

00:23:04.050 --> 00:23:06.780
We could never capture enough seed

00:23:06.780 --> 00:23:09.750
from these wild populations
to physically take the seed

00:23:09.750 --> 00:23:11.700
and put it on a restoration site,

00:23:11.700 --> 00:23:14.580
so then we take the seed,
put it in production,

00:23:14.580 --> 00:23:15.810
make it a big collection

00:23:15.810 --> 00:23:18.240
that still has the genetics
that we're interested in

00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:20.223
and then use it for restoration.

00:23:25.320 --> 00:23:30.060
- If we want to have enough
seed to say restore a field,

00:23:30.060 --> 00:23:32.010
then we need a lot of seed.

00:23:32.010 --> 00:23:34.020
What we do here is we take seeds

00:23:34.020 --> 00:23:36.330
that have been wild collected
and we propagate them

00:23:36.330 --> 00:23:39.573
to increase the seed availability
for habitat restoration.

00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:43.470
Native seed production is farming.

00:23:43.470 --> 00:23:47.880
It really relies on the
techniques that farmers use

00:23:47.880 --> 00:23:49.980
on a day-to-day basis,

00:23:49.980 --> 00:23:52.410
but most native species could be described

00:23:52.410 --> 00:23:54.090
as specialty crops.

00:23:54.090 --> 00:23:56.970
The same techniques you
would use to grow oats

00:23:56.970 --> 00:23:59.823
or soybeans might not work very well here.

00:24:01.020 --> 00:24:04.320
- Farming native plants, it's
important to try to retain

00:24:04.320 --> 00:24:06.120
all the diversity that could be there

00:24:06.120 --> 00:24:07.500
and that can be diversity in size,

00:24:07.500 --> 00:24:10.680
diversity in vigor, flower color.

00:24:10.680 --> 00:24:13.800
- We're putting them on so
many different kinds of sites

00:24:13.800 --> 00:24:15.810
and they're going to experience

00:24:15.810 --> 00:24:17.730
so many different environments.

00:24:17.730 --> 00:24:19.110
The way around that

00:24:19.110 --> 00:24:21.510
is to provide a lot of genetic diversity.

00:24:21.510 --> 00:24:24.840
For example, right
behind me is Oregon iris,

00:24:24.840 --> 00:24:28.740
it is represented here not
by just seeds from one place,

00:24:28.740 --> 00:24:31.741
but seeds from many different populations

00:24:31.741 --> 00:24:33.600
and so we have created

00:24:33.600 --> 00:24:36.660
essentially a hyper
diverse population here

00:24:36.660 --> 00:24:39.210
by collecting seeds
from multiple locations

00:24:39.210 --> 00:24:42.780
all within the same
kind of ecological zone.

00:24:42.780 --> 00:24:47.460
What results is a seed
crop that is over diverse,

00:24:47.460 --> 00:24:50.343
compared to any single
population out there.

00:24:51.960 --> 00:24:53.760
I love coming out here this time of year,

00:24:53.760 --> 00:24:57.180
I mean this just makes for such a show!

00:24:57.180 --> 00:24:59.130
We could probably sell tickets to this.

00:25:00.600 --> 00:25:05.433
All of these crops here are
first generation from the wild,

00:25:06.840 --> 00:25:08.760
they're the result of collecting seeds

00:25:08.760 --> 00:25:13.410
at remnant populations
of these wild species.

00:25:13.410 --> 00:25:16.980
We don't like to go past
one or two generations

00:25:16.980 --> 00:25:17.813
if we can help it.

00:25:17.813 --> 00:25:20.700
Three is kind of the
industry standard of stop

00:25:20.700 --> 00:25:24.633
for keeping the wild types
present in the gene pool.

00:25:26.100 --> 00:25:28.590
- So the steps that go
into native seed production

00:25:28.590 --> 00:25:30.240
are the initial collection.

00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:31.770
- We have to clean them and sort them.

00:25:31.770 --> 00:25:35.220
Typically we start them in a greenhouse.

00:25:35.220 --> 00:25:38.010
- And it has to be sewn into a field

00:25:38.010 --> 00:25:40.650
that has been prepared to
have a very nice seed bed.

00:25:40.650 --> 00:25:42.780
The next step would be
the year long process

00:25:42.780 --> 00:25:45.030
of weeding the field and keeping it clean.

00:25:45.030 --> 00:25:46.800
- So they grow in an agricultural field.

00:25:46.800 --> 00:25:48.810
They flower in the spring and summer.

00:25:48.810 --> 00:25:53.160
In midsummer to fall, harvest begins.

00:25:53.160 --> 00:25:56.370
- [Amy] Once it's harvested
you have to thresh the material

00:25:56.370 --> 00:25:57.990
and then clean all the seed

00:25:57.990 --> 00:26:00.090
and make sure that you've
gotten all the weeds out.

00:26:00.090 --> 00:26:03.480
- Then the seeds are
made available for sale

00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:04.833
or for restoration.

00:26:05.820 --> 00:26:07.860
So one of the biggest challenges

00:26:07.860 --> 00:26:10.530
to specialty crops is harvesting.

00:26:10.530 --> 00:26:14.673
There's no single technique
for all of these species.

00:26:19.500 --> 00:26:22.140
(vehicle reverberating)

00:26:22.140 --> 00:26:23.703
- This is ranunculus occidentalis

00:26:23.703 --> 00:26:26.460
that we harvested, the western buttercup.

00:26:26.460 --> 00:26:28.470
We'll use the combine as the first step

00:26:28.470 --> 00:26:30.390
that removes most of the plant material,

00:26:30.390 --> 00:26:32.130
so then it's easier for us to get in

00:26:32.130 --> 00:26:34.303
with the brooms and the vacuums.

00:26:34.303 --> 00:26:35.970
(broom scraping)

00:26:35.970 --> 00:26:37.650
James is down at the
other end of the field

00:26:37.650 --> 00:26:39.000
and he's sweeping the seed

00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:41.580
that's on the weed fabric towards me

00:26:41.580 --> 00:26:43.200
and then I'm going to
fire up the generator

00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:46.139
and use our shop vac and suck it up.

00:26:46.139 --> 00:26:49.222
(shop vac whirring)

00:26:52.860 --> 00:26:53.910
That's why we vacuum,

00:26:53.910 --> 00:26:56.760
'cause it's just about as much
seed vacuumed as combined.

00:26:58.710 --> 00:27:00.870
There are not a lot of
machines that are made

00:27:00.870 --> 00:27:03.090
specifically for harvesting native seeds,

00:27:03.090 --> 00:27:06.030
so you have to adapt a lot
of machinery that exists

00:27:06.030 --> 00:27:08.067
and build stuff that doesn't

00:27:08.067 --> 00:27:10.833
and it's neat and weird and I like that.

00:27:12.360 --> 00:27:15.000
Next we'll actually dry
them down in kiddy pools

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:16.342
and make sure

00:27:16.342 --> 00:27:17.640
that all of the after-ripening
that's going to happen

00:27:17.640 --> 00:27:20.100
has happened and that they're
nice and dry to the touch

00:27:20.100 --> 00:27:22.350
before we pack them up into grocery sacks

00:27:22.350 --> 00:27:24.510
and we'll take them off to
our seed cleaning facility

00:27:24.510 --> 00:27:26.850
and we're left with just
the seeds that we harvested

00:27:26.850 --> 00:27:30.210
and what we want to go back
out into restoration sites.

00:27:30.210 --> 00:27:31.920
A lot of these plants
that we're putting back

00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:34.470
into restoration sites,
their habitat's been lost

00:27:34.470 --> 00:27:36.870
and it's people that
took that habitat away.

00:27:36.870 --> 00:27:40.713
It feels good to me to try to
right that ship a little bit.

00:27:44.670 --> 00:27:47.190
- Well there's an
interesting spot for you,

00:27:47.190 --> 00:27:51.303
that is a roosting site for
a young sage-grouse hen.

00:27:52.320 --> 00:27:55.680
This is part of the restoration
component of this site.

00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:58.110
We planted the sandberg bluegrass,

00:27:58.110 --> 00:28:00.633
the bluebunch wheatgrass,
the Idaho fescue.

00:28:04.320 --> 00:28:07.620
I'm Jerry Benson, I represent
Benson Farms Incorporated.

00:28:07.620 --> 00:28:10.923
We are a seed production
and restoration company.

00:28:12.090 --> 00:28:14.910
We produce everything from wildflowers,

00:28:14.910 --> 00:28:19.050
native grasses, sagebrush,
even corn and vegetable seeds,

00:28:19.050 --> 00:28:23.040
probably in the
neighborhood of 100 species.

00:28:23.040 --> 00:28:25.230
Bring me four ounces of seed

00:28:25.230 --> 00:28:28.260
and we will make 5,000 plugs out of it,

00:28:28.260 --> 00:28:30.060
we'll plant those tublings out

00:28:30.060 --> 00:28:32.670
into an initial propagation block,

00:28:32.670 --> 00:28:34.050
harvest the seed off of that.

00:28:34.050 --> 00:28:38.670
Generally, we go from four
ounces to three or four pounds

00:28:38.670 --> 00:28:42.480
and then the three or four
pounds, we can plant two acres

00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:46.233
and we can bump it up
to 1000 to 2000 pounds.

00:28:48.030 --> 00:28:49.170
That's the first step,

00:28:49.170 --> 00:28:52.800
is to decide that the crop
is in harvest-able position,

00:28:52.800 --> 00:28:56.340
then the next step is to come
in with like the swather here

00:28:56.340 --> 00:28:57.990
and put it in the windrows

00:28:57.990 --> 00:29:01.260
and then let it cure for seven,
eight days under the sun,

00:29:01.260 --> 00:29:03.500
so that it gets good and dry.

