Bridge of Seeds
Chicago Native Seed Gardens Study

PART I: Needs & Context

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

Business and biodiversity. The big challenge is to find a way to enhance biodiversity and make a profit at the same time. The U.S. economy has grown powerful over the past several centuries because we have effectively exploited the natural and cultural resources of this continent. Generations of Americans have reaped the benefits of this economic activity in untold wealth and material prosperity. Conservation and environmental groups have expanded apace and become effective defenders of this same natural heritage. They have done this by becoming non-profit advocates, political activists and the environmental  conscience for our society. Ironically, the livelihoods of all these people are based on the  same finite resources.

Herein lies the paradox: nature and wealth are seen as two distinct and often opposing  values. One feels that for every dollar earned or job created a tree was cut down or a lake  polluted. Others blame environmental regulations for their economic troubles. Many  business, government and environmental players frame the debate in this way to divide and conquer their opponents and polarize the public. As soon as nature is seen as a valueless commodity and money is seen as always possessing value the stage is set for conflict and compromise. Both have value. Biodiversity has value because it represents the currency of life. World renowned scientist E.O. Wilson described the value of biodiversity this way, "the greater the variety of animals and plants present in an ecosystem and maintained at the original levels, the more efficient is the functioning of the ecosystem--and the more stable it is likely to be over the long term."1 Commerce is also a process capable of creating value. A  healthy economy generates greater wealth. Money however, only represents the values that people project upon it. If society desires large amounts of wealth at the expense of a healthy environment then the value of money will reflect that. If it cherishes biodiversity and cultural well-being then the value of money will represent these ideals. Author and business consultant Paul Hawken describes this type of economy as a "restorative economy". "In such an economy, there is the prospect that restoring the environment and making money would be the same process."2 Money and values cannot be separated from one another.

Recognizing the interdependence of ecological, cultural, and economic health can provide the inspiration for creating an economic system based on the value of biodiversity. Hawken continues, "Biological diversity, in the end, is the source of all wealth."3 But by only attaching a monetary value to biodiversity the intrinsic value of Earth's resources is often not considered.4 A possible solution is to reward commercial enterprises for recognizing this intrinsic value and taking action to preserve it. Rewarding commerce for enhancing biodiversity and nurturing human culture will help to change the way commerce functions to favor biodiversity. Many conservation organizations are actively pursuing this concept by creating conservation and restoration policies based on the mutually inclusive values of ecological, cultural and economic health.5

At first glance Chicago may appear an unlikely place to pursue such a vision. After a closer look, it is obvious that the area possesses several unique advantages compared to areas considered closer to wilderness. First, only seven one-hundredths of one percent (0.07%) of the original landscape remains in Illinois.6 With so little wilderness left, conservationists have focused a great deal of their energy on restoration, and not just preservation, of degraded ecosystems. In fact William Jordan, co-founder of the Society for Ecological Restoration, has said that "Chicago [is the] urban epicenter of the restoration movement."7 Restoration requires the direct, hands-on application of ecological principles to accomplish its goals. The Chicago region contains numerous ecological businesses that have sprung up to meet the restoration needs of the large, public land owners and private clients in the area. Chicago is located in Cook County which possesses the largest county forest (and prairie, and wetland, and savanna) preserve district in the country. Several other collar county conservation districts and state parks are close by. All of these agencies have large scale restoration programs in place. In addition, TNC has designated the Chicago region as the only urban area in its "Last Great Places: An Alliance for People and the Environment" campaign to protect more than 75 of the most unique ecosystems of the western hemisphere. Fifteen years ago TNC Illinois Field Office created a volunteer restoration organization based on the idea that people must actively manage the natural world for it to thrive or even survive. This program supports over 4800 volunteers in northern and central Illinois and has become a national model for ecological stewardship. These people have created a culture of restoration and provide the foundation for future progress.

In the center of all of this remarkable restoration activity lies an opportunity for even greater accomplishments. Chicago also contains communities faced with staggering environmental degradation and economic despair. Ten of the seventy seven community areas in Chicago have more than 45% of their residents living below the poverty line.8 There are seven communities where over 50% of their land is vacant. The needs and desires of these communities must be understood and respected before any conservation group can propose solutions. Our extractive and exploitative economy has left these communities both economically and ecologically impoverished. The proposal to grow native seeds for profit has been offered as a direct means for creating local businesses that generate biodiversity and enrich our culture.

Chapter 2
ECOLOGICAL NEEDS
Current Supply Shortage

The greatest limiting factor in restoring natural areas in the Chicago region is the lack of available seeds.9 This is because the demand for locally grown, native seeds is far greater than the current supply. The amount of land that can be restored in any year is directly proportional to the amount of seeds that are available. The majority of restoration work in the Chicago region involves removal of invasive brush, trees and mostly alien, herbaceous weed species from natural areas. This is most commonly accomplished by brush clearing, prescribed burning, herbicide use and hand pulling. The ability to quickly clear degraded land through the use of modern mechanical methods is great. Tractors, "brush hogs", chain saws and potent herbicides can quickly clear unwanted brush or weeds. However, mechanical methods are much more difficult to apply to the collection of native seeds. As soon as an area is cleared of invasive brush and alien species, weedy pioneer species will quickly establish themselves in the bare soil that is now exposed to increased sunlight. The challenge is to obtain and plant a sufficient quantity of native seeds that will out-compete these extremely aggressive species. Since the native seed bank is often nearly or completely decimated due to decades of degradation or disturbance, simply clearing an area and "allowing nature to take its course" is a recipe for disaster. In addition, grading, stream bank modification and other hydrological restoration activities can be worthless or even detrimental without the proper herbaceous cover to stabilize the soil from water erosion.10 Unfortunately, sufficient sources of native seeds do not exist for most restoration projects.

The majority of herbaceous material used in restoration projects comes from seeds sown directly onto a site. Plugs and seedlings are often too expensive or require too much ongoing care for even a small restoration project. These are used more extensively in commercial landscape installations for corporate and private clients and for special restoration situations such as highly erodible slopes and wetlands. Seeds can be easily stored and transported, broadcast quickly, allow for a wide range of species mixes and allow for dense plantings.

Several areas of the seed supply system were investigated to test the assumption that a supply problem is the basis for the current seed shortage. These areas included: collection, production, storage and utilization.

Collection methods vary greatly depending on the size of the natural area or plot, the species to be collected and the expertise of the people involved. Modern agricultural machinery is designed to sow, cultivate and harvest primarily large, unbroken plots of monocultures of species. These methods are very efficient for the planting and collection of many common, native grasses. However, they are severely limited in their use on natural areas and multi-species plantings. Species ripen at different times of the year and have greatly varying heights and seed head shapes. Mechanical harvesting methods often result in a mix of species that has less market value since a buyer does not have a choice over the species in the mix. Avoiding weed species can also be difficult since machines do not discriminate between species and collect whatever is in their path. Large restored natural areas or planted native seed fields free of alien weed species are rare indeed.

Natural areas that contain the most valuable species are mosaics of intricately woven communities and overlapping ecosystems. They are not arranged in geometric patterns like agricultural lands. Wetlands, riverine and lake systems, savannas, forests and rocky, sandy or steep topography are also difficult or impossible to work with typical agricultural machinery. Above all, these areas are much too sensitive for the brute strength of modern agribusiness. Soil compaction and disturbance and crushing of vegetation by agricultural machinery are factors that will negatively impact natural areas. For most species careful hand picking is the most desirable means of harvesting.

Inefficiency is part of all mechanical work. Inefficiency can also effect biological work, such as ecological restoration, when the processes of nature are restrained or altered. The proposal for creating native seed gardens assumed the efficiency of seed use is satisfactory, therefore the problem must be one of supply, not utilization. To test this assumption several efficiency factors were investigated.

Overseeding: applying too much seed at one time has declined since dispersal rates have decreased over time due to improvements in restoration techniques and better monitoring of past restoration sites.

Viability: the survival of seed after is has been collected is largely unknown except for a handful of species; is appears likely that a small percentage of seed used is destroyed through improper storage or handling; species that reproduce mainly by means other than seeds (rhizomes, etc.) often have naturally low seed viability rates.

