What We Do

Updated 11/19/2008

Learn More About the National Plant Materials Program

Many of today's environmental challenges can be addressed through the use of plants. Plants hold soil in place, protect stream banks and shores, filter pollutants, offer food for livestock and cover for wildlife. They heal the land after wildfire and mining, floods, and drought. They beautify our surroundings. To date, the Plant Materials Program has released over 600 conservation plants, many being grown by commercial growers for conservation use today.

The NRCS Plant Materials Program:

• Focuses on using plants as a natural way to solve conservation issues and re-establish ecosystem function.
• Collects, selects and releases grasses, legumes, wildflowers, trees and shrubs.
• Cooperates with public, private, commercial and tribal partners and land managers to apply new conservation methods using plants.
• Provides plant materials and new applied technologies for national initiatives like the Farm Bill.
• Offers plant solutions to battle invasive species, heal lands damaged by natural disasters, reduce the effects of drought, promote air and water quality, and produce alternative energy.
• Assists Native American tribes with projects to protect and produce culturally significant plants.

<Back to About Us