00:29:03.500 --> 00:29:06.060
- See how green and soft that is?

00:29:06.060 --> 00:29:07.200
It just bends.

00:29:07.200 --> 00:29:09.750
The seed head will come apart
easier once it's thrashed

00:29:09.750 --> 00:29:11.730
as some moisture evaporates out,

00:29:11.730 --> 00:29:13.590
the stem moisture has to come down too,

00:29:13.590 --> 00:29:15.810
'cause you have to be able
to also break down the stem

00:29:15.810 --> 00:29:16.800
that it's attached to

00:29:16.800 --> 00:29:19.750
and it's getting there but
we're not there all the way yet.

00:29:20.940 --> 00:29:22.320
- [Jerry] Combine picks this up,

00:29:22.320 --> 00:29:25.290
runs it through the apparatuses inside

00:29:25.290 --> 00:29:27.380
and then you haul it to the seed plant.

00:29:28.308 --> 00:29:30.150
(curious music)

00:29:30.150 --> 00:29:33.303
- We keep our forbs
separate from our grasses.

00:29:34.770 --> 00:29:37.260
That's the Oregon sunshine.

00:29:37.260 --> 00:29:38.310
So this one here

00:29:38.310 --> 00:29:42.210
looks like it's starting
to lose it's petals,

00:29:42.210 --> 00:29:45.720
so this is a sign that it's
going to start becoming ready

00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:47.283
to harvest or seed.

00:29:48.300 --> 00:29:49.894
You have to be patient,

00:29:49.894 --> 00:29:52.140
sometimes you're going to plant something

00:29:52.140 --> 00:29:54.360
and nothing's going to grow that year

00:29:54.360 --> 00:29:56.741
and then the next year
you'll see something up.

00:29:56.741 --> 00:29:58.140
It's really hard,

00:29:58.140 --> 00:30:01.568
because these plants are used
to living out in the wild

00:30:01.568 --> 00:30:03.990
and when you take too much care of them,

00:30:03.990 --> 00:30:05.400
you're babying them so much

00:30:05.400 --> 00:30:06.990
or you're putting much more water on them,

00:30:06.990 --> 00:30:08.670
they don't really like it.

00:30:08.670 --> 00:30:11.310
You want to try to still give
them what they're used to

00:30:11.310 --> 00:30:12.363
out in the wild.

00:30:13.590 --> 00:30:16.260
I learned to fall in love with this job

00:30:16.260 --> 00:30:18.780
and everything that it stands for,

00:30:18.780 --> 00:30:22.950
just the fact that we help
to restore burnt down areas,

00:30:22.950 --> 00:30:25.650
the fact that what we do impacts and helps

00:30:25.650 --> 00:30:27.963
the little creatures out in the wild.

00:30:28.890 --> 00:30:31.040
You're always learning
with native flowers.

00:30:34.855 --> 00:30:39.855
(hand scraping)
(bees buzzing)

00:30:41.130 --> 00:30:42.423
- My name's Jim Cane.

00:30:46.350 --> 00:30:51.350
I've worked with native bees for 40 years.

00:30:53.310 --> 00:30:56.430
A couple things about bees
that make them more attractive

00:30:56.430 --> 00:31:00.543
than most beetles or stinkbugs.

00:31:01.830 --> 00:31:03.990
For one, they're rounded and furry,

00:31:03.990 --> 00:31:07.050
so they have a puppy
like attraction to humans

00:31:07.050 --> 00:31:08.450
that I think is deep-seated.

00:31:10.590 --> 00:31:14.010
Many of their behaviors are
overt and out in the open.

00:31:14.010 --> 00:31:15.460
You can watch them on flowers

00:31:17.010 --> 00:31:19.200
and they're convenient and available.

00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:22.680
They're in your city park,
they're in your yard,

00:31:22.680 --> 00:31:23.630
they're right there

00:31:25.170 --> 00:31:29.073
and they beg questions
just by what they're doing.

00:31:29.977 --> 00:31:32.347
"Oh, this one's different from that one."

00:31:32.347 --> 00:31:34.397
"Oh, what's this one, is this a bee too?"

00:31:35.910 --> 00:31:38.673
And then you're started down the path.

00:31:41.070 --> 00:31:42.933
The honeybee is not the only bee.

00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:48.244
Worldwide for bees, there's
20,000 named species.

00:31:48.244 --> 00:31:51.390
(dramatic music)

00:31:51.390 --> 00:31:56.070
In North America, about
3,500 species of native bees.

00:31:56.070 --> 00:31:58.110
Every bee is native somewhere.

00:31:58.110 --> 00:31:59.130
Bees are native,

00:31:59.130 --> 00:32:04.130
if it was presence without
the assistance of humans.

00:32:04.470 --> 00:32:07.350
We've moved a few bees around the world,

00:32:07.350 --> 00:32:08.703
honeybees in a big way.

00:32:09.570 --> 00:32:13.080
Native bees are important from
two perspectives, I guess.

00:32:13.080 --> 00:32:16.680
One, we never ask why pikas are important

00:32:16.680 --> 00:32:19.350
or moose are important, but
we conserve them anyway.

00:32:19.350 --> 00:32:21.180
The other one which most people talk about

00:32:21.180 --> 00:32:23.580
is that they are important pollinators

00:32:23.580 --> 00:32:26.130
for most of our wild land plants,

00:32:26.130 --> 00:32:30.393
not the grasses, not the
conifers, but so much else.

00:32:41.100 --> 00:32:44.553
And they're important pollinators
for many of our crops,

00:32:45.540 --> 00:32:48.273
spices especially, fruit crops,

00:32:49.350 --> 00:32:52.920
humans wouldn't starve without bees,

00:32:52.920 --> 00:32:55.770
but we'd have a much less interesting diet

00:32:55.770 --> 00:32:57.970
and we'd have trouble
getting some vitamins.

00:32:59.940 --> 00:33:03.300
Bees are organized into three groups,

00:33:03.300 --> 00:33:06.243
so the one group are like the honeybee,

00:33:07.200 --> 00:33:11.190
they have perennial
colonies, they have a queen,

00:33:11.190 --> 00:33:12.810
she's strictly an egg layer.

00:33:12.810 --> 00:33:16.020
There's a sharp division
of labor in the colony,

00:33:16.020 --> 00:33:17.310
there's the egg layers

00:33:17.310 --> 00:33:19.800
and then there's all the
workers who do everything else.

00:33:19.800 --> 00:33:23.370
Then there's the what are called
primitively social species,

00:33:23.370 --> 00:33:24.840
so that's bumblebees.

00:33:24.840 --> 00:33:26.940
There's also a bunch of
primitively social bees

00:33:26.940 --> 00:33:30.600
who are ground-nesters, very
unassuming little nests,

00:33:30.600 --> 00:33:32.400
but they have the same arrangement

00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:35.310
and the same lifecycle
and the same business

00:33:35.310 --> 00:33:38.580
as the bumblebee, but most
people never notice them.

00:33:38.580 --> 00:33:41.430
There's also some kleptoparasites.

00:33:41.430 --> 00:33:44.920
They invade an active
nest of a host bumblebee

00:33:46.020 --> 00:33:49.710
and displace that queen,
usually rather aggressively,

00:33:49.710 --> 00:33:52.257
again other Shakespearean
drama like, "Hamlet,"

00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:57.690
and then the workers are their slaves.

00:33:57.690 --> 00:34:00.000
So yeah, pretty dramatic.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.323
All the rest of the bees are
what we call solitary bees.

00:34:05.460 --> 00:34:07.710
They may nest in groups,

00:34:07.710 --> 00:34:10.410
but each female does her own reproduction.

00:34:10.410 --> 00:34:12.780
She's made it, she lays her own eggs,

00:34:12.780 --> 00:34:14.274
she builds her own nest,

00:34:14.274 --> 00:34:16.680
she does her own provisioning

00:34:16.680 --> 00:34:18.510
and she never meets her offspring,

00:34:18.510 --> 00:34:20.040
there's no overlap of generations,

00:34:20.040 --> 00:34:21.873
there's no division of labor.

00:34:22.921 --> 00:34:25.950
The purpose of a lot of flower morphology

00:34:25.950 --> 00:34:28.353
is to precisely position the visitor,

00:34:29.190 --> 00:34:32.733
such that there's reliable
pickup and transfer of pollen.

00:34:33.600 --> 00:34:36.450
'Cause plants are
stationary, they can't move

00:34:36.450 --> 00:34:38.790
to find other mates,

00:34:38.790 --> 00:34:40.923
so it finds its mates through pollinators.

00:34:42.030 --> 00:34:43.620
I'm going to use this daylily flower

00:34:43.620 --> 00:34:47.400
to show you the elements of pollination.

00:34:47.400 --> 00:34:48.870
It's really quite simple,

00:34:48.870 --> 00:34:52.020
but I can show you 'cause the
flower parts are big here.

00:34:52.020 --> 00:34:56.130
So pollination is how
plants reproduce sexually.

00:34:56.130 --> 00:34:59.370
The basics of it is that
compatible pollen moves

00:34:59.370 --> 00:35:04.370
from the anthers and is
picked up by a pollinator,

00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:08.670
usually inadvertently,
sometimes intentionally

00:35:08.670 --> 00:35:11.800
and some of it ends up
on the stigmatic tip here

00:35:13.138 --> 00:35:15.480
and so all it is,

00:35:15.480 --> 00:35:19.170
you simply get a pollen
deposit right there.

00:35:19.170 --> 00:35:21.970
You can do this yourself in
your own garden if you want.