Seed Storage: often not enough time or manpower is available to sow an entire supply of seeds during the season in which it is collected making storage inevitable which reduces viability to an unknown degree;improving long term (several years) storage systems to store bumper crops for future lean years would be fruitless, the collections must be "grown out" every few years to prevent loss of viability; current government seed storage facilities are built almost exclusively for the dominant, commercial food crops; the security of these supplies is woefully inadequate even within this narrow range of species since genetic variability is being destroyed at an alarming rate due to lack of space; it is very expensive.11,12

Mismanagement: Laurel Ross, TNC Northern Illinois Field Representative, roughly estimates that lost inventory accounts for less than 1% of seed waste for volunteer efforts; the most likely cause of loss due to mismanagement is sowing seeds into the incorrect habitat or not adequately preparing the soil.

Collecting: inadequate manpower or missing the collection times for many species in the wild reduces the amount of seed available, however, overcollecting and trampling has also become a concern as the amount of restoration work has increased; based on current knowledge many areas close to Chicago are already being collecting at their maximum.

Though utilization can be improved, based on the above investigation it appears that inefficient seed use is currently not the main cause of the lack of native seeds.

Rare Species

The seed supply of many rare species is small due to the simple fact that these species are rare in the wild. This is usually due to habitat destruction or the fact that these species were never widespread or abundant prior to European settlement. Certain species are difficult to collect due to their highly specialized reproductive habits. This is not limited to rare species. An example is the Phlox genus where the capsule that contains the seeds explodes when they become ripe. Without careful monitoring and good timing the crop will be dispersed before it can be collected.

Many species produce limited amounts of seed in any given season due to strict requirements for sunlight, water and nutrients. If a critical requirement is not met, say water due to our frequent droughts, the plant may produce little if any seed or not even flower at all. Some species never produce much seed or use other means of reproducing such as spreading by rhizomes or stolons.

Management Information and Support

Technical information is especially difficult to access for rare species since much of this information is based on the personal knowledge of a few highly skilled plant and seed experts or volunteers. Native seed research is also a field that is in its infancy compared to most agricultural or horticultural topics. The state of the art is in constant flux as the new discipline of restoration ecology continues to grow. Little scientific data exists for the hundreds of common native plants of the Chicago region. Often research on rare or endangered plants has been completed as part of government agency protection programs yet the most common species, which make up the bulk of any ecosystem, have gone unstudied.

Technical information is also compiled and disseminated on a regional and local basis. Numerous lists have been published for flowering and seed ripening times for the most common native species. However, ripening times differ according to region, ecosystem and the weather. Most often this information is managed by a single site steward, small committees within volunteer groups or by a local conservation organization. The sheer number of native species often determines that individuals focus on only a small percentage of the potential species to be studied. This is usually based on the one or two ecosystems with which they are most familiar.

There is also a need to improve access to existing information regarding all phases of seed use. At present there any not any centralized sources of information available to most users due to the reasons stated above. The most widely documented topics are general seed ripening and collection times. Processing, scarification, stratification, inoculation and storage are covered only briefly and/or irregularly. Sowing times and methods and identification of specific species in their dormant state are almost non-existent. This limits the numbers of species that are collected even if they are available in the wild.

Projected Demand

After examining the current seed supply system we can say with confidence that the demand for native seeds greatly exceeds the supply. Within the next decade restoration may begin on as much as 50,000 acres of degraded land in the Chicago region. The demand is likely to increase further as large-scale acquisition and management programs gain more support.

In addition, the scope of several federal and state programs that will effect the Chicago area is encouraging.

Quantity and Quality of Wetland Mitigation Projects

Another demand side program that has grown is the restoration and recreation of native wetlands to compensate for the destruction of wetlands during the land development process. 373 acres of wetland mitigation were permitted by the Chicago office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1993 according to their records. The USFWS and USEPA are currently producing a study, to be completed next year, to determine success rates of permitted wetland mitigations. Current field experience has shown that they generally have very low success rates. A similar study completed in Florida was said to have shown a failure rate as high as 70%. Several possible scenarios may be likely if this proves true in the Chicago region. 1) Reduction in total acres allowed in mitigation permits; 2) reworking existing mitigation projects to improve their quality prior to additional permits being granted; 3) stricter regulations and enforcement of restoration activities. Given the political power of the commercial development interests that have fought wetlands protection efforts the first scenario seems the least likely. The second two scenarios would create further demand for native seeds. This was confirmed by Kerri Leigh, of The Natural Garden, who described the surge in demand for wetlands plant materials as "an explosion" after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tightened its mitigation standards several years ago.

Quantity of Commercial Native Landscaping

Another area of demand growth is in the commercial landscaping and horticulture industry. Private and corporate landowners are increasingly asking for native or naturalized landscape installations for reasons such as aesthetics and lower maintenance costs. Though commercial landscape contractors will often use inappropriate material or mix native and non-native species, this area represents a largely untapped market since 90% of the Illinois landscape is in private ownership.

Total Demand

Using an application rate of 20 pounds of seed per acre, as suggested by several commercial native seed nurseries, over an estimated yearly acreage of 5000 acres, and using a ratio of 30% grasses to 70% forbs13, would equal 70,000 pounds of forb seed per year! This number is almost ridiculous when viewed within the context of current production capacity. Yet this clearly shows the economic power that the demand for these materials will create.

Forb species are especially in demand according to several local commercial growers. According to Harold Rock in the Prairie Propagation Handbook, some restorations are executed using a higher grass content simply because forb seed is not available. He also advises, "Beware of seeding too heavily with the more permanent (climax) grasses, such as Big Bluestem, Indiangrass and Swithgrass which may prevent the development of the forbs."14 This has also proven to be true in past restorations performed by the volunteer North Branch Prairie Project on FPDCC sites. This demand for more forb seeds is good news for potential inner-city producers since they will not be able to compete with large scale, mechanized native grass seed producers in rural areas and will most likely specialize in forb seed production. Forbs usually require less space to grow but require more hand labor to propagate and collect which fits well with small scale garden production. Also, the price per pound of forbs is 5 to 7 times higher than grass seeds will also help to offset the inefficiencies of small garden sizes.

Quality Control

In general there is a need for better quality control programs since little in-depth research has been conducted for most native plant species. One of the greatest areas that has not been addressed is viability. Viability can be effected by numerous factors during all phases of seed production. Questions regarding heat damage during storage or due to sowing in hot weather, desiccation or rotting due to incorrect moisture content during storage need to be answered.

Improved techniques and documentation for proper processing are also needed. Seeds with hard seed coats must be scarified (scratched, cracked or softened) to initiate germination. Too little scarification and the seed will sit idle in the soil for too long and be out-competed by quick growing weeds. Too much scarification and the germplasm protected within will be damaged. This work is performed mechanically by scratching the seeds by hand between sheets of sandpaper or by soaking them in various concentrations of acid or hot water to simulate the scouring action of an animal's digestive system. Very little readily accessible information is available on these subjects.

Local Genotypes

There is a lack of recognition, except for the more advanced restoration managers and growers, of the importance of maintaining local genotypes. Ecologically inappropriate seed stocks are regularly introduced into natural areas and especially buffer areas by direct sowing or from windblown seeds. This material corrupts the purity of local genetic stocks and can have a detrimental effect on the health of the ecosystem.15 An extreme example of damage to natural areas by foreign strains of native species can be seen with Reed Canary Grass. This is a native species where non-native or non-local strains have been introduced which have become aggressive and invaded natural areas.16 No regulations exist for importing genetically inappropriate seeds from other regions of the U.S. into the Chicago region. Introducing undocumented and non-native species into a natural area can render the whole site suspect or even worthless for future seed collecting purposes. Most natural areas managers have strict rules on plant translocation to prevent genetic contamination.

There is also a lack of established scientific standards for the dispersal or re-introduction of native plant material into natural areas. Currently restoration managers rely on a simple distance method to determine whether seeds are genetically appropriate. A mostly arbitrary 15 to 25 mile radius is drawn around the site as a maximum limit from which seed can be exchanged. Some organizations rely solely on administrative boundaries such as state, county or district lines. These restrictions have served to protect our highest quality natural areas from the introduction of inappropriate material but may have also exacerbated the supply shortage for some restorations. Many organizations are hesitant to engage in trading or purchasing native seeds from suppliers outside of a 25 mile radius and thus do without. The areas they manage continue to degrade as they wait for local supplies to increase. Meanwhile, commercial contractor's pollute the genetic pool by importing seeds from hundreds or even thousands of miles away for large scale wetland mitigations and corporate landscaping projects.

