UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | UNR TECHNICAL REPORT UCED 2018/19-00
This is an excerpt from the SERRT Economics Final Report: Executive Summary and Introduction.
Executive Summary
This report provides policy recommendations for supporting the development of the native plant material (NPM) industry in Nevada with the goal of increasing the supply and lowering the cost of NPMs for use in rangeland restoration projects.
These recommendations, based on stakeholder interviews, analyses of available data, and a review of existing literature, fall into three categories:
1. Policies Influencing Demand – State and Federal agencies can help to stabilize the demand for NPM in Nevada by: 1. Developing seed menus to align land managers’ NPM purchases across jurisdictions; 2. Documenting the contribution of NPM to restoration project outcomes; 3. Increasing land manager outreach in the use of locally-adapted NPM and appropriate restoration technologies; and 4. Increasing partnerships with non-governmental organizations to fund NPM use in restoration projects on public land in Nevada.
2. Policies Supporting Supply – State and Federal agencies can support the supply of NPM in Nevada by 1. Empowering a single state agency to coordinate NPM procurement for all state projects, which should facilitate relationships between growers, land managers, and researchers; 2. Expanding the use of public-private risk-sharing contracts to increase the supply of NPM produced under cultivation; 3. Creating a foundation seed bank to provide growers with a reliable source of foundation seed for seed increases; and 4. Streamlining wildland collection permitting processes.
3. Policies Providing General Industry Support – State and Federal agencies and non-governmental organizations can support the NPM industry in Nevada by 1. Expanding State, Federal, and University of Nevada, Reno, plant materials development activities to increase the number of released NPM species that are locally adapted for Nevada; 2. Increasing grower outreach and technical assistance; 3. Standardizing data collection to develop forecasts of anticipated NPM needs; and 4. Expanding public warehouse capacity, including refrigerated storage.
This report also includes:
- A comprehensive list of NPM users in Nevada
- A description of the current capacity to produce NPM in Nevada
- A description of the network of Federal, State, and non-governmental entities that currently support the NPM industry in Nevada
- A detailed analysis of NPM use by the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada
- A comprehensive list of challenges to producing NPM under cultivation
- A framework to identify what additional policies are required to support a stable supply of specific NPMs given their risk profiles
1 Introduction
Native plants and seeds (hereafter referred to as Native Plant Materials, or NPMs) are favored by many Federal, State, and private land managers in Nevada. Selecting appropriate NPMs for restoration, rehabilitation, and/or reclamation (hereafter referred to as restoration) projects can improve the survival rates of plants and, in turn, improve the likelihood that projects will be successful at restoring desired ecological function.
More and more, empirical research shows the superiority of applying locally-adapted or genetically-appropriate NPMs over non-native alternatives in restoration projects, especially in the harsh, semi-arid rangeland environments of Nevada (Kulpa et al. 2012; Leger and Baughman 2015).
The availability and cost of locally-adapted NPMs, however, are persistent obstacles to their widespread use. This report provides policy recommendations for increasing the supply and lowering the cost of locally-adapted NPMs in Nevada and for supporting the growth of an NPM industry in Nevada.
The policy recommendations in this report are based on an analysis of the NPM industry in Nevada, as well as the experiences of NPM industries in other states in the intermountain West. Project researchers reviewed the available literature, conducted interviews with public and private participants in the NPM industry, and analyzed the available data on NPM use in Nevada. Appendix B includes a list of interviews conducted in the process of writing this report.
The body of this report provides context for the policy recommendations contained in the final section of the report (Section 6). Section 2 describes the existing network of Federal and State agencies, universities, private-sector producers, and non-governmental organizations that comprise the NPM industry in Nevada. The policy recommendations in Section 6 focus on how this network can be strengthened through a combination of policy changes and strategic hires in key positions.
Section 3 provides a detailed analysis of NPM use by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in restoration projects in Nevada from 2005 to 2013. Analysis of the BLM data reveals several insights: that BLM demand for NPM in Nevada varied significantly from year to year in the time period studied, that post-fire restoration projects account for the large majority of BLM’s NPM use, and that, while the BLM primarily purchased species native to Nevada, ecotypes of these species that were locally-adapted for Nevada were rarely used.
Section 4 catalogues the production challenges facing NPM growers. These production challenges increase the costs and production risk (variability in yields) associated with producing a given species under cultivation, and are a major reason why the NPM industry needs public support to supply many desired species.
Building on the analysis in Section 4, Section 5 develops a framework to identify what additional policies are required to support a stable supply of specific NPMs on the commercial market given their production and market risk (variability in price). This framework informs our policy recommendations to enhance public-private risk-sharing in Section 6.
To request an electronic copy of this report or if you have any questions, contact Michael H. Taylor at taylor@unr.edu or (775) 784-1679. You may also read / download the full UNR SERRT Economics Final Report at progressiverancher.com
This report was prepared by: Dr. Michael H. Taylor, Ph.D. | Mr. Richard D. Bartholet | Mr. Sourik Banerjee and was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service