00:35:22.980 --> 00:35:25.480
Then that pollen will
germinate on that stigma

00:35:26.820 --> 00:35:31.820
and grow tubes all the way
down this long, long style,

00:35:32.070 --> 00:35:34.110
probably takes several days

00:35:34.110 --> 00:35:36.280
to reach the ovules at the bottom

00:35:37.710 --> 00:35:41.970
and the male gametophyte of those,

00:35:41.970 --> 00:35:44.490
the equivalent of our sperm essentially,

00:35:44.490 --> 00:35:47.430
will fertilize the ovules,

00:35:47.430 --> 00:35:50.010
essentially the equivalent of our eggs,

00:35:50.010 --> 00:35:52.080
down inside of here,

00:35:52.080 --> 00:35:56.163
which in that fertilization
will start an embryonic seed.

00:35:57.090 --> 00:35:59.010
Every pumpkin you have ever carved

00:35:59.010 --> 00:36:00.060
and dug out the seed,

00:36:00.060 --> 00:36:03.810
every single one of those seeds
arose from one pollen grain

00:36:03.810 --> 00:36:06.690
sending a pollen tube down
the style of the flower

00:36:06.690 --> 00:36:08.603
and fertilizing one ovule.

00:36:08.603 --> 00:36:10.950
(relaxing music)

00:36:10.950 --> 00:36:13.750
The relationship of native
bees and native seeds

00:36:14.700 --> 00:36:19.700
is that most everything
that's not wind pollinated

00:36:20.190 --> 00:36:25.190
will cease to reproduce
without native pollinators.

00:36:25.650 --> 00:36:27.150
Most of the showy flowers you see,

00:36:27.150 --> 00:36:30.333
even some of the flowers that
aren't showy would be gone.

00:36:39.404 --> 00:36:42.404
(car door thudding)

00:36:44.460 --> 00:36:45.303
Yeah.

00:36:47.695 --> 00:36:52.695
(insects trilling)
(birds calling)

00:36:52.740 --> 00:36:54.000
Gorgeous flower.

00:36:54.000 --> 00:36:56.160
You have these in the Sierra Nevada,

00:36:56.160 --> 00:36:58.800
down in the western desert,
some of them are yellow.

00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:00.520
It's the state flower of Utah

00:37:03.300 --> 00:37:07.830
and this is the Logan River and
it's running high right now,

00:37:07.830 --> 00:37:11.313
'cause of the blast of
melt from the high country.

00:37:13.020 --> 00:37:15.930
One of the more important things we can do

00:37:15.930 --> 00:37:20.930
is where we have good habitat,
is not to compromise it,

00:37:20.970 --> 00:37:24.333
to set it aside, to protect
it, to manage it properly.

00:37:27.600 --> 00:37:30.300
We're getting to the point for native bees

00:37:30.300 --> 00:37:33.900
where a few more changes in
land management practices

00:37:33.900 --> 00:37:35.040
and all of a sudden,

00:37:35.040 --> 00:37:39.153
large parts of their biota
start to go into sharp decline.

00:37:41.550 --> 00:37:43.980
As we've expanded crop land,

00:37:43.980 --> 00:37:46.770
as we've used insecticides
and things like that,

00:37:46.770 --> 00:37:49.420
there's been a gradual loss of habitat

00:37:50.460 --> 00:37:54.000
and so it may be a forerunner
of where we could be headed

00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:57.933
if we're not careful, if
we're not paying attention.

00:37:59.280 --> 00:38:04.280
Nature is restorative to
one's soul and spirit,

00:38:05.130 --> 00:38:07.380
I don't think I'd want to live on a planet

00:38:07.380 --> 00:38:12.380
where everything was cultivated
and all land was transformed

00:38:13.530 --> 00:38:17.163
for human use, it's just not
a planet worth living on.

00:38:18.672 --> 00:38:22.255
(relaxing music continues)

00:38:30.291 --> 00:38:33.041
(seeds rustling)

00:38:38.220 --> 00:38:41.756
- Lots of people ask the
question, "Why clean seed?"

00:38:41.756 --> 00:38:44.839
(machinery rumbling)

00:38:51.510 --> 00:38:53.013
There's a couple reasons.

00:38:54.480 --> 00:38:57.589
One of the big ones is so
that you know what you have.

00:38:57.589 --> 00:39:00.330
(upbeat music)

00:39:00.330 --> 00:39:03.300
It's really difficult to
do a restoration project

00:39:03.300 --> 00:39:06.780
or commit to space in a
greenhouse or at a nursery,

00:39:06.780 --> 00:39:08.250
which is really expensive

00:39:08.250 --> 00:39:09.850
if you don't know what you have.

00:39:11.455 --> 00:39:12.390
Bend Seed Extractory

00:39:12.390 --> 00:39:15.930
is part of the Forest Service
national nursery system

00:39:15.930 --> 00:39:19.440
and that system services
any governmental agency

00:39:19.440 --> 00:39:20.640
in the country.

00:39:20.640 --> 00:39:24.570
During the seed season,
from July to March,

00:39:24.570 --> 00:39:26.490
seven to twelve people will process

00:39:26.490 --> 00:39:30.240
15,000 pounds of raw seed.

00:39:30.240 --> 00:39:34.023
We store about a third of
that seasoned seed on site.

00:39:35.100 --> 00:39:37.440
About two thirds of the material

00:39:37.440 --> 00:39:40.653
actually goes directly
back out to public lands.

00:39:42.540 --> 00:39:45.960
You can't process seed
that was just collected

00:39:45.960 --> 00:39:47.400
and is still moist.

00:39:47.400 --> 00:39:50.820
It's living tissue, so that
material has to dry down

00:39:50.820 --> 00:39:54.003
to be able to be worked
in any type of machine.

00:39:57.030 --> 00:40:00.330
Our job is to assess
that seed lot coming in

00:40:00.330 --> 00:40:03.840
and we're going to put it
through the extractory here

00:40:03.840 --> 00:40:07.743
in three phases, extraction,
finishing and testing.

00:40:09.630 --> 00:40:12.660
Extraction encompasses taking the seed

00:40:12.660 --> 00:40:14.370
out of the flower part,

00:40:14.370 --> 00:40:16.650
taking the seed out of
the cone, out of the pod,

00:40:16.650 --> 00:40:18.090
out of the capsule.

00:40:18.090 --> 00:40:21.240
Seed naturally has developed appendages

00:40:21.240 --> 00:40:23.880
of various types for dispersal.

00:40:23.880 --> 00:40:27.870
In the case of a grass, the
appendage would be an awn,

00:40:27.870 --> 00:40:29.970
that awn is part of that seed

00:40:29.970 --> 00:40:33.090
that would propel it into the ground.

00:40:33.090 --> 00:40:36.000
These dispersal mechanisms
are really fantastic

00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:39.570
out in the wild, but when
it comes to seed processing,

00:40:39.570 --> 00:40:42.840
they actually can impede
what we need to do

00:40:42.840 --> 00:40:44.550
and the reason we're
going to remove that awn

00:40:44.550 --> 00:40:47.163
is so that the material flows evenly.

00:40:50.610 --> 00:40:54.030
Then we take that seed and we
head to our finishing step,

00:40:54.030 --> 00:40:56.550
some people also call this conditioning.

00:40:56.550 --> 00:40:57.600
This is where we're going to take out

00:40:57.600 --> 00:40:59.220
everything that doesn't belong,

00:40:59.220 --> 00:41:01.590
so we want to keep the seed that's filled

00:41:01.590 --> 00:41:03.060
and has tissue inside,

00:41:03.060 --> 00:41:06.870
we want to remove the empty
seeds, the stems, the sand,

00:41:06.870 --> 00:41:10.380
the bugs, the needles,
the leaves, the petals,

00:41:10.380 --> 00:41:11.760
anything that doesn't belong,

00:41:11.760 --> 00:41:13.760
we want to remove in the finishing step.

00:41:15.150 --> 00:41:16.410
This has already been through

00:41:16.410 --> 00:41:18.510
the first initial extraction phase

00:41:18.510 --> 00:41:21.540
and now it's into what
we call a finishing step.

00:41:21.540 --> 00:41:24.420
If this material didn't flow evenly,

00:41:24.420 --> 00:41:27.543
then we wouldn't be able to
get this type of separation.

00:41:29.130 --> 00:41:32.490
The first thing everyone assumes
is that we have a protocol

00:41:32.490 --> 00:41:36.780
that you can look to and determine
what to do with that seed

00:41:36.780 --> 00:41:39.840
and unfortunately every
seed law is different.

00:41:39.840 --> 00:41:42.000
Once you decide what you need to remove,

00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:44.160
then you can think of,
"What machines do I have

00:41:44.160 --> 00:41:47.100
at my disposal that
will help me with that?

00:41:47.100 --> 00:41:49.050
Do we need some kind of rubbing

00:41:49.050 --> 00:41:51.210
to get the material to break up?

00:41:51.210 --> 00:41:54.786
Do we need some kind of spinning action?

00:41:54.786 --> 00:41:56.970
Do we need some kind of texture

00:41:56.970 --> 00:41:59.550
to work the material against?"

00:41:59.550 --> 00:42:01.440
So how do you accomplish that

00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:04.137
with what you have at your disposal?

00:42:04.137 --> 00:42:06.810
And that answer's going to
be different for everyone,

00:42:06.810 --> 00:42:09.110
because everyone has a
different set of tools.

00:42:10.930 --> 00:42:13.260
(seeds rattling)

00:42:13.260 --> 00:42:14.340
Then we're going to take our seed

00:42:14.340 --> 00:42:16.410
and put it into the testing room.

00:42:16.410 --> 00:42:17.430
In the testing stage,

00:42:17.430 --> 00:42:20.490
that's where we want to
determine, what do we have?

00:42:20.490 --> 00:42:23.160
We have a digital x-ray,
we're able to image seed

00:42:23.160 --> 00:42:26.130
and then we can understand
what's going on inside there.