Present scientific resources and information are inadequate to determine more precise genotype boundaries.17 Watersheds, geologic classifications or vegetative boundaries have been proposed but have not been studied or quantified. Wind pollinated species, such as grasses, would historically have had a wider ranging exchange of genetic material. Wildlife that once roamed across vast expanses of open land spreading seeds and pollen are were either extirpated or are restricted in their movements by human development so that there effect on genetic exchange is difficult to determine.

Biodiversity

This brings us to the topics of the loss of biodiversity and genetic erosion. Many experts rank the loss of biodiversity as a greater threat than global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer. Vice President Al Gore wrote,

"most biologists believe that the rapid destruction of the tropical rain forests, and the irretrievable loss of the living species dying along with them, represent the single most serious damage to nature now occurring. While some of the other injuries we are inflicting on the global ecological system may heal over the course of hundreds or thousands of years, the wholesale annihilation of so many living species in such a breathless moment of geological time represents a deadly wound to the integrity to the earth's painstakingly intricate web of life, a wound so nearly permanent that scientists estimate that recuperation would take 100 million years."18

Agriculture has inflicted great losses on biodiversity. "Agriculture uses more of Earth's soil, water, plant, animal, and energy resources and causes more pollution and environmental degradation than does any other human activity."19 Since native seed gardens are part of our economic and agricultural systems pressure on producers to increase yield and quality will increase as demand increases. The accepted means for increasing production for food crops has been to increase farm size, plant monocultures, rely on long distance transportation systems, centralize processing, use petroleum based pesticides and fertilizers, decrease labor costs by increasing the use of petroleum powered machinery, increase water use and genetically engineer crop varieties, to name a few. However, these "enrichments" can have a negative impact on the genetic stability of native species once they are reintroduced into the wild.20

This pattern has already been established in some native seed growing operations.21 Currently many commercial landscape contractors purchase seed from as far away as Colorado or Nebraska for use in Chicago area plantings since it is often costs only 25% as much as locally grown supplies. Western producers achieve this cost savings by applying some of the means listed above. The only way to overcome many of these dangers is to base the production and purchase of native seeds on strict local genotype requirements. Just because seeds are native does not mean that there production is always environmentally appropriate. Applying these same energy and resource intensive technologies to native seed production will only lead us back to the dismal cycle of degradation of our natural resources. A system of seed production that is locally based and dispersed mimics the natural systems that produced these gems of diversity in the first place. Organic seed grower and author Kenny Ausubel of the company, Seeds of Change, writes "Spreading diversity into many hands and lands is merely biological prudence. If diversity is to be saved, it may well be by the direct individual actions of visionary botanists and biologist and committed backyard gardeners creating a green necklace of living gardens in newly grown centers of diversity around the world."22

Gardens can be a vital part of preserving biodiversity say Ausebel, "There are many kinds of interesting plants that people can grow in small groups and collections. Although we need to conserve habitats, we need to have the living plant, so when we want to rebuild the habitats we have the stuff to start with. Nothing is more important than conserving our diversity."23 To protect biodiversity and local genotypes a few growers and volunteer groups have created strict rules for garden production of native seeds to prevent the decay of wildness in our native plants. Gardening practices are carefully designed to prevent cloning, hybridization with commercial cultivars or the creation cultivars which have lost their wildness. Losing the wildness of our native plants through artificially increasing production rates or squeezing more seeds out of a single species by genetically selecting it for high yield does not serve the long term purposes of the ecological restoration movement.

Chapter 3
ECONOMIC NEEDS
Identifying Specific Needs and Assets

According to Jody Kretzman and John L. McKnight of Northwestern University in their recent book, Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets, there are two ways of looking at the economic health of a community. The first, and most common perspective, is to identify what is lacking: problems such as unemployment, lack of capital and tax delinquent properties. These are then defined as needs to be met and various outside solutions are applied to them. This can often require large amounts of money and time to train residents, establish new businesses and re-design the economy of a community. The alternative method the authors suggest to identify a communities strengths is to view residents and a neighborhood's economy as producers and assets instead of consumers and liabilities by identifying the skills, resources, values and strengths of a neighborhood. This is called "asset-based community development".24 A similar method has been used in Texas by The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems to map the entire state to identify resources, skills and the connections between them.25

Determining a community's unique assets is important for this project because the field of native seed production is so young and unknown. Finding residents that are knowledgeable in the technical aspects of native seed production is unlikely. However, matching the current skills that residents may have in community gardening, carpentry, agriculture, record keeping, machinery operation, etc. is probable. An excellent example of this is the volunteer "Wild Gardens" program created by the North Branch Prairie Project (NBPP). There are currently over 150 home gardeners throughout the Chicago area that raise native plants for seed which is given back to the NBPP for use in its restorations. Using whatever homespun tools and skills they have and a small amount of training the participants have created a large seed production network. The lesson is that these people are not horticulturists or ecologists, they conscious applied their skills as housewives, salespersons or home gardening enthusiasts to the task at hand.

The jobs and businesses that the native seed garden concept can create will not necessarily be those that government statisticians and business councils are familiar with. This fact should not be allowed to undermine the value of this form of economic development. Similarly, the particular skills and interests of the community residents will create new forms of native seed production that restoration and commercial growers cannot imagine. Today many of the state-of-the-art ecological restoration techniques continue to be invented by volunteers and amateurs.

Community Economic Background

One of the major assets that impoverished communities often possess is vacant land. Even though large amounts of vacant land is usually seen as a negative situation, for the native seed garden proposal is can also be seen as an asset. In the following tables, the ten poorest communities in Chicago, based on median household income,26 are listed along with information about the local population and vacant land. This shows a correlation between poverty and the percentage per capita amount of vacant land.

The level of unemployment in some inner-city communities is staggering. Underemployment of skilled workers is another situation which is often caused by discrimination and disinvestment. Support services such as day care, transportation and job training are often lacking as well. Here the asset based method of community analysis is less direct than with the vacant land issue. Though job creation and retention based on the native seed gardens would tend to serve local residents, there is also a need for quality jobs that pay higher wages and provide opportunity for advancement into economies outside the community where the vast majority of conservation and restoration activities take place. Some people have commented that the jobs created by the native seed gardens are of a lower status than the manufacturing or service jobs that were once found in these communities.

Limited Access to Capital

Regardless of a community's alternative assets all businesses need capital to prosper. The Center for Neighborhood Technology states, "What the financial institutions do with that money-and where they do it-is a life-and-death issue for neighborhoods. They can put the money back into the neighborhood-and thus help keep the economy going. Or they can draw it out and invest it elsewhere. When that happens, the neighborhood loses twice. Because people have saved their money and not spent it, shops suffer from lost customer dollars. And the whole community loses from the credit shutoff, because expansion plans are shelved, properties not improved, houses can't be bought and sold."28 Access to sufficient business capital can be severely limited in impoverished communities. According to a survey of community groups by the University of Illinois at Chicago, Center for Urban Economic Development on neighborhood lending services; the large commercial banks located in the downtown area rated from slightly above inadequate to very inadequate. This same survey also listed venture capital, equity for business start-ups and gap financing as the biggest problem areas. For native seed gardens these would be some of the most important capital needs. Equipment purchases and working capital lines of credit were also rated as inadequate.29

A more responsive source of capital is community economic development groups. However, to date local economic development organizations have no experience with conservation businesses. Creation of local, neighborhood economic opportunities, local ownership of land and businesses and local reinvestment are what fuel job creation and economic health. When residents purchase goods and services from outside their community it drains wealth from the neighborhood economy. The local economy is also controlled more by outside forces than the local residents making economic improvements more difficult.30

Land is Power

Land and home ownership by local residents is often low in impoverished communities. This drains capital and savings out of a community since landlords and business owners may live elsewhere and spend the income from their properties outside the community in which it is located.31 Landowners often have more influence over local political and economic issues. For many Americans home ownership is a primary means for long term and retirement investing and tax protection. Renters do not share the financial benefits as neighborhood property values rise when investment and improvements do occur. Private development is often lacking leading to further disinvestment.

