9-18 IAT Aberdeen

I recently got an email from the Natural Resources and Conservation Service saying that for restoring land burned by wildfire, reseeding is often a necessary solution. Furthermore, it went on and said the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service supports post-fire reseeding by providing Foundation seed through the Plant Materials Center in Aberdeen, Idaho. I called Loren St. John, Team Leader, Aberdeen Plant Materials Center and asked what they do: "Our job is to go out and make seed collections of species out in the wild, we bring them back to Aberdeen, evaluate them to find out if they are going to perform, if they are going to germinate, if they are going to produce forage. We want to know if they will hold up under the various environmental conditions that they will be used in. Once we have gone through the testing process and found the particular plant that performs the best, then we release it.