00:42:26.130 --> 00:42:28.440
It's a non-destructive test,

00:42:28.440 --> 00:42:30.900
so we're able to look inside the seed

00:42:30.900 --> 00:42:33.240
and see what's happening
within the seed coat

00:42:33.240 --> 00:42:36.390
and understand, is that
filled with tissue?

00:42:36.390 --> 00:42:39.150
Is there embryo endosperm?

00:42:39.150 --> 00:42:41.910
You can see that this is
some kind of bug damage.

00:42:41.910 --> 00:42:43.830
This is stem material.

00:42:43.830 --> 00:42:47.850
Some of this is sand or chaff

00:42:47.850 --> 00:42:50.250
and you can see out of these 100 seed,

00:42:50.250 --> 00:42:53.520
we have two over here
that we would call empty

00:42:53.520 --> 00:42:54.840
or not filled.

00:42:54.840 --> 00:42:56.940
So looking at this X-ray,

00:42:56.940 --> 00:43:00.570
I would call this 98% filled

00:43:00.570 --> 00:43:03.750
and we take an X-ray
image of every seed lot

00:43:03.750 --> 00:43:05.250
before it gets packaged.

00:43:05.250 --> 00:43:07.980
The X-ray test can be done instantaneously

00:43:07.980 --> 00:43:10.650
and you can understand what's in there.

00:43:10.650 --> 00:43:13.770
- Seeds are living organisms.

00:43:13.770 --> 00:43:15.660
They go through an aging process

00:43:15.660 --> 00:43:19.470
and this is due to an active metabolism.

00:43:19.470 --> 00:43:24.300
What we do is to slow
down this aging process,

00:43:24.300 --> 00:43:27.723
so that we can store seeds for long times.

00:43:29.190 --> 00:43:31.507
- Not all seeds can be stored.

00:43:31.507 --> 00:43:33.210
(upbeat music)

00:43:33.210 --> 00:43:36.390
Orthodox seed can be safely dried down

00:43:36.390 --> 00:43:38.040
and put into freezer storage

00:43:38.040 --> 00:43:41.160
without damaging the seed tissue.

00:43:41.160 --> 00:43:44.130
Recalcitrant seeds,
they have to stay moist,

00:43:44.130 --> 00:43:47.430
they can't be frozen,
there's too high of moisture

00:43:47.430 --> 00:43:49.230
and if they are dried down

00:43:49.230 --> 00:43:51.600
to the point that we could
freeze them in our freezer

00:43:51.600 --> 00:43:54.330
at the extractory, then
we've now killed the seed,

00:43:54.330 --> 00:43:57.120
because it has to stay
moist to stay alive.

00:43:57.120 --> 00:44:00.540
- Most of the tropical
species are recalcitrant.

00:44:00.540 --> 00:44:05.400
They have constant moisture,
almost across the entire year,

00:44:05.400 --> 00:44:08.910
so they're not really
adopted to a dry season.

00:44:08.910 --> 00:44:10.950
- [Kayla] Where when you think
of most of the orthodox seeds

00:44:10.950 --> 00:44:14.130
that we work with, in the western US,

00:44:14.130 --> 00:44:16.230
they're developed for these drier climates

00:44:16.230 --> 00:44:18.690
and they need to be able to
store for long periods of time

00:44:18.690 --> 00:44:20.390
and there isn't a lot of moisture.

00:44:24.480 --> 00:44:28.080
- One of the things that
people don't recognize

00:44:28.080 --> 00:44:32.643
is how important seed storage
is or even why we need it.

00:44:33.570 --> 00:44:37.230
There's various types of
seed storage that we need,

00:44:37.230 --> 00:44:39.960
whether it's a seed bank for long term

00:44:39.960 --> 00:44:42.908
or whether it's seed
storage for short term.

00:44:42.908 --> 00:44:46.075
(machinery whirring)

00:44:50.048 --> 00:44:53.131
- When we go and do restoration work,

00:44:54.060 --> 00:44:57.750
there needs to be a
place where people can go

00:44:57.750 --> 00:44:59.250
to get the seed that they need

00:45:00.537 --> 00:45:04.200
and so by having a
centralized storage facility

00:45:04.200 --> 00:45:05.340
like we have,

00:45:05.340 --> 00:45:09.210
we're able to one, have the
seed on hand when we need it

00:45:09.210 --> 00:45:13.323
and two, we can reduce costs
by buying in bulk quantities.

00:45:14.580 --> 00:45:16.680
Within our normal storage facility,

00:45:16.680 --> 00:45:20.670
we calculate right around
1.25 million pounds,

00:45:20.670 --> 00:45:22.890
about 150,000 pounds of that,

00:45:22.890 --> 00:45:25.143
is what we call our cold storage.

00:45:26.940 --> 00:45:29.070
We monitor it here.

00:45:29.070 --> 00:45:33.480
Our temperature is in red,
our humidity's in blue.

00:45:33.480 --> 00:45:35.460
We try to keep it around 34 degrees

00:45:35.460 --> 00:45:37.740
and down around 5% humidity.

00:45:37.740 --> 00:45:40.830
- Some seed loses viability very quickly,

00:45:40.830 --> 00:45:43.230
such as the sagebrush seeds.

00:45:43.230 --> 00:45:45.360
If you don't have cold storage

00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:49.053
then you do not have viable
seed when you're putting it out.

00:45:50.163 --> 00:45:51.300
(door scraping)

00:45:51.300 --> 00:45:55.140
- Really you want to eliminate
as much moisture as possible

00:45:55.140 --> 00:45:56.880
to prevent mold.

00:45:56.880 --> 00:45:59.640
We store all of our seed
in these green boxes

00:45:59.640 --> 00:46:02.100
and in six mil plastic

00:46:02.100 --> 00:46:04.950
and then ideally store it at a temperature

00:46:04.950 --> 00:46:07.290
that you are minimizing

00:46:07.290 --> 00:46:11.073
any kind of physiological
activity within the seed.

00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:15.810
- In terms of planning, if we
can have it stored correctly

00:46:15.810 --> 00:46:18.360
for years, then we're ready to use it

00:46:18.360 --> 00:46:21.510
when devastation hits, like a wildfire.

00:46:21.510 --> 00:46:23.850
- Storage space is at a premium.

00:46:23.850 --> 00:46:28.140
There's not a lot of high
quality storage facilities.

00:46:28.140 --> 00:46:31.590
- We need to do more investment

00:46:31.590 --> 00:46:34.713
in high quality seed storage facilities.

00:46:41.490 --> 00:46:45.810
- Seed testing tells you
information about the seeds

00:46:45.810 --> 00:46:49.413
to see whether this fits
your purpose for planting.

00:46:53.550 --> 00:46:58.380
Oregon State University Lab
was established in 1909.

00:46:58.380 --> 00:47:03.380
In terms of the wide range
of crops that we test

00:47:03.600 --> 00:47:06.000
and the wide range of tests

00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:08.400
that we provide for our customers,

00:47:08.400 --> 00:47:11.880
this is one of the
largest labs in the world.

00:47:11.880 --> 00:47:16.803
We are going to go and see the
different seed quality tests.

00:47:18.352 --> 00:47:20.280
There is no one test,

00:47:20.280 --> 00:47:25.110
magically can give you all the
information about the seeds.

00:47:25.110 --> 00:47:28.290
The quality of the seeds
actually doesn't start

00:47:28.290 --> 00:47:30.120
when the seeds arrive to the lab

00:47:30.120 --> 00:47:34.317
and we tested the quality
seeds start in the field.

00:47:35.637 --> 00:47:40.080
The seeds actually can come
from any grower or farmer,

00:47:40.080 --> 00:47:43.920
from seed companies, from researchers,

00:47:43.920 --> 00:47:47.523
from official organizations such as BLM,

00:47:48.990 --> 00:47:52.530
the first test we run is a purity test.

00:47:52.530 --> 00:47:55.770
We divide the samples
into four components,

00:47:55.770 --> 00:47:59.730
the pure seed, weed
seeds, other crop seeds

00:47:59.730 --> 00:48:01.593
and then inert matter.

00:48:02.820 --> 00:48:07.020
Anytime you mechanize seed procedures,

00:48:07.020 --> 00:48:10.290
you reduce the subjectivity of people,

00:48:10.290 --> 00:48:12.183
the machine will be consistent.

00:48:13.278 --> 00:48:15.750
The screening separates
different components,

00:48:15.750 --> 00:48:20.750
based on the seed shape and seed size.

00:48:20.790 --> 00:48:22.470
- The goal of this screening process

00:48:22.470 --> 00:48:24.360
is to separate the samples of seed,

00:48:24.360 --> 00:48:25.830
based off of their size

00:48:25.830 --> 00:48:28.410
and it's just an extra
step to help our analysts

00:48:28.410 --> 00:48:30.121
when they are looking at the seed.

00:48:30.121 --> 00:48:31.920
(seeds rustling)

00:48:31.920 --> 00:48:34.980
I'm going to turn on our
machine that will use vibrations

00:48:34.980 --> 00:48:37.533
to work our seed down through the screens.

00:48:38.604 --> 00:48:39.437
(machine reverberating)

00:48:39.437 --> 00:48:42.900
- [Sabry] If we have a
little tiny wheat seeds

00:48:42.900 --> 00:48:47.040
or noxious weed, it
can go through a screen

00:48:47.040 --> 00:48:51.420
while the good pure seeds will stay.

00:48:51.420 --> 00:48:54.540
- So this is sending the
vibrations from this bottom board

00:48:54.540 --> 00:48:57.480
all the way up through these pans,

00:48:57.480 --> 00:48:59.670
so that the seeds can kind of move around

00:48:59.670 --> 00:49:01.440
and work their way through the holes

00:49:04.110 --> 00:49:05.820
And so then I will put it in an envelope

00:49:05.820 --> 00:49:07.263
for the analysts to look at.