A Lack of Prairie Economics

Currently there are no native seed nurseries located within Chicago. It is a less acute form of the downward economic spiral that occurs within some inner-city communities. Seed purchasing programs by volunteer restoration groups and public agencies export dollars that could be spent locally. This funnels money and knowledge out of Chicago area to rural areas or even the western United States. Thousands of urban tax dollars are spent in the collar counties. Vehicles, machinery and fuel to process and transport the seeds and ship them back into the urban areas also comes from outside the region exporting still more currency. Jobs and training opportunities follow a similar course. In addition, technical knowledge and research is concentrated elsewhere and then imported for urban restoration projects. The existing native seed production system and markets are not well organized even though the market is vastly under-served and demand continues to exceed supply. Competition from western seed growers and low profit margins hamper the expansion of the local producers.32 This system is counterproductive to the creation of a larger, local native seed growing industry and does not serve the taxpayers that support much of the ecological restoration industry. Many commercial seed producers stated that much of their income comes from consulting and not the actual nursery operation.33 Both inner-city communities and native seed nurseries face economic difficulties at this time. Linking these two economies may provide new opportunities for economic development and environmental improvement.

Chapter 4
COMMUNITY NEEDS
Identify Current Needs

Empowering a community to define and fulfill its own needs is the key to success for any community based project. While numerous community organizers were interviewed as part of this study, the needs documented here represent the most general concerns that were voiced. Much of the community needs analysis is also included in the chapters on economics since many community needs are directly tied to economic issues. Additional community needs such as open space preservation, community pride and crime prevention, may also be served by urban seed gardens.

The first step any conservation or community organization wishing to create community-based gardens must take will be to gather pertinent data about a specific community's, and its individual members', needs and wants. Organizers should be aware of the difficult conditions that some inner-city residents must live under. One such local community garden organizer, Nancy Klehm, former coordinator of The Resource Center's Turn-A-Lot-Around program says, "Some individuals don't have the social support system that most people take for granted. Lack of insurance, proper health care, steady employment or a stable family structure can make life a struggle for survival. People don't have the time to project freely and see someone else's grand vision." By first understanding a particular community, a native seed garden proposal can then be tailored to address its unique needs.

Some existing community statistics that should be considered are: crime rate, homelessness, high school drop-out rate, teenage pregnancy, and home ownership plus the economic needs described in the previous chapter. Obviously no single program or policy can address all of these needs and the native seed gardens proposal is no exception. The necessity of maintaining open space and enhancing biodiversity may appear irrelevant to community residents facing more immediate and threatening problems. This is not meant to imply that inner-city residents do not care about environmental issues but that the native seed gardens should be seen as one of many possible programs to address a wide range of goals. Several open space and community organizers that were interviewed stated that they used other goals (e.g. youth education, beautification) as a conduit for approaching perspective neighborhoods for greening projects and that these social benefits were important for a project's ongoing success. It is important to recognize these other priorities so that the desire to protect biodiversity can be seen in the larger context of a whole community.

Regardless of the good intentions of any program, conservation groups are often seen as outsiders by disinvested communities. The CitySpace project, Chicago's open space planning initiative, is attempting to address this situation directly by "focusing of getting open space planning assistance into neighborhoods in specific ways" says Patti Gallagher, CitySpace Project Director. However, since CitySpace is a government sponsored open space initiative its Steering Committee is made-up entirely of City, federal and non-profit conservation organizations. Unfortunately there are no community organizations represented during the crucial policy and planning stages. Neighborhood residents will be given opportunities to review the project outputs during several public forums and through ongoing model projects planned throughout the city. Nonetheless, the CitySpace Plan and other development initiatives will gain public acceptance more easily if the public feels it shares in its authorship.

Likewise, individuals who wish to operate gardens for profit will need the ongoing support of the community in which they are located. A case in point is the Young Urban Preservation Society (YUPS) native seed garden proposal. The YUPS project was chosen as a CitySpace pilot project to demonstrate how open space ideas would work "on the ground". A brief presentation was made to the community at a planning meeting and the response was very favorable. Unfortunately, the local Chicago City Council alderperson was not informed prior to the meeting and immediately put the proposal on indefinite hold. An approach that involved the powers within the community from the outset may have averted this situation.

Some people view natural gardens as weedy or occupying space that could be used for affordable housing or local businesses. Education can help to change some attitudes, but getting people directly involved is the most effective method. Too often environmental organizations assume what is good for nature will be good for everyone. Unfortunately many inner-city residents are being left out of the environmental discourse. It is not because they do not understand these issues but that they have been under-served or ignored by environmental, conservation or government groups in the past. During the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, the Commission for Racial Justice presented a paper that read, "There exists a prevalent perception among the general public that people of color have not expressed concern for the environment and have not been active in addressing environmental issues. This is a gross misconception...rooted in the narrow definition of environmental issues advanced by traditional environmentalists and media. People of color have taken on environmental issues as community, labor, economic, self-determination and civil and political rights issues."34 A minority or impoverished community may be untrusting of a new program that does not address their primary needs. This is especially true if they have not been included in determining what those needs are. In an interview with The Amicus Journal, Beverly Wright, Professor of Sociology at Xavier University, said, "When university scientists get a grant, they typically descend on the community to collect data and then return to their campuses without ever establishing a human relationship with their study group. The people in these communities are tired of being tested, and they have grown very distrustful of universities and of government. They have stopped cooperating with studies. As a result, much of this government-funded research is gravely flawed."35

Similarly, the membership profile of The Nature Conservancy itself indicates that its members are largely upper income and college educated.36 Communication problems or policy conflicts should not be attributed to differences in environmental values but to a lack of relationships. The most effective way to overcome this situation is to ask the local population what they want and involve them in every step of the process. Also, the agenda of any conservation group performing this work should be clearly stated at the outset to maintain the confidence of the desired participants.

It has been assumed that because inner-city neighborhoods in Chicago have an abundance of vacant land that using it for native seed gardens will be a popular idea. The following example described by Kim Nauer in The Neighborhood Works is quite revealing. A Los Angeles community group wanted to create a sustainable neighborhood demonstration project on 11 acres of abandoned property. They focused all their resources on this parcel yet no one in the surrounding area was interested. The reason? A "neighborhood" did not exist since it was 11 acres of empty land. As one leader stated, "Make sure you start with a community." They regrouped, engaged an existing community and it succeeded.37 The lesson here is that a community suffering from economic hardship or excess vacant land alone will not necessarily make it amenable to development schemes. Neighborhoods that have community gardening groups and experience with economic development will be better choices for initiating the native seed gardens concept since they will be more familiar with the other societal benefits these programs can offer. Many city-wide greening programs have been working with the poorest communities or those of color for years and have staff that have a great deal of hands-on experience with the numerous challenges of inner-city gardening. These neighborhoods will also contain residents with general gardening experience, contacts with community garden organizers and perhaps programs for selling produce. Adapting or expanding an existing community gardening infrastructure to include native seed gardens will be easier than creating a new one from scratch. Some conservation groups have suggested targeting communities that already have an interest in nature related issues and ecological restoration. This seems reasonable at first except that this policy would lead the proposal back out of the city into the more affluent suburbs and collar counties and ignore the need for the restoration community to engage a broader portion of the local population.

Bill Howard, of the UIC/Center of Urban Economic Development has suggested that door-to-door surveys can be an excellent way to build interest for a community based program. Local residents can be hired to conduct the survey ensuring even more local involvement and acceptance of the process. Modifying an existing prototype survey gathered from a community organizing or development group may provide a basic template for conservation organizations wishing to conduct a survey themselves. A better method would be to team up with a community group since each survey should be closely tailored to the specific community or audience for which it is intended. Focus groups including local residents and commercial growers could be a similar means for engaging individuals and business interests. While people discuss needs and formulate recommendations they will also be forming social and business relationships.

Compiling and Analyzing Information

It quickly became apparent that the conservation organizations most interested in the native seed garden idea usually had the least amount of knowledge regarding the needs of impoverished communities. Therefore additional work in this area is needed. The data gathered will need to be organized so that it can be accessed and studied easily. The methods used should be based on the skills and interests of the local residents. Respect for the process must be maintained since the environmental needs that are uncovered are likely to differ from the goals of the program organizers. The data collected should be tested against the assumptions of the surveyors and analyzed to determine the true environmental needs of the community.

Creating a more user-friendly format for disseminating the research findings is needed. Numerous draft copies of this study were distributed for review to a very diverse range of groups and individuals. The responses to this technical report format were predictably reserved. Providing information in a form that is more exciting for the target audience would be helpful.

The best way to achieve this is by involving the communities in the creation of any reports. Distributing draft copies for comments also gives the community an opportunity to be involved in the process. When people receive a study or proposal that is highly finished and formatted they tend to regard it as already "cast in stone". It is also more difficult and expensive to make revisions to the work as it becomes more refined. Presenting the information contained in this study and others to communities in person is also needed to allow discussion of the process and the findings.

