Cultivating Capacity in the Northeast's Native Seed and Plant Supply Chain

Abstract

The United States Northeast is turning to nature to prepare for climate change and mitigate the economic, societal, and environmental challenges caused by urbanization and industrialization. Cities and suburbs across the megalopolis are replanting forests, softening coastlines, restoring wetlands, harnessing plants and microbes to remediate brownfield sites, and planting native vegetation on rooftops and old elevated railway lines. These activities spanning from the micro-scale (e.g., street tree plantings) to the macro-scale (e.g., coastal restoration) require seeds and plant propagules. This physical living material forms the foundation of both natural and constructed landscapes. Vegetation plays a critical role in providing an array of regulating, provisioning, and cultural ecosystem services that greatly benefit urban regions. However, largely missing from the discourse is how the chronic commercial shortage, or even unavailability, of most native plant species as seeds or nursery materials constrain efforts to reestablish biodiverse self-sustaining populations, assemblages, and communities that improve ecosystem functioning, support pollinators and wildlife, and are durable enough to withstand the impacts of climate change.

This thesis research uses a mixed-method multi-level case study approach to understand the structure of the social network— government agencies, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, private companies, and local citizens — as a first step in understanding viable pathways to strengthen the Northeast’s native seed and plant material supply chain, which is a prerequisite for achieving the multiple objectives of current and future restorative activities.