00:49:10.260 --> 00:49:11.550
- I'll run through the seed

00:49:11.550 --> 00:49:14.970
and stop and take out the contaminants.

00:49:14.970 --> 00:49:18.120
A contaminant is a different seed

00:49:18.120 --> 00:49:21.030
that is not part of the
sample that I'm working on.

00:49:21.030 --> 00:49:24.750
Other seeds end up in the sample

00:49:24.750 --> 00:49:28.920
by birds, animals, water, wind.

00:49:28.920 --> 00:49:30.930
We can discover what's in the sample

00:49:30.930 --> 00:49:33.063
so we can inform the customer.

00:49:34.350 --> 00:49:35.880
- One of the common uses

00:49:35.880 --> 00:49:39.390
of the information seed
testing is certification.

00:49:39.390 --> 00:49:43.680
Seed certification sets the
minimum quality standards

00:49:43.680 --> 00:49:45.870
that the seeds has to meet.

00:49:45.870 --> 00:49:50.393
If you have premier seeds, you
may sell it for higher price.

00:49:51.330 --> 00:49:55.020
- This site here, I'm
inspecting for a seed collector

00:49:55.020 --> 00:49:57.030
to collect the seed off of

00:49:57.030 --> 00:50:00.513
for source identified seed certification.

00:50:01.740 --> 00:50:04.110
What I look for when
I do a site inspection

00:50:04.110 --> 00:50:06.630
is to see that the species is there,

00:50:06.630 --> 00:50:09.930
that there's enough seed
production potential

00:50:09.930 --> 00:50:14.070
for the collector to get that
number of pounds of seed.

00:50:14.070 --> 00:50:16.650
The seed company will request tags from us

00:50:16.650 --> 00:50:19.290
that has all of this information on it,

00:50:19.290 --> 00:50:21.420
not specifically the GPS coordinates,

00:50:21.420 --> 00:50:24.420
because that's kind of
proprietary information,

00:50:24.420 --> 00:50:26.700
kind of like your favorite fishing spot.

00:50:26.700 --> 00:50:30.810
It does have enough information
that the seed buyer can tell

00:50:30.810 --> 00:50:34.200
if that seed is going
to work on their site.

00:50:34.200 --> 00:50:36.540
- So when we sell those seeds,

00:50:36.540 --> 00:50:39.300
the customer wants to make sure

00:50:39.300 --> 00:50:42.360
that the seed that
they're buying is adapted

00:50:42.360 --> 00:50:44.100
to the place that they're
going to plant it.

00:50:44.100 --> 00:50:47.310
The yellow tag source identified
program comes into that

00:50:47.310 --> 00:50:49.890
because in the Utah Crop
Improvement Association,

00:50:49.890 --> 00:50:53.940
as a third party says, "Yes, I can verify

00:50:53.940 --> 00:50:56.460
that this seed came from that site

00:50:56.460 --> 00:50:59.577
and here's a yellow tag
that certifies that claim."

00:51:01.290 --> 00:51:04.530
- Sampling is part of the
seed certification process,

00:51:04.530 --> 00:51:07.710
so that we make sure
that the seed that's sent

00:51:07.710 --> 00:51:11.130
to the different seed buyers,
that seed is representative

00:51:11.130 --> 00:51:12.663
of what was collected.

00:51:14.550 --> 00:51:16.350
We have a label that we put on

00:51:16.350 --> 00:51:18.784
that shows that we have sampled the seed

00:51:18.784 --> 00:51:21.870
and what tests are required

00:51:21.870 --> 00:51:26.760
and we want purity, germ and TZ.

00:51:26.760 --> 00:51:29.073
The next step, this
will go to the seed lab.

00:51:30.180 --> 00:51:33.150
- [Sabry] So the pure seeds
now is going to be tested

00:51:33.150 --> 00:51:37.470
for viability, meaning
are they alive or not.

00:51:37.470 --> 00:51:40.830
- What I'm about to show you
here is a test called TZ test.

00:51:40.830 --> 00:51:44.400
TZ test is a chemical physiological test,

00:51:44.400 --> 00:51:48.390
basically we use staining to
tell if the seeds are viable.

00:51:48.390 --> 00:51:50.760
The seeds are going to
be put in a TZ solution

00:51:50.760 --> 00:51:53.880
and the TZ solution by
itself is colorless,

00:51:53.880 --> 00:51:56.100
but it will react with the viable seeds

00:51:56.100 --> 00:51:59.073
or the seed's alive, the color
will change, becomes red.

00:52:00.840 --> 00:52:03.510
When seeds are softened,
they need to be pierced

00:52:03.510 --> 00:52:06.483
in order for TZ solution to
get into standing embryo.

00:52:07.710 --> 00:52:11.250
After the piercing, now the
seeds are ready to be soaked

00:52:11.250 --> 00:52:13.653
for about 24 hours with staining.

00:52:18.390 --> 00:52:19.650
So after evaluation,

00:52:19.650 --> 00:52:22.050
the seeds are divided into two categories.

00:52:22.050 --> 00:52:25.860
You can see here on this side
the seeds are stained red,

00:52:25.860 --> 00:52:28.680
those are viable seeds,
this means they're alive.

00:52:28.680 --> 00:52:31.237
On the right here, un-stained seeds,

00:52:31.237 --> 00:52:33.930
those are non-viable seeds.

00:52:33.930 --> 00:52:36.240
- [Sabry] There is two
main viability tests,

00:52:36.240 --> 00:52:39.150
the germination and the TZ test

00:52:39.150 --> 00:52:43.620
and the objective of the
standard germination test

00:52:43.620 --> 00:52:48.620
is to achieve maximum potential
germination of the sample.

00:52:48.900 --> 00:52:50.910
Now Barb is going to show us

00:52:50.910 --> 00:52:53.493
how she conducts the germination test.

00:52:54.714 --> 00:52:55.980
(hands thudding)

00:52:55.980 --> 00:52:59.193
- It starts in this box,
we just lay the seeds in.

00:53:00.120 --> 00:53:02.550
We'll put the lids on these
and band them all together

00:53:02.550 --> 00:53:03.930
and they'll go through the germinators

00:53:03.930 --> 00:53:06.870
and in seven days it'll
look like this way.

00:53:06.870 --> 00:53:08.883
That's seven days growth right there.

00:53:10.380 --> 00:53:15.380
- Seeds, you are contributing
to the most important element

00:53:16.410 --> 00:53:19.383
that keep the human being alive.

00:53:20.490 --> 00:53:21.723
How cannot I love it?

00:53:28.404 --> 00:53:32.280
(machinery tinkling)

00:53:32.280 --> 00:53:35.520
- Seed technology has been
around for a long time

00:53:35.520 --> 00:53:38.340
and ag is probably the birthplace.

00:53:38.340 --> 00:53:39.960
Most seeds that gets put out

00:53:39.960 --> 00:53:43.353
in ag is going to have a
treatment of some kind.

00:53:44.340 --> 00:53:48.903
But in our range land sector,
most seeds are left untreated.

00:53:50.460 --> 00:53:53.910
Our lab is focused on improving
range land seeding success

00:53:53.910 --> 00:53:55.500
and we're working to do that

00:53:55.500 --> 00:53:58.083
by developing seed
enhancement technologies.

00:54:00.390 --> 00:54:02.460
Probably one of our biggest limitations

00:54:02.460 --> 00:54:05.133
is just getting the
plants out of the ground.

00:54:06.780 --> 00:54:08.310
That seed goes in the ground

00:54:08.310 --> 00:54:12.363
and right away it can be
taken by predators coming in.

00:54:13.260 --> 00:54:15.450
And the longer a seed sits in the soil,

00:54:15.450 --> 00:54:16.590
the higher the chances

00:54:16.590 --> 00:54:19.233
those seeds can be impacted by pathogens.

00:54:20.520 --> 00:54:22.080
Over that winter period,

00:54:22.080 --> 00:54:26.190
some of those seeds, they
may germinate too early,

00:54:26.190 --> 00:54:28.680
now they're getting hit with freezing.

00:54:28.680 --> 00:54:30.690
Let's say you make it
through that gauntlet

00:54:30.690 --> 00:54:33.780
and the springtime, you're
ready to merge from the soil,

00:54:33.780 --> 00:54:36.810
there's issues with seedlings
germinating and not emerging

00:54:36.810 --> 00:54:38.760
because of soil physical crust.

00:54:38.760 --> 00:54:41.250
Now the ability to come up out
of the soil can be limited,

00:54:41.250 --> 00:54:43.350
especially if we have
low organic matter soils,

00:54:43.350 --> 00:54:45.810
say that those soils
were disturbed already.

00:54:45.810 --> 00:54:47.220
If it makes it through all that,

00:54:47.220 --> 00:54:50.130
there's a good chance that
plant's just going to stay there

00:54:50.130 --> 00:54:54.370
for 40 years or however
long its lifespan is.

00:54:54.370 --> 00:54:57.210
(pensive music)
(seeds rustling)

00:54:57.210 --> 00:54:59.520
The cool thing about seed
enhancement technologies

00:54:59.520 --> 00:55:02.550
is it addresses those limiting stages,

00:55:02.550 --> 00:55:05.340
seed germination, seedling survival.

00:55:05.340 --> 00:55:06.780
With our seed coating,

00:55:06.780 --> 00:55:09.720
we're able to add active
ingredients onto the seeds,

00:55:09.720 --> 00:55:12.690
such as plant hormones or fungicides.

00:55:12.690 --> 00:55:15.240
Another limitation is just
getting these seeds out

00:55:15.240 --> 00:55:16.530
onto the landscape.