Conducting a survey, research or focus group meetings are tools for engaging a local population and educating them on the need to restore natural areas and preserve biodiversity. Presentations, flyers, recruitment events, etc. are also ways to reach out to new groups of people. The advantage of surveys and focus groups is that they create a two-way dialogue by asking questions instead of simply presenting information without giving the audience an opportunity to respond or participate. It is essential that communities be involved in the process of defining their needs as the first step in meeting these needs.

PART I: Needs & Context

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

Business and biodiversity. The big challenge is to find a way to enhance biodiversity and make a profit at the same time. The U.S. economy has grown powerful over the past several centuries because we have effectively exploited the natural and cultural resources of this continent. Generations of Americans have reaped the benefits of this economic activity in untold wealth and material prosperity. Conservation and environmental groups have expanded apace and become effective defenders of this same natural heritage. They have done this by becoming non-profit advocates, political activists and the environmental  conscience for our society. Ironically, the livelihoods of all these people are based on the  same finite resources.

Herein lies the paradox: nature and wealth are seen as two distinct and often opposing  values. One feels that for every dollar earned or job created a tree was cut down or a lake  polluted. Others blame environmental regulations for their economic troubles. Many  business, government and environmental players frame the debate in this way to divide and conquer their opponents and polarize the public. As soon as nature is seen as a valueless commodity and money is seen as always possessing value the stage is set for conflict and compromise. Both have value. Biodiversity has value because it represents the currency of life. World renowned scientist E.O. Wilson described the value of biodiversity this way, "the greater the variety of animals and plants present in an ecosystem and maintained at the original levels, the more efficient is the functioning of the ecosystem--and the more stable it is likely to be over the long term."1 Commerce is also a process capable of creating value. A  healthy economy generates greater wealth. Money however, only represents the values that people project upon it. If society desires large amounts of wealth at the expense of a healthy environment then the value of money will reflect that. If it cherishes biodiversity and cultural well-being then the value of money will represent these ideals. Author and business consultant Paul Hawken describes this type of economy as a "restorative economy". "In such an economy, there is the prospect that restoring the environment and making money would be the same process."2 Money and values cannot be separated from one another.

Recognizing the interdependence of ecological, cultural, and economic health can provide the inspiration for creating an economic system based on the value of biodiversity. Hawken continues, "Biological diversity, in the end, is the source of all wealth."3 But by only attaching a monetary value to biodiversity the intrinsic value of Earth's resources is often not considered.4 A possible solution is to reward commercial enterprises for recognizing this intrinsic value and taking action to preserve it. Rewarding commerce for enhancing biodiversity and nurturing human culture will help to change the way commerce functions to favor biodiversity. Many conservation organizations are actively pursuing this concept by creating conservation and restoration policies based on the mutually inclusive values of ecological, cultural and economic health.5

At first glance Chicago may appear an unlikely place to pursue such a vision. After a closer look, it is obvious that the area possesses several unique advantages compared to areas considered closer to wilderness. First, only seven one-hundredths of one percent (0.07%) of the original landscape remains in Illinois.6 With so little wilderness left, conservationists have focused a great deal of their energy on restoration, and not just preservation, of degraded ecosystems. In fact William Jordan, co-founder of the Society for Ecological Restoration, has said that "Chicago [is the] urban epicenter of the restoration movement."7 Restoration requires the direct, hands-on application of ecological principles to accomplish its goals. The Chicago region contains numerous ecological businesses that have sprung up to meet the restoration needs of the large, public land owners and private clients in the area. Chicago is located in Cook County which possesses the largest county forest (and prairie, and wetland, and savanna) preserve district in the country. Several other collar county conservation districts and state parks are close by. All of these agencies have large scale restoration programs in place. In addition, TNC has designated the Chicago region as the only urban area in its "Last Great Places: An Alliance for People and the Environment" campaign to protect more than 75 of the most unique ecosystems of the western hemisphere. Fifteen years ago TNC Illinois Field Office created a volunteer restoration organization based on the idea that people must actively manage the natural world for it to thrive or even survive. This program supports over 4800 volunteers in northern and central Illinois and has become a national model for ecological stewardship. These people have created a culture of restoration and provide the foundation for future progress.

In the center of all of this remarkable restoration activity lies an opportunity for even greater accomplishments. Chicago also contains communities faced with staggering environmental degradation and economic despair. Ten of the seventy seven community areas in Chicago have more than 45% of their residents living below the poverty line.8 There are seven communities where over 50% of their land is vacant. The needs and desires of these communities must be understood and respected before any conservation group can propose solutions. Our extractive and exploitative economy has left these communities both economically and ecologically impoverished. The proposal to grow native seeds for profit has been offered as a direct means for creating local businesses that generate biodiversity and enrich our culture.

Chapter 2
ECOLOGICAL NEEDS
Current Supply Shortage

The greatest limiting factor in restoring natural areas in the Chicago region is the lack of available seeds.9 This is because the demand for locally grown, native seeds is far greater than the current supply. The amount of land that can be restored in any year is directly proportional to the amount of seeds that are available. The majority of restoration work in the Chicago region involves removal of invasive brush, trees and mostly alien, herbaceous weed species from natural areas. This is most commonly accomplished by brush clearing, prescribed burning, herbicide use and hand pulling. The ability to quickly clear degraded land through the use of modern mechanical methods is great. Tractors, "brush hogs", chain saws and potent herbicides can quickly clear unwanted brush or weeds. However, mechanical methods are much more difficult to apply to the collection of native seeds. As soon as an area is cleared of invasive brush and alien species, weedy pioneer species will quickly establish themselves in the bare soil that is now exposed to increased sunlight. The challenge is to obtain and plant a sufficient quantity of native seeds that will out-compete these extremely aggressive species. Since the native seed bank is often nearly or completely decimated due to decades of degradation or disturbance, simply clearing an area and "allowing nature to take its course" is a recipe for disaster. In addition, grading, stream bank modification and other hydrological restoration activities can be worthless or even detrimental without the proper herbaceous cover to stabilize the soil from water erosion.10 Unfortunately, sufficient sources of native seeds do not exist for most restoration projects.

The majority of herbaceous material used in restoration projects comes from seeds sown directly onto a site. Plugs and seedlings are often too expensive or require too much ongoing care for even a small restoration project. These are used more extensively in commercial landscape installations for corporate and private clients and for special restoration situations such as highly erodible slopes and wetlands. Seeds can be easily stored and transported, broadcast quickly, allow for a wide range of species mixes and allow for dense plantings.

Several areas of the seed supply system were investigated to test the assumption that a supply problem is the basis for the current seed shortage. These areas included: collection, production, storage and utilization.

Collection methods vary greatly depending on the size of the natural area or plot, the species to be collected and the expertise of the people involved. Modern agricultural machinery is designed to sow, cultivate and harvest primarily large, unbroken plots of monocultures of species. These methods are very efficient for the planting and collection of many common, native grasses. However, they are severely limited in their use on natural areas and multi-species plantings. Species ripen at different times of the year and have greatly varying heights and seed head shapes. Mechanical harvesting methods often result in a mix of species that has less market value since a buyer does not have a choice over the species in the mix. Avoiding weed species can also be difficult since machines do not discriminate between species and collect whatever is in their path. Large restored natural areas or planted native seed fields free of alien weed species are rare indeed.

Natural areas that contain the most valuable species are mosaics of intricately woven communities and overlapping ecosystems. They are not arranged in geometric patterns like agricultural lands. Wetlands, riverine and lake systems, savannas, forests and rocky, sandy or steep topography are also difficult or impossible to work with typical agricultural machinery. Above all, these areas are much too sensitive for the brute strength of modern agribusiness. Soil compaction and disturbance and crushing of vegetation by agricultural machinery are factors that will negatively impact natural areas. For most species careful hand picking is the most desirable means of harvesting.

Inefficiency is part of all mechanical work. Inefficiency can also effect biological work, such as ecological restoration, when the processes of nature are restrained or altered. The proposal for creating native seed gardens assumed the efficiency of seed use is satisfactory, therefore the problem must be one of supply, not utilization. To test this assumption several efficiency factors were investigated.

Overseeding: applying too much seed at one time has declined since dispersal rates have decreased over time due to improvements in restoration techniques and better monitoring of past restoration sites.

Viability: the survival of seed after is has been collected is largely unknown except for a handful of species; is appears likely that a small percentage of seed used is destroyed through improper storage or handling; species that reproduce mainly by means other than seeds (rhizomes, etc.) often have naturally low seed viability rates.

