CV Independent: The need for seeds: Why the Mojave Desert Land Trust is developing a critical safeguard for the desert’s future
More than 2,000 species of native plants are spread across the California desert, which covers around 25% of the state’s geography. Since it started its efforts in 2016, the MDLT Seed Bank has stocked about 940 collections of seeds representing around 250 species. Last year, it added 52 new collections, including its first-ever collection of Indian tobacco.
Patrick G. Emblidge, the seed program manager, calls it an insurance policy against fire and other disasters. The York Fire in 2023 burned more than 90,000 acres of desert, damaging more than 1 million Joshua trees and charring around 500 acres of the MDLT’s own property. Many of the plants on those lands may never return. But having seeds available means species that are wiped out could be quickly repopulated before invasive grasses and weeds take over.
“A lot of times, those weeds are the first things to come back,” said Emblidge, a wildlife ecologist. “So if we’re not there to help restore and get the native plants that we want back in there, then they’ll just be smothered out by those weeds. If something burns, you want to have seed ready to go, and you want to distribute it straight away.”