00:55:16.530 --> 00:55:19.200
Because of the physiology of the seed,

00:55:19.200 --> 00:55:21.240
it makes it difficult to plant,

00:55:21.240 --> 00:55:24.120
so we can build up the size of the seed.

00:55:24.120 --> 00:55:26.010
- So this is winterfat seed.

00:55:26.010 --> 00:55:28.170
This seed here is straight off the plant.

00:55:28.170 --> 00:55:30.570
So you can see it's really, really fluffy.

00:55:30.570 --> 00:55:33.270
That fluffy texture of the fruits

00:55:33.270 --> 00:55:36.480
makes it so these seeds can't
flow through range land,

00:55:36.480 --> 00:55:38.640
seed drills, through broadcasters.

00:55:38.640 --> 00:55:43.350
So we can demonstrate that just like this,

00:55:43.350 --> 00:55:47.850
we put the fruit in our equipment

00:55:47.850 --> 00:55:49.569
and as we try to plant it,

00:55:49.569 --> 00:55:52.980
that fluffy texture causes
the fruits to bridge

00:55:52.980 --> 00:55:54.360
and it clogs it up.

00:55:54.360 --> 00:55:56.100
Winterfat is often not even included

00:55:56.100 --> 00:55:57.300
in restoration projects,

00:55:57.300 --> 00:56:00.690
because it's just impractical
to use on a large scale.

00:56:00.690 --> 00:56:03.150
What we are working on with our research

00:56:03.150 --> 00:56:05.400
is applying these coatings.

00:56:05.400 --> 00:56:09.570
This coating is limestone based
powdered calcium carbonate

00:56:09.570 --> 00:56:11.640
with a hydrophobic coating on top.

00:56:11.640 --> 00:56:13.470
So those are the fruits
after they've been coated

00:56:13.470 --> 00:56:16.800
and these can flow through
equipment much better

00:56:16.800 --> 00:56:19.083
than untreated fruits.

00:56:20.910 --> 00:56:22.500
So by applying coatings,

00:56:22.500 --> 00:56:24.090
it's easier for managers to deal with,

00:56:24.090 --> 00:56:25.380
they can run it through their equipment,

00:56:25.380 --> 00:56:27.510
they can implement it into seed mixes

00:56:27.510 --> 00:56:30.210
and they can be involved in
more restoration projects.

00:56:31.350 --> 00:56:32.227
- It's kind of been thinking,

00:56:32.227 --> 00:56:34.590
"Well, where have these plants evolved

00:56:34.590 --> 00:56:35.820
to get their nutrients?"

00:56:35.820 --> 00:56:39.720
We collect leaves from areas
where we are going to plant

00:56:39.720 --> 00:56:42.990
and we compile all this native
plant material together.

00:56:42.990 --> 00:56:45.510
We're adding compost on the seeds

00:56:45.510 --> 00:56:48.390
and keep the seeds
protected from pathogens.

00:56:48.390 --> 00:56:49.320
- Here's the acorns

00:56:49.320 --> 00:56:50.940
that we're actually
going to be coating today

00:56:50.940 --> 00:56:51.870
and these are going to be coated

00:56:51.870 --> 00:56:53.640
for mine land reclamation.

00:56:53.640 --> 00:56:55.650
So we're using them at disturbed sites.

00:56:55.650 --> 00:56:57.720
So we want to help restore oak

00:56:57.720 --> 00:56:59.880
in the natural stands
that are there typically.

00:56:59.880 --> 00:57:01.200
Here we have the actual coating

00:57:01.200 --> 00:57:04.623
that goes onto the seed, this
is a mix of compost and asmut.

00:57:05.700 --> 00:57:07.920
- We want to look at the compost
after we finished making it,

00:57:07.920 --> 00:57:10.320
so we know what organisms
are present and everything

00:57:10.320 --> 00:57:12.300
and before we apply it.

00:57:12.300 --> 00:57:15.570
So I was using native plants
in the composting process,

00:57:15.570 --> 00:57:18.840
they're bringing the native
microorganisms along with them.

00:57:18.840 --> 00:57:20.100
By getting more fungi,

00:57:20.100 --> 00:57:22.260
more predators like protozoa
or nematodes present,

00:57:22.260 --> 00:57:25.710
you can increase the chance
and really set the stage

00:57:25.710 --> 00:57:29.254
for the plants you want
to grow to be successful.

00:57:29.254 --> 00:57:32.087
(seeds rustling)

00:57:34.320 --> 00:57:35.640
- We also have species

00:57:35.640 --> 00:57:37.713
that have dormancy mechanisms built in

00:57:37.713 --> 00:57:41.733
that is great for the long-term
survival of that plant.

00:57:42.630 --> 00:57:45.720
- Plants are adapted to
sense their environment

00:57:45.720 --> 00:57:47.610
and seeds are no exception.

00:57:47.610 --> 00:57:49.860
They are mainly sensing temperature,

00:57:49.860 --> 00:57:51.480
moisture and light conditions

00:57:51.480 --> 00:57:53.580
and they have different
mechanisms to do that.

00:57:53.580 --> 00:57:55.620
- But now our systems changed,

00:57:55.620 --> 00:58:00.180
where that evolutionary
strategy may not work well,

00:58:00.180 --> 00:58:02.040
say in a cheatgrass environment,

00:58:02.040 --> 00:58:03.420
in particular when we're trying

00:58:03.420 --> 00:58:05.640
to get those plants
established all at once.

00:58:05.640 --> 00:58:07.380
- And our challenge in restoration

00:58:07.380 --> 00:58:10.680
is that we want to get a lot
of plants established quickly

00:58:10.680 --> 00:58:12.600
and so for us it's really important

00:58:12.600 --> 00:58:14.820
to know what those mechanisms are

00:58:14.820 --> 00:58:18.420
that break dormancy in a plant
and allow it to germinate.

00:58:18.420 --> 00:58:20.190
Seeds absorbing water is the first step

00:58:20.190 --> 00:58:21.390
in the germination process.

00:58:21.390 --> 00:58:24.960
So for physically dormant
species, you might have methods

00:58:24.960 --> 00:58:27.420
for what we call scarify the seed coat.

00:58:27.420 --> 00:58:30.720
So scratch it to allow water to enter.

00:58:30.720 --> 00:58:33.870
Germination doesn't happen
until that seed coat is broken.

00:58:33.870 --> 00:58:37.020
- So those blades are going
to turn that seed around

00:58:37.020 --> 00:58:38.700
and as that goes around,

00:58:38.700 --> 00:58:42.330
it's going to wear down the
seed coat on the sandpaper

00:58:42.330 --> 00:58:46.020
One, two, three, four.
(instrument whirring)

00:58:46.020 --> 00:58:51.000
So here's untreated seed, then
here's our scarified seed.

00:58:51.000 --> 00:58:53.250
So now this species is more likely

00:58:53.250 --> 00:58:56.130
to germinate this coming spring

00:58:56.130 --> 00:58:57.880
if we were to plant it in the fall.

00:58:58.830 --> 00:59:02.703
It's not just a simple one
treatment is going to be successful.

00:59:03.900 --> 00:59:06.330
So don't want to say we've
got everything worked out,

00:59:06.330 --> 00:59:09.543
but little by little, I do
feel like we're making headway.

00:59:15.420 --> 00:59:18.150
- Ultimately we think we've gotten there

00:59:18.150 --> 00:59:20.220
just by growing the seed,

00:59:20.220 --> 00:59:24.360
but as important is how we
get that seed in the ground

00:59:24.360 --> 00:59:27.420
and it has to do with the time you plant,

00:59:27.420 --> 00:59:30.340
how you plant, what you plant it with.

00:59:30.340 --> 00:59:33.423
(vehicles squeaking)

00:59:40.530 --> 00:59:42.060
- We kind of have a hierarchy

00:59:42.060 --> 00:59:45.753
of how we'd like to seed put onto a site.

00:59:46.980 --> 00:59:48.990
Seed drill is our preferred method

00:59:48.990 --> 00:59:52.413
in order to place the seed
exactly where we want it.

00:59:55.650 --> 00:59:58.579
- Today we're seeding
bluebunch wheat grass,

00:59:58.579 --> 01:00:01.620
bottlebrush squirreltail,
sandberg bluegrass

01:00:01.620 --> 01:00:03.330
and prairie junegrass.

01:00:03.330 --> 01:00:06.540
This is on some conservation land,

01:00:06.540 --> 01:00:09.870
native seeds, we've got a
lot of diversity in the seed

01:00:09.870 --> 01:00:11.670
and so it's difficult

01:00:11.670 --> 01:00:14.490
to get it to go through
a conventional planter.

01:00:14.490 --> 01:00:17.820
There's three different
boxes on these drills.

01:00:17.820 --> 01:00:19.140
All three different boxes

01:00:19.140 --> 01:00:22.200
we can do three different
types of situations.

01:00:22.200 --> 01:00:25.170
With this drill configuration and tractor,

01:00:25.170 --> 01:00:28.143
we can do between 75
and 100 acres per day.

01:00:29.640 --> 01:00:31.890
Not terribly fancy, but
when you're out here

01:00:31.890 --> 01:00:34.410
in you might say wild land environments,

01:00:34.410 --> 01:00:37.290
it's what it takes to get the job done.

01:00:37.290 --> 01:00:39.930
On these drills, this is
called the disc opener

01:00:39.930 --> 01:00:42.360
and that cuts a slot here

01:00:42.360 --> 01:00:44.583
to give yourself some exposed dirt.

01:00:46.560 --> 01:00:48.180
The seed drops down

01:00:48.180 --> 01:00:51.730
and those little press wheels
push the soil around the seed

01:00:52.710 --> 01:00:55.830
- Desire is to see seed soil contact

01:00:55.830 --> 01:00:58.770
and planting things at
the appropriate depths

01:00:58.770 --> 01:01:01.800
so they have the moisture
and the soil that they need

01:01:01.800 --> 01:01:04.560
to really establish themselves.