Seed Storage: often not enough time or manpower is available to sow an entire supply of seeds during the season in which it is collected making storage inevitable which reduces viability to an unknown degree;improving long term (several years) storage systems to store bumper crops for future lean years would be fruitless, the collections must be "grown out" every few years to prevent loss of viability; current government seed storage facilities are built almost exclusively for the dominant, commercial food crops; the security of these supplies is woefully inadequate even within this narrow range of species since genetic variability is being destroyed at an alarming rate due to lack of space; it is very expensive.11,12

Mismanagement: Laurel Ross, TNC Northern Illinois Field Representative, roughly estimates that lost inventory accounts for less than 1% of seed waste for volunteer efforts; the most likely cause of loss due to mismanagement is sowing seeds into the incorrect habitat or not adequately preparing the soil.

Collecting: inadequate manpower or missing the collection times for many species in the wild reduces the amount of seed available, however, overcollecting and trampling has also become a concern as the amount of restoration work has increased; based on current knowledge many areas close to Chicago are already being collecting at their maximum.

Though utilization can be improved, based on the above investigation it appears that inefficient seed use is currently not the main cause of the lack of native seeds.

Rare Species

The seed supply of many rare species is small due to the simple fact that these species are rare in the wild. This is usually due to habitat destruction or the fact that these species were never widespread or abundant prior to European settlement. Certain species are difficult to collect due to their highly specialized reproductive habits. This is not limited to rare species. An example is the Phlox genus where the capsule that contains the seeds explodes when they become ripe. Without careful monitoring and good timing the crop will be dispersed before it can be collected.

Many species produce limited amounts of seed in any given season due to strict requirements for sunlight, water and nutrients. If a critical requirement is not met, say water due to our frequent droughts, the plant may produce little if any seed or not even flower at all. Some species never produce much seed or use other means of reproducing such as spreading by rhizomes or stolons.

Management Information and Support

Technical information is especially difficult to access for rare species since much of this information is based on the personal knowledge of a few highly skilled plant and seed experts or volunteers. Native seed research is also a field that is in its infancy compared to most agricultural or horticultural topics. The state of the art is in constant flux as the new discipline of restoration ecology continues to grow. Little scientific data exists for the hundreds of common native plants of the Chicago region. Often research on rare or endangered plants has been completed as part of government agency protection programs yet the most common species, which make up the bulk of any ecosystem, have gone unstudied.

Technical information is also compiled and disseminated on a regional and local basis. Numerous lists have been published for flowering and seed ripening times for the most common native species. However, ripening times differ according to region, ecosystem and the weather. Most often this information is managed by a single site steward, small committees within volunteer groups or by a local conservation organization. The sheer number of native species often determines that individuals focus on only a small percentage of the potential species to be studied. This is usually based on the one or two ecosystems with which they are most familiar.

There is also a need to improve access to existing information regarding all phases of seed use. At present there any not any centralized sources of information available to most users due to the reasons stated above. The most widely documented topics are general seed ripening and collection times. Processing, scarification, stratification, inoculation and storage are covered only briefly and/or irregularly. Sowing times and methods and identification of specific species in their dormant state are almost non-existent. This limits the numbers of species that are collected even if they are available in the wild.

Projected Demand

After examining the current seed supply system we can say with confidence that the demand for native seeds greatly exceeds the supply. Within the next decade restoration may begin on as much as 50,000 acres of degraded land in the Chicago region. The demand is likely to increase further as large-scale acquisition and management programs gain more support.

In addition, the scope of several federal and state programs that will effect the Chicago area is encouraging.

Quantity and Quality of Wetland Mitigation Projects

Another demand side program that has grown is the restoration and recreation of native wetlands to compensate for the destruction of wetlands during the land development process. 373 acres of wetland mitigation were permitted by the Chicago office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1993 according to their records. The USFWS and USEPA are currently producing a study, to be completed next year, to determine success rates of permitted wetland mitigations. Current field experience has shown that they generally have very low success rates. A similar study completed in Florida was said to have shown a failure rate as high as 70%. Several possible scenarios may be likely if this proves true in the Chicago region. 1) Reduction in total acres allowed in mitigation permits; 2) reworking existing mitigation projects to improve their quality prior to additional permits being granted; 3) stricter regulations and enforcement of restoration activities. Given the political power of the commercial development interests that have fought wetlands protection efforts the first scenario seems the least likely. The second two scenarios would create further demand for native seeds. This was confirmed by Kerri Leigh, of The Natural Garden, who described the surge in demand for wetlands plant materials as "an explosion" after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tightened its mitigation standards several years ago.

Quantity of Commercial Native Landscaping

Another area of demand growth is in the commercial landscaping and horticulture industry. Private and corporate landowners are increasingly asking for native or naturalized landscape installations for reasons such as aesthetics and lower maintenance costs. Though commercial landscape contractors will often use inappropriate material or mix native and non-native species, this area represents a largely untapped market since 90% of the Illinois landscape is in private ownership.

Total Demand

Using an application rate of 20 pounds of seed per acre, as suggested by several commercial native seed nurseries, over an estimated yearly acreage of 5000 acres, and using a ratio of 30% grasses to 70% forbs13, would equal 70,000 pounds of forb seed per year! This number is almost ridiculous when viewed within the context of current production capacity. Yet this clearly shows the economic power that the demand for these materials will create.

Forb species are especially in demand according to several local commercial growers. According to Harold Rock in the Prairie Propagation Handbook, some restorations are executed using a higher grass content simply because forb seed is not available. He also advises, "Beware of seeding too heavily with the more permanent (climax) grasses, such as Big Bluestem, Indiangrass and Swithgrass which may prevent the development of the forbs."14 This has also proven to be true in past restorations performed by the volunteer North Branch Prairie Project on FPDCC sites. This demand for more forb seeds is good news for potential inner-city producers since they will not be able to compete with large scale, mechanized native grass seed producers in rural areas and will most likely specialize in forb seed production. Forbs usually require less space to grow but require more hand labor to propagate and collect which fits well with small scale garden production. Also, the price per pound of forbs is 5 to 7 times higher than grass seeds will also help to offset the inefficiencies of small garden sizes.

Quality Control

In general there is a need for better quality control programs since little in-depth research has been conducted for most native plant species. One of the greatest areas that has not been addressed is viability. Viability can be effected by numerous factors during all phases of seed production. Questions regarding heat damage during storage or due to sowing in hot weather, desiccation or rotting due to incorrect moisture content during storage need to be answered.

Improved techniques and documentation for proper processing are also needed. Seeds with hard seed coats must be scarified (scratched, cracked or softened) to initiate germination. Too little scarification and the seed will sit idle in the soil for too long and be out-competed by quick growing weeds. Too much scarification and the germplasm protected within will be damaged. This work is performed mechanically by scratching the seeds by hand between sheets of sandpaper or by soaking them in various concentrations of acid or hot water to simulate the scouring action of an animal's digestive system. Very little readily accessible information is available on these subjects.

Local Genotypes

There is a lack of recognition, except for the more advanced restoration managers and growers, of the importance of maintaining local genotypes. Ecologically inappropriate seed stocks are regularly introduced into natural areas and especially buffer areas by direct sowing or from windblown seeds. This material corrupts the purity of local genetic stocks and can have a detrimental effect on the health of the ecosystem.15 An extreme example of damage to natural areas by foreign strains of native species can be seen with Reed Canary Grass. This is a native species where non-native or non-local strains have been introduced which have become aggressive and invaded natural areas.16 No regulations exist for importing genetically inappropriate seeds from other regions of the U.S. into the Chicago region. Introducing undocumented and non-native species into a natural area can render the whole site suspect or even worthless for future seed collecting purposes. Most natural areas managers have strict rules on plant translocation to prevent genetic contamination.

There is also a lack of established scientific standards for the dispersal or re-introduction of native plant material into natural areas. Currently restoration managers rely on a simple distance method to determine whether seeds are genetically appropriate. A mostly arbitrary 15 to 25 mile radius is drawn around the site as a maximum limit from which seed can be exchanged. Some organizations rely solely on administrative boundaries such as state, county or district lines. These restrictions have served to protect our highest quality natural areas from the introduction of inappropriate material but may have also exacerbated the supply shortage for some restorations. Many organizations are hesitant to engage in trading or purchasing native seeds from suppliers outside of a 25 mile radius and thus do without. The areas they manage continue to degrade as they wait for local supplies to increase. Meanwhile, commercial contractor's pollute the genetic pool by importing seeds from hundreds or even thousands of miles away for large scale wetland mitigations and corporate landscaping projects.

