Willamette Valley Native Plant Partnership

About the Partnership

The Willamette Valley Native Plant Partnership (WVNPP) was formed in 2012 with a long-term mission of providing native plant materials to partners to protect and restore the native ecosystems of the Willamette Valley Ecoregion. Our vision is to increase the availability and affordability of genetically diverse and ecologically appropriate native plant materials for use in the Willamette Valley, help stabilize and support the local native seed marketplace and provide a foundation for successful restoration and healthy, thriving native ecosystems.

The WVNPP established with the goals of pooling resources and coordinating production efforts to improve native plant material availability and lower costs for the Willamette Valley Ecoregion. A regional approach to the coordination of native plant materials development, production, and restoration contributes to a more cohesive valley-wide effort to conserve and restore increasingly rare habitats such as wetlands, oak savanna, and upland prairies.

The WVNPP is a group of 36 public, private, and non-profit organizations that use native plant materials for restoration and revegetation in the Willamette Valley. Membership is open to any organization with a stake in restoration, revegetation, or mitigation with native plant species in the valley, including plant materials users, producers, and any other interested organization or individual. The WVNPP is housed at and coordinated by the Institute for Applied Ecology (IAE), and funded by restoration partner contributions and grants.

The main objective of the Partnership is to pool our resources and coordinate production efforts to improve plant material availability and costs for the entire ecoregion. We collect native seed from remnant prairies, provide it to producers for contract production fields, then distribute the harvested seed to partners for use on projects.

Willamette Valley Ecoregion

The Willamette Valley Ecoregion is a Level III ecoregion designated by the Environmental Protection Agency, and includes the Willamette Valley of western Oregon and adjacent foothills, along with a small portion across the Columbia River in the Vancouver area of southern Washington (EPA 2006, ODFW 2006). It is one of the smallest ecoregions in the United States with an area of approximately 5,800 square miles; the Oregon portion encompasses 5,308 square miles of land between the Coast Range and the Cascade Mountains (ODFW 2006). Twenty to 40 miles wide and 120 miles long, elevations range from 780 feet at the southern end south of Eugene to near sea-level at Portland (ODFW 2006).

The Willamette Valley has a variety of habitats that comprise a unique community of native plant species and ecosystem functions, and a high percentage of these habitats have been converted to agricultural, industrial, and residential uses (ODFW 2006). Due to these intensive land uses, Willamette Valley prairie and oak habitats are among the most endangered ecosystems in North America. Over ninety percent of upland prairie and oak savanna/woodlands and over 99% of historic wet prairies in the valley have been converted to other uses (USFWS 2010). Consequently, there has been a drastic decline of native plant and wildlife species dependent on these habitats. The Willamette Valley has more rare and listed species than any other ecosystem in Oregon (ODFW 2016). Listed species in the Willamette Valley include streaked horned lark (Eremophila alpestris strigata, threatened), Fender’s blue butterfly (Icaricia icarioides fenderi, endangered), Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha taylori, endangered), golden paintbrush (Castilleja levisecta, threatened), Kincaid’s lupine (Lupinus oreganus, threatened), Nelson’s checkermallow (Sidalcea nelsoniana, threatened), Willamette daisy (Erigeron decumbens, threatened), white-topped aster (Sericocarpus rigidus , threatened), peacock larkspur (Delphinium pavonaceum, threatened), and white-rock larkspur (Delphinium leucophaeum, threatened).

Accomplishments

The Willamette Valley Native Plant Partnership (WVNPP) is now entering its second decade of partnership since establishment in 2012. Below is a summary of the progress the WVNPP has made in that time towards reaching its goals, as outlined in the strategic plan:

Developed a Memorandum of Understanding
Secured over $750,000 of funding
Collected seed over 9 years with 78 pounds of wild seed collected from 38 species
- Hire, trained and supervised seed collection crews in 2013-2016, 2018-2019, and 2021-2023
- Received contributions of 5 pounds of wild-collected seed from 3 partners
- Developed a process for distributing WVNPP seed to members
Entered 22 native species into production to improve quality and genetic appropriateness of native plant materials
- Developed a Species Selection Committee to provide recommendations to the WVNPP on species selection, annual collection plans, and how to resolve taxonomic, genetic, and geographical issues that arise
- Developed guidelines for the genetic refreshment of WVNPP seed production fields, where appropriate
Distributed over 4,500 pounds of seed from 23 native species

Read our WVNPP 2023 Annual Report for more details. Our work aligns with national goals around native seed, which are outlined in the National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation and Restoration.

View our CURRENT INVENTORY and the most recent SEED TEST RESULTS for available species.

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CONFERENCE RECORDINGS AVAILABLE

The WVNPP hosted a virtual native plant materials conference in January 2022 in partnership with Institute for Applied Ecology and Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.

Video recordings of the conference presentations are now available on YouTube.

Watch them here!