01:01:04.560 --> 01:01:06.180
As far as seed preparation,

01:01:06.180 --> 01:01:08.880
the competition and
preparing those seed beds

01:01:08.880 --> 01:01:10.290
is a major thing.

01:01:10.290 --> 01:01:13.440
Cheatgrass is one of the
main issues that we deal with

01:01:13.440 --> 01:01:15.120
in the western United States

01:01:15.120 --> 01:01:18.180
and those annual species can really hinder

01:01:18.180 --> 01:01:21.693
the establishment of our
seeded perennial species.

01:01:22.710 --> 01:01:25.100
- You got to have the
native community in place

01:01:25.100 --> 01:01:29.610
and have it at various stages
of successful establishment

01:01:29.610 --> 01:01:33.180
before it does support
the wildlife populations.

01:01:33.180 --> 01:01:35.640
This bare ground is not too attractive

01:01:35.640 --> 01:01:39.330
to the wildlife at this
point, but give it a few years

01:01:39.330 --> 01:01:42.453
and we'll definitely have
good wildlife utilization.

01:01:45.010 --> 01:01:48.343
(traffic reverberating)

01:01:54.362 --> 01:01:57.362
(aircraft whirring)

01:02:11.670 --> 01:02:13.830
- What I found from 25 years of doing this

01:02:13.830 --> 01:02:17.133
is the first hour and a half
sets the pace for the day.

01:02:18.240 --> 01:02:21.120
So you either do it right
and you have a good day

01:02:21.120 --> 01:02:22.844
or you don't do it right

01:02:22.844 --> 01:02:25.380
and it ends up being a day of confusion.

01:02:25.380 --> 01:02:28.740
So in the wintertime, requires
a lot of extra effort,

01:02:28.740 --> 01:02:31.670
because we can't take off
the frost on the wings,

01:02:31.670 --> 01:02:34.350
we can't take off the
frost on the windshield

01:02:34.350 --> 01:02:37.770
and nothing likes to start when
it's below about 25 degrees.

01:02:37.770 --> 01:02:41.220
So we have to put heaters in the cowlings,

01:02:41.220 --> 01:02:43.590
keep the fuel control units warm,

01:02:43.590 --> 01:02:45.810
that's kind of what we're doing right now

01:02:45.810 --> 01:02:47.463
is waking everything up.

01:02:48.510 --> 01:02:51.060
So number one's off the ground,

01:02:51.060 --> 01:02:53.730
number two's picking up his first load,

01:02:53.730 --> 01:02:56.730
number three's in the
pattern on his dry flight,

01:02:56.730 --> 01:02:59.880
number four is off the
ground on his dry flight

01:02:59.880 --> 01:03:01.520
and now we're getting in a flow.

01:03:01.520 --> 01:03:04.103
(upbeat music)

01:03:09.237 --> 01:03:12.237
(aircraft whirring)

01:03:15.548 --> 01:03:18.298
(seeds rustling)

01:03:24.210 --> 01:03:28.080
So all we are is seed
transportation specialists,

01:03:28.080 --> 01:03:30.303
through multiple modes of action,

01:03:31.200 --> 01:03:34.680
ending in the airplane
and the seed in free-fall.

01:03:34.680 --> 01:03:36.160
- [Participant 2] Headed toward the range.

01:03:36.160 --> 01:03:38.003
- [Participant 3] Okay, I see your seed.

01:03:39.810 --> 01:03:41.970
On this particular location,

01:03:41.970 --> 01:03:46.170
we're going to see about 22,000
acres with four airplanes,

01:03:46.170 --> 01:03:48.570
two separate load systems,

01:03:48.570 --> 01:03:53.570
a ground crew of about six to
eight people and four pilots.

01:03:54.180 --> 01:03:57.990
We could do this particular
job in around six days

01:03:57.990 --> 01:03:59.970
and of course that's
all weather dependent.

01:03:59.970 --> 01:04:01.560
We do have to be able to see the ground

01:04:01.560 --> 01:04:04.470
so it can't be snowing, can't
be cloudy, can't be foggy.

01:04:04.470 --> 01:04:07.983
So we're looking for days like this.

01:04:08.820 --> 01:04:12.390
That was about 2000 pounds of seed.

01:04:12.390 --> 01:04:15.330
In any of these bags that you see here,

01:04:15.330 --> 01:04:17.430
there's generally anywhere between

01:04:17.430 --> 01:04:21.363
eight and probably
fourteen species per mix.

01:04:22.380 --> 01:04:25.410
- The seed is kind of
chosen for the soil types

01:04:25.410 --> 01:04:27.960
and the types of vegetation
communities that were there,

01:04:27.960 --> 01:04:31.260
but we also try to pair that
with the type of wildlife

01:04:31.260 --> 01:04:32.910
that we're kind of looking at.

01:04:32.910 --> 01:04:35.130
So for example, if we're in an area

01:04:35.130 --> 01:04:36.510
that has a lot of sage-grouse,

01:04:36.510 --> 01:04:37.620
we're looking for a lot of species

01:04:37.620 --> 01:04:39.630
that are like forbs and stuff

01:04:39.630 --> 01:04:41.550
that sage-grouse really rely on that,

01:04:41.550 --> 01:04:44.905
versus if it's more like big
game, like elk and mule deer,

01:04:44.905 --> 01:04:47.463
we'll be looking at
slightly different species.

01:04:49.260 --> 01:04:50.550
It's pretty mountainous

01:04:50.550 --> 01:04:52.500
and so most of the time drill seeding

01:04:52.500 --> 01:04:55.380
in these types of conditions
isn't really an option,

01:04:55.380 --> 01:04:57.980
because it's just, the
terrain just isn't favorable.

01:04:59.100 --> 01:05:01.530
- It's too rough to run equipment over,

01:05:01.530 --> 01:05:04.320
it's almost always aerially
applied through an aircraft,

01:05:04.320 --> 01:05:06.303
either fixed wing or helicopter.

01:05:07.350 --> 01:05:09.510
The con is you have to put more seed down,

01:05:09.510 --> 01:05:11.160
you don't get that soil contact

01:05:11.160 --> 01:05:13.320
and the likelihood of
finding that micro-site

01:05:13.320 --> 01:05:14.820
is not as good.

01:05:14.820 --> 01:05:16.830
- We're dropping it on top.

01:05:16.830 --> 01:05:19.260
The germination rates are
less than drilling it,

01:05:19.260 --> 01:05:20.520
so it's good to have snow

01:05:20.520 --> 01:05:22.420
because it's going to help hold the seed,

01:05:23.306 --> 01:05:25.830
'cause it's no good if we put seed on dirt

01:05:25.830 --> 01:05:28.380
and then there's a 50 mile an hour wind,

01:05:28.380 --> 01:05:31.230
a lot of the lighter species will blow

01:05:31.230 --> 01:05:33.120
and we want it to stay on the fire.

01:05:33.120 --> 01:05:36.360
Generally in the sunshine it will melt in,

01:05:36.360 --> 01:05:37.950
create a little pocket

01:05:37.950 --> 01:05:40.440
and then when it snows again
on top of it in the spring

01:05:40.440 --> 01:05:41.550
with the snow melt

01:05:41.550 --> 01:05:43.890
that provides the moisture for germination

01:05:43.890 --> 01:05:47.250
and of course the softer
the soil, the muddier it is,

01:05:47.250 --> 01:05:49.680
the better seed to soil
contact you're going to have,

01:05:49.680 --> 01:05:52.080
'cause the seed's going to
help sink into the soil.

01:05:54.480 --> 01:05:58.050
There's a lot of seed that
goes out and it needs to,

01:05:58.050 --> 01:06:01.230
there's a lot of species
that rely on this,

01:06:01.230 --> 01:06:04.803
there's a lot of local
communities that rely on this.

01:06:14.758 --> 01:06:17.580
(shoes crunching)

01:06:17.580 --> 01:06:20.040
- I am Kenneth Pete Jr.

01:06:20.040 --> 01:06:21.813
Most people call me KW.

01:06:23.430 --> 01:06:26.280
So right now we're on the Duck
Valley Indian Reservation.

01:06:30.240 --> 01:06:34.353
My role here is to help
the tribe grow plants.

01:06:38.910 --> 01:06:42.690
I grew up here and went to
college at University of Idaho

01:06:42.690 --> 01:06:44.643
and I was lucky enough to return home.

01:06:46.710 --> 01:06:50.220
We grow native seedlings
for mining restoration

01:06:50.220 --> 01:06:53.283
or fire restoration or even city parks.

01:06:54.240 --> 01:06:58.440
This year we grew 100,000
sagebrush seedlings.

01:06:58.440 --> 01:07:00.750
We also like to have a
really solid root system,

01:07:00.750 --> 01:07:02.370
which I think is the most important part,

01:07:02.370 --> 01:07:04.230
especially in our high desert environments

01:07:04.230 --> 01:07:07.619
where water's not always
necessarily available.

01:07:07.619 --> 01:07:11.790
(precision needle feeder creaking)

01:07:11.790 --> 01:07:16.290
Our primary species we grow
is Wyoming big sagebrush.

01:07:16.290 --> 01:07:19.320
This machine's called a
precision needle feeder.

01:07:19.320 --> 01:07:20.190
They're a little spendy,

01:07:20.190 --> 01:07:22.650
but I think that they really help us

01:07:22.650 --> 01:07:24.690
with sewing seeds so we don't oversew.

01:07:24.690 --> 01:07:27.030
So that saves seed and saves us money

01:07:27.030 --> 01:07:29.790
and makes everything a
little more accurate.