Present scientific resources and information are inadequate to determine more precise genotype boundaries.17 Watersheds, geologic classifications or vegetative boundaries have been proposed but have not been studied or quantified. Wind pollinated species, such as grasses, would historically have had a wider ranging exchange of genetic material. Wildlife that once roamed across vast expanses of open land spreading seeds and pollen are were either extirpated or are restricted in their movements by human development so that there effect on genetic exchange is difficult to determine.

Biodiversity

This brings us to the topics of the loss of biodiversity and genetic erosion. Many experts rank the loss of biodiversity as a greater threat than global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer. Vice President Al Gore wrote,

"most biologists believe that the rapid destruction of the tropical rain forests, and the irretrievable loss of the living species dying along with them, represent the single most serious damage to nature now occurring. While some of the other injuries we are inflicting on the global ecological system may heal over the course of hundreds or thousands of years, the wholesale annihilation of so many living species in such a breathless moment of geological time represents a deadly wound to the integrity to the earth's painstakingly intricate web of life, a wound so nearly permanent that scientists estimate that recuperation would take 100 million years."18

Agriculture has inflicted great losses on biodiversity. "Agriculture uses more of Earth's soil, water, plant, animal, and energy resources and causes more pollution and environmental degradation than does any other human activity."19 Since native seed gardens are part of our economic and agricultural systems pressure on producers to increase yield and quality will increase as demand increases. The accepted means for increasing production for food crops has been to increase farm size, plant monocultures, rely on long distance transportation systems, centralize processing, use petroleum based pesticides and fertilizers, decrease labor costs by increasing the use of petroleum powered machinery, increase water use and genetically engineer crop varieties, to name a few. However, these "enrichments" can have a negative impact on the genetic stability of native species once they are reintroduced into the wild.20

This pattern has already been established in some native seed growing operations.21 Currently many commercial landscape contractors purchase seed from as far away as Colorado or Nebraska for use in Chicago area plantings since it is often costs only 25% as much as locally grown supplies. Western producers achieve this cost savings by applying some of the means listed above. The only way to overcome many of these dangers is to base the production and purchase of native seeds on strict local genotype requirements. Just because seeds are native does not mean that there production is always environmentally appropriate. Applying these same energy and resource intensive technologies to native seed production will only lead us back to the dismal cycle of degradation of our natural resources. A system of seed production that is locally based and dispersed mimics the natural systems that produced these gems of diversity in the first place. Organic seed grower and author Kenny Ausubel of the company, Seeds of Change, writes "Spreading diversity into many hands and lands is merely biological prudence. If diversity is to be saved, it may well be by the direct individual actions of visionary botanists and biologist and committed backyard gardeners creating a green necklace of living gardens in newly grown centers of diversity around the world."22

Gardens can be a vital part of preserving biodiversity say Ausebel, "There are many kinds of interesting plants that people can grow in small groups and collections. Although we need to conserve habitats, we need to have the living plant, so when we want to rebuild the habitats we have the stuff to start with. Nothing is more important than conserving our diversity."23 To protect biodiversity and local genotypes a few growers and volunteer groups have created strict rules for garden production of native seeds to prevent the decay of wildness in our native plants. Gardening practices are carefully designed to prevent cloning, hybridization with commercial cultivars or the creation cultivars which have lost their wildness. Losing the wildness of our native plants through artificially increasing production rates or squeezing more seeds out of a single species by genetically selecting it for high yield does not serve the long term purposes of the ecological restoration movement.

Chapter 3
ECONOMIC NEEDS
Identifying Specific Needs and Assets

According to Jody Kretzman and John L. McKnight of Northwestern University in their recent book, Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets, there are two ways of looking at the economic health of a community. The first, and most common perspective, is to identify what is lacking: problems such as unemployment, lack of capital and tax delinquent properties. These are then defined as needs to be met and various outside solutions are applied to them. This can often require large amounts of money and time to train residents, establish new businesses and re-design the economy of a community. The alternative method the authors suggest to identify a communities strengths is to view residents and a neighborhood's economy as producers and assets instead of consumers and liabilities by identifying the skills, resources, values and strengths of a neighborhood. This is called "asset-based community development".24 A similar method has been used in Texas by The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems to map the entire state to identify resources, skills and the connections between them.25

Determining a community's unique assets is important for this project because the field of native seed production is so young and unknown. Finding residents that are knowledgeable in the technical aspects of native seed production is unlikely. However, matching the current skills that residents may have in community gardening, carpentry, agriculture, record keeping, machinery operation, etc. is probable. An excellent example of this is the volunteer "Wild Gardens" program created by the North Branch Prairie Project (NBPP). There are currently over 150 home gardeners throughout the Chicago area that raise native plants for seed which is given back to the NBPP for use in its restorations. Using whatever homespun tools and skills they have and a small amount of training the participants have created a large seed production network. The lesson is that these people are not horticulturists or ecologists, they conscious applied their skills as housewives, salespersons or home gardening enthusiasts to the task at hand.

The jobs and businesses that the native seed garden concept can create will not necessarily be those that government statisticians and business councils are familiar with. This fact should not be allowed to undermine the value of this form of economic development. Similarly, the particular skills and interests of the community residents will create new forms of native seed production that restoration and commercial growers cannot imagine. Today many of the state-of-the-art ecological restoration techniques continue to be invented by volunteers and amateurs.

Community Economic Background

One of the major assets that impoverished communities often possess is vacant land. Even though large amounts of vacant land is usually seen as a negative situation, for the native seed garden proposal is can also be seen as an asset. In the following tables, the ten poorest communities in Chicago, based on median household income,26 are listed along with information about the local population and vacant land. This shows a correlation between poverty and the percentage per capita amount of vacant land.

The level of unemployment in some inner-city communities is staggering. Underemployment of skilled workers is another situation which is often caused by discrimination and disinvestment. Support services such as day care, transportation and job training are often lacking as well. Here the asset based method of community analysis is less direct than with the vacant land issue. Though job creation and retention based on the native seed gardens would tend to serve local residents, there is also a need for quality jobs that pay higher wages and provide opportunity for advancement into economies outside the community where the vast majority of conservation and restoration activities take place. Some people have commented that the jobs created by the native seed gardens are of a lower status than the manufacturing or service jobs that were once found in these communities.

Limited Access to Capital

Regardless of a community's alternative assets all businesses need capital to prosper. The Center for Neighborhood Technology states, "What the financial institutions do with that money-and where they do it-is a life-and-death issue for neighborhoods. They can put the money back into the neighborhood-and thus help keep the economy going. Or they can draw it out and invest it elsewhere. When that happens, the neighborhood loses twice. Because people have saved their money and not spent it, shops suffer from lost customer dollars. And the whole community loses from the credit shutoff, because expansion plans are shelved, properties not improved, houses can't be bought and sold."28 Access to sufficient business capital can be severely limited in impoverished communities. According to a survey of community groups by the University of Illinois at Chicago, Center for Urban Economic Development on neighborhood lending services; the large commercial banks located in the downtown area rated from slightly above inadequate to very inadequate. This same survey also listed venture capital, equity for business start-ups and gap financing as the biggest problem areas. For native seed gardens these would be some of the most important capital needs. Equipment purchases and working capital lines of credit were also rated as inadequate.29

A more responsive source of capital is community economic development groups. However, to date local economic development organizations have no experience with conservation businesses. Creation of local, neighborhood economic opportunities, local ownership of land and businesses and local reinvestment are what fuel job creation and economic health. When residents purchase goods and services from outside their community it drains wealth from the neighborhood economy. The local economy is also controlled more by outside forces than the local residents making economic improvements more difficult.30

Land is Power

Land and home ownership by local residents is often low in impoverished communities. This drains capital and savings out of a community since landlords and business owners may live elsewhere and spend the income from their properties outside the community in which it is located.31 Landowners often have more influence over local political and economic issues. For many Americans home ownership is a primary means for long term and retirement investing and tax protection. Renters do not share the financial benefits as neighborhood property values rise when investment and improvements do occur. Private development is often lacking leading to further disinvestment.

