Fifty percent of Utah’s rare plant species can be found in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Another 125 species found in the Monument occur only in Utah or on the Colorado Plateau in which the Monument is seated. Many other common plant species also call the Monument home, and we often refer to these species as the workhorses of restoration.

In 2024, we began formal collaborations with the Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program (Bureau of Land Management), Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, and Dixie National Forest to develop regional expertise related to native plant seed work. Our collaboration will increase the nation’s ability to respond to natural disasters such as wildfire, and bring important Native voices to the table where native plant species priorities are set.

As we develop our Native Plant program, look for volunteer opportunities related to:

• Locating plant populations – The first step of wildland seed collection is to locate a population of plants that is big enough to warrant monitoring for seed collection.
• Environmental data collection – Once a plant population has been located, we need to collect information about the environmental conditions that led to the plant taking root in a specific location. These conditions include items such as the slope, soil texture, soil color, and other plant species sharing the location.
• Plant monitoring – Once located, plant populations need to be monitored throughout the season to make sure that we are there when seeds ripen.   
• Seed collection – We collect the seeds at the peak of ripeness to maximize the probability that they will germinate during future applications such as agricultural increase, restoration, or research. We limit our collections to 20% to ensure the future viability of each plant population.
• Seed checking – We check each batch of seeds to make sure that they aren’t infested by seed predators and to find out what percentage of them are healthy and living.
• Common garden experiments – We work with researchers from around the country to learn about how plants respond to living conditions in our area.

The Monument’s amazing diversity of bees and other pollinators evolved in concert with its diverse plant community. Please consider joining us in person to learn about our work and the plants of the Monument, or donating to our “blossoming” native plant program.

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