01:07:29.790 --> 01:07:31.760
So tiny, tiny seeds,

01:07:31.760 --> 01:07:33.940
we have tiny, tiny needles to pick them up

01:07:35.118 --> 01:07:35.951
and each time it goes down,

01:07:35.951 --> 01:07:38.103
it picks up maybe three to four seeds.

01:07:39.030 --> 01:07:41.910
We want to make sure that we're
getting as many cells filled

01:07:41.910 --> 01:07:42.743
as we can.

01:07:42.743 --> 01:07:44.490
We want these blocks at capacity

01:07:44.490 --> 01:07:46.341
to maximize our growing space.

01:07:46.341 --> 01:07:49.560
(pensive music)

01:07:49.560 --> 01:07:52.018
- Nursery, in the terms of restoration.

01:07:52.018 --> 01:07:53.880
You're taking these plants,

01:07:53.880 --> 01:07:56.070
instead of getting their start in nature

01:07:56.070 --> 01:07:59.340
where nature can be harsh
and very unforgiving,

01:07:59.340 --> 01:08:00.510
you're giving them a chance,

01:08:00.510 --> 01:08:02.610
you're providing an optimal environment

01:08:02.610 --> 01:08:04.260
to be able to germinate the plants

01:08:04.260 --> 01:08:08.220
and care for them in those
early establishment phases.

01:08:08.220 --> 01:08:09.053
- [KW] With the seedling,

01:08:09.053 --> 01:08:10.560
you're actually out there planting it

01:08:10.560 --> 01:08:12.000
and you know where it's going.

01:08:12.000 --> 01:08:14.130
- There's advantages and disadvantages,

01:08:14.130 --> 01:08:15.270
like everything to that.

01:08:15.270 --> 01:08:18.870
The scale at which you can do
that is reduced dramatically

01:08:18.870 --> 01:08:21.330
just because of the labor involvement,

01:08:21.330 --> 01:08:24.240
but that's where seeding will
always have that advantage

01:08:24.240 --> 01:08:26.880
is that you can just cover so much,

01:08:26.880 --> 01:08:30.060
but you need a lot more seed to do it.

01:08:30.060 --> 01:08:34.110
As far as transplanting, success
rates are typically higher.

01:08:34.110 --> 01:08:38.100
So if you have a species
that is a high priority

01:08:38.100 --> 01:08:39.690
that you don't have very much seed for,

01:08:39.690 --> 01:08:42.843
transplanting becomes
a very viable option.

01:08:43.857 --> 01:08:46.380
- Lomatium and we hang it up and dry it

01:08:46.380 --> 01:08:48.030
and then just store it forever

01:08:48.030 --> 01:08:50.820
and then as far as like medicinal use,

01:08:50.820 --> 01:08:55.020
we use it as a tea or put it over ashes

01:08:55.020 --> 01:08:58.096
and kind of inhale it,
like a smoke almost.

01:08:58.096 --> 01:08:59.370
We call it doza.

01:09:02.340 --> 01:09:03.720
- As a tribal nursery specialist,

01:09:03.720 --> 01:09:06.150
I like to go visit the folks
that I've gotten to know

01:09:06.150 --> 01:09:08.130
over the years and see what they're doing

01:09:08.130 --> 01:09:10.800
and try and help troubleshoot
some of the problems

01:09:10.800 --> 01:09:12.400
or the questions that they have.

01:09:13.440 --> 01:09:15.776
- When I was at University
of Idaho in college,

01:09:15.776 --> 01:09:18.900
I took a class with Jeremy.

01:09:18.900 --> 01:09:21.420
- The class was called the
Indigenous Culture in Ecology,

01:09:21.420 --> 01:09:24.450
and we were trying to
cover the intersection

01:09:24.450 --> 01:09:28.800
of indigenous culture and land management

01:09:28.800 --> 01:09:30.243
and Western science.

01:09:32.310 --> 01:09:34.320
- Jeremy's still a big mentor to me.

01:09:34.320 --> 01:09:35.580
If I need any advice,

01:09:35.580 --> 01:09:39.030
figuring out why something's
not growing well somewhere.

01:09:39.030 --> 01:09:41.460
- One of the things that
KW's been doing here

01:09:41.460 --> 01:09:44.970
is integrating multiple
levels, restoration levels.

01:09:44.970 --> 01:09:46.530
We've got some food growing in here,

01:09:46.530 --> 01:09:48.360
which can be distributed to the community.

01:09:48.360 --> 01:09:50.733
This greenhouse is tied to a school.

01:09:50.733 --> 01:09:53.400
(door scraping)

01:09:54.840 --> 01:09:56.610
- Seems like when we hire these students,

01:09:56.610 --> 01:09:57.810
they bring their friends down,

01:09:57.810 --> 01:09:59.460
they just start volunteering with us.

01:09:59.460 --> 01:10:01.795
Next works out pretty well!

01:10:01.795 --> 01:10:02.730
(KW laughing)

01:10:02.730 --> 01:10:04.238
You got to go crazy on it.

01:10:04.238 --> 01:10:07.238
(students laughing)

01:10:10.260 --> 01:10:12.513
We hire high school students year round.

01:10:14.580 --> 01:10:16.530
With our program working
with native seeds,

01:10:16.530 --> 01:10:20.610
We could show them how to
collect and how to store seeds

01:10:20.610 --> 01:10:23.698
so that there's always going
to be native plants available

01:10:23.698 --> 01:10:27.540
for them to use and for their kids to use.

01:10:27.540 --> 01:10:30.540
So we teach them about how these
native plants are important

01:10:30.540 --> 01:10:33.780
and how they serve a role in our ecosystem

01:10:33.780 --> 01:10:35.010
and why we're growing them,

01:10:35.010 --> 01:10:38.250
'cause people look out in the
landscape and see sagebrush

01:10:38.250 --> 01:10:40.710
and think that we don't
need sagebrush grown.

01:10:40.710 --> 01:10:42.630
But then I think it really hit hard

01:10:42.630 --> 01:10:45.183
when we had a fire go
right in our backyard.

01:10:46.920 --> 01:10:49.200
All that's came back is just grasses

01:10:49.200 --> 01:10:51.150
and not necessarily native grasses.

01:10:51.150 --> 01:10:53.400
There's a lot of cheatgrass up there.

01:10:53.400 --> 01:10:56.730
That's where some of our
medicinal plants are.

01:10:56.730 --> 01:10:58.020
We're not seeing our wildlife

01:10:58.020 --> 01:11:00.933
in as much as the areas
that haven't burned.

01:11:02.938 --> 01:11:06.521
(relaxing music continues)

01:11:18.750 --> 01:11:20.770
All this sagebrush came from our nursery

01:11:21.930 --> 01:11:25.140
and flowering, so they're
potentially producing

01:11:25.140 --> 01:11:26.590
some more seedlings out here.

01:11:28.620 --> 01:11:29.920
These do look really good.

01:11:31.980 --> 01:11:36.980
We're at Table Rock in Boise,
Idaho that the city owns.

01:11:37.320 --> 01:11:41.100
It had burned in 2016 caused by fireworks,

01:11:41.100 --> 01:11:43.233
so a fire that could have been avoided.

01:11:46.230 --> 01:11:49.260
In 2017, we were contacted
by the city of Boise,

01:11:49.260 --> 01:11:51.210
looking for some seedlings

01:11:51.210 --> 01:11:53.370
to help restore the Table Rock area

01:11:53.370 --> 01:11:56.913
and we had some sagebrush
that kind of fit the bill.

01:11:59.040 --> 01:12:01.410
So these areas are culturally significant

01:12:01.410 --> 01:12:03.240
for our tribes too,

01:12:03.240 --> 01:12:05.010
they used to come up here and hunt.

01:12:05.010 --> 01:12:05.843
It's one of the areas

01:12:05.843 --> 01:12:08.400
that we would probably still be inhabiting

01:12:08.400 --> 01:12:10.170
if we weren't pushed out
in the middle of nowhere

01:12:10.170 --> 01:12:11.823
in Duck Valley where we are now.

01:12:14.310 --> 01:12:15.480
Returning here now,

01:12:15.480 --> 01:12:18.120
these seedlings are five or six years old

01:12:18.120 --> 01:12:20.334
and they're looking really well

01:12:20.334 --> 01:12:23.130
and I always like to return
to any restoration site

01:12:23.130 --> 01:12:26.550
or know exactly where our plants are going

01:12:26.550 --> 01:12:27.900
and be able to go visit them,

01:12:27.900 --> 01:12:30.870
'cause I want to be able to
produce quality seedlings.

01:12:30.870 --> 01:12:33.630
I know the tribe likes to have that status

01:12:33.630 --> 01:12:36.963
of being a trusted source
of native plant materials.

01:12:40.080 --> 01:12:42.570
Native plants are also first foods,

01:12:42.570 --> 01:12:46.500
which goes back to the historical
land management practice.

01:12:46.500 --> 01:12:49.200
These are the plants that kept
us alive on the landscape,

01:12:49.200 --> 01:12:53.310
used for restoration, used
for food, used for culture.

01:12:53.310 --> 01:12:54.903
- So I use these plants.

01:12:57.090 --> 01:12:59.640
I just want to be able to produce

01:12:59.640 --> 01:13:01.320
as much native plants as possible

01:13:01.320 --> 01:13:04.920
and make sure that my kids
are able to go utilize them

01:13:04.920 --> 01:13:06.353
the same way I have.

01:13:06.353 --> 01:13:09.853
(pensive music continues)

01:13:41.398 --> 01:13:44.898
(pensive music continues)

01:14:09.580 --> 01:14:13.080
(pensive music continues)

01:14:50.957 --> 01:14:54.457
(pensive music continues)