10 Years of Seed Collection

The Nature Conservancy and its partners have been collecting, cleaning and spreading native seed across Minnesota's core prairie areas since 2016, helping rebuild grasslands that support wildlife, conserve water and adapt to a changing climate.

“When we collect seed, we’re collecting the building blocks of future prairies,” said Travis Issendorf, TNC’s prairie recovery specialist. “Each harvest helps us return native grasses and wildflowers to the land, creating habitat that supports wildlife and strengthens the resilience of our prairies.”

Land stewards working across the Agassiz Beach Ridges and Ordway-Glacial Lakes landscapes in western Minnesota have harvested 229,000 pounds of native seed to date—more than 100 tons. Those harvests include iconic prairie plants such as big bluestem, prairie dropseed, blazing star and purple prairie clover, which provide food and shelter for pollinators, grassland birds and other wildlife.

The work brings together conservation organizations, agencies, contractors and field crews who collect seed from TNC preserves and other public lands across western Minnesota. 

After harvest, the seed is cleaned, sorted and prepared for restoration projects throughout the region. These efforts allow TNC and our partners to source seed from local plant populations, collect a wider diversity of species and obtain native plants that can be difficult to find on the commercial seed market.

By collecting seed from multiple nearby locations, restoration practitioners can increase genetic diversity, helping prairie plants better withstand drought, extreme weather and other challenges associated with a changing climate.

This year's collection added thousands more pounds of native seed to the restoration pipeline, continuing a decade of progress. In a state where less than 1% of original tallgrass prairie remains, those tiny seeds are helping write the next chapter for one of North America's most endangered ecosystems.