A Lack of Prairie Economics

Currently there are no native seed nurseries located within Chicago. It is a less acute form of the downward economic spiral that occurs within some inner-city communities. Seed purchasing programs by volunteer restoration groups and public agencies export dollars that could be spent locally. This funnels money and knowledge out of Chicago area to rural areas or even the western United States. Thousands of urban tax dollars are spent in the collar counties. Vehicles, machinery and fuel to process and transport the seeds and ship them back into the urban areas also comes from outside the region exporting still more currency. Jobs and training opportunities follow a similar course. In addition, technical knowledge and research is concentrated elsewhere and then imported for urban restoration projects. The existing native seed production system and markets are not well organized even though the market is vastly under-served and demand continues to exceed supply. Competition from western seed growers and low profit margins hamper the expansion of the local producers.32 This system is counterproductive to the creation of a larger, local native seed growing industry and does not serve the taxpayers that support much of the ecological restoration industry. Many commercial seed producers stated that much of their income comes from consulting and not the actual nursery operation.33 Both inner-city communities and native seed nurseries face economic difficulties at this time. Linking these two economies may provide new opportunities for economic development and environmental improvement.

Chapter 4
COMMUNITY NEEDS
Identify Current Needs

Empowering a community to define and fulfill its own needs is the key to success for any community based project. While numerous community organizers were interviewed as part of this study, the needs documented here represent the most general concerns that were voiced. Much of the community needs analysis is also included in the chapters on economics since many community needs are directly tied to economic issues. Additional community needs such as open space preservation, community pride and crime prevention, may also be served by urban seed gardens.

The first step any conservation or community organization wishing to create community-based gardens must take will be to gather pertinent data about a specific community's, and its individual members', needs and wants. Organizers should be aware of the difficult conditions that some inner-city residents must live under. One such local community garden organizer, Nancy Klehm, former coordinator of The Resource Center's Turn-A-Lot-Around program says, "Some individuals don't have the social support system that most people take for granted. Lack of insurance, proper health care, steady employment or a stable family structure can make life a struggle for survival. People don't have the time to project freely and see someone else's grand vision." By first understanding a particular community, a native seed garden proposal can then be tailored to address its unique needs.

Some existing community statistics that should be considered are: crime rate, homelessness, high school drop-out rate, teenage pregnancy, and home ownership plus the economic needs described in the previous chapter. Obviously no single program or policy can address all of these needs and the native seed gardens proposal is no exception. The necessity of maintaining open space and enhancing biodiversity may appear irrelevant to community residents facing more immediate and threatening problems. This is not meant to imply that inner-city residents do not care about environmental issues but that the native seed gardens should be seen as one of many possible programs to address a wide range of goals. Several open space and community organizers that were interviewed stated that they used other goals (e.g. youth education, beautification) as a conduit for approaching perspective neighborhoods for greening projects and that these social benefits were important for a project's ongoing success. It is important to recognize these other priorities so that the desire to protect biodiversity can be seen in the larger context of a whole community.

Regardless of the good intentions of any program, conservation groups are often seen as outsiders by disinvested communities. The CitySpace project, Chicago's open space planning initiative, is attempting to address this situation directly by "focusing of getting open space planning assistance into neighborhoods in specific ways" says Patti Gallagher, CitySpace Project Director. However, since CitySpace is a government sponsored open space initiative its Steering Committee is made-up entirely of City, federal and non-profit conservation organizations. Unfortunately there are no community organizations represented during the crucial policy and planning stages. Neighborhood residents will be given opportunities to review the project outputs during several public forums and through ongoing model projects planned throughout the city. Nonetheless, the CitySpace Plan and other development initiatives will gain public acceptance more easily if the public feels it shares in its authorship.

Likewise, individuals who wish to operate gardens for profit will need the ongoing support of the community in which they are located. A case in point is the Young Urban Preservation Society (YUPS) native seed garden proposal. The YUPS project was chosen as a CitySpace pilot project to demonstrate how open space ideas would work "on the ground". A brief presentation was made to the community at a planning meeting and the response was very favorable. Unfortunately, the local Chicago City Council alderperson was not informed prior to the meeting and immediately put the proposal on indefinite hold. An approach that involved the powers within the community from the outset may have averted this situation.

Some people view natural gardens as weedy or occupying space that could be used for affordable housing or local businesses. Education can help to change some attitudes, but getting people directly involved is the most effective method. Too often environmental organizations assume what is good for nature will be good for everyone. Unfortunately many inner-city residents are being left out of the environmental discourse. It is not because they do not understand these issues but that they have been under-served or ignored by environmental, conservation or government groups in the past. During the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, the Commission for Racial Justice presented a paper that read, "There exists a prevalent perception among the general public that people of color have not expressed concern for the environment and have not been active in addressing environmental issues. This is a gross misconception...rooted in the narrow definition of environmental issues advanced by traditional environmentalists and media. People of color have taken on environmental issues as community, labor, economic, self-determination and civil and political rights issues."34 A minority or impoverished community may be untrusting of a new program that does not address their primary needs. This is especially true if they have not been included in determining what those needs are. In an interview with The Amicus Journal, Beverly Wright, Professor of Sociology at Xavier University, said, "When university scientists get a grant, they typically descend on the community to collect data and then return to their campuses without ever establishing a human relationship with their study group. The people in these communities are tired of being tested, and they have grown very distrustful of universities and of government. They have stopped cooperating with studies. As a result, much of this government-funded research is gravely flawed."35

Similarly, the membership profile of The Nature Conservancy itself indicates that its members are largely upper income and college educated.36 Communication problems or policy conflicts should not be attributed to differences in environmental values but to a lack of relationships. The most effective way to overcome this situation is to ask the local population what they want and involve them in every step of the process. Also, the agenda of any conservation group performing this work should be clearly stated at the outset to maintain the confidence of the desired participants.

It has been assumed that because inner-city neighborhoods in Chicago have an abundance of vacant land that using it for native seed gardens will be a popular idea. The following example described by Kim Nauer in The Neighborhood Works is quite revealing. A Los Angeles community group wanted to create a sustainable neighborhood demonstration project on 11 acres of abandoned property. They focused all their resources on this parcel yet no one in the surrounding area was interested. The reason? A "neighborhood" did not exist since it was 11 acres of empty land. As one leader stated, "Make sure you start with a community." They regrouped, engaged an existing community and it succeeded.37 The lesson here is that a community suffering from economic hardship or excess vacant land alone will not necessarily make it amenable to development schemes. Neighborhoods that have community gardening groups and experience with economic development will be better choices for initiating the native seed gardens concept since they will be more familiar with the other societal benefits these programs can offer. Many city-wide greening programs have been working with the poorest communities or those of color for years and have staff that have a great deal of hands-on experience with the numerous challenges of inner-city gardening. These neighborhoods will also contain residents with general gardening experience, contacts with community garden organizers and perhaps programs for selling produce. Adapting or expanding an existing community gardening infrastructure to include native seed gardens will be easier than creating a new one from scratch. Some conservation groups have suggested targeting communities that already have an interest in nature related issues and ecological restoration. This seems reasonable at first except that this policy would lead the proposal back out of the city into the more affluent suburbs and collar counties and ignore the need for the restoration community to engage a broader portion of the local population.

Bill Howard, of the UIC/Center of Urban Economic Development has suggested that door-to-door surveys can be an excellent way to build interest for a community based program. Local residents can be hired to conduct the survey ensuring even more local involvement and acceptance of the process. Modifying an existing prototype survey gathered from a community organizing or development group may provide a basic template for conservation organizations wishing to conduct a survey themselves. A better method would be to team up with a community group since each survey should be closely tailored to the specific community or audience for which it is intended. Focus groups including local residents and commercial growers could be a similar means for engaging individuals and business interests. While people discuss needs and formulate recommendations they will also be forming social and business relationships.

Compiling and Analyzing Information

It quickly became apparent that the conservation organizations most interested in the native seed garden idea usually had the least amount of knowledge regarding the needs of impoverished communities. Therefore additional work in this area is needed. The data gathered will need to be organized so that it can be accessed and studied easily. The methods used should be based on the skills and interests of the local residents. Respect for the process must be maintained since the environmental needs that are uncovered are likely to differ from the goals of the program organizers. The data collected should be tested against the assumptions of the surveyors and analyzed to determine the true environmental needs of the community.

Creating a more user-friendly format for disseminating the research findings is needed. Numerous draft copies of this study were distributed for review to a very diverse range of groups and individuals. The responses to this technical report format were predictably reserved. Providing information in a form that is more exciting for the target audience would be helpful.

The best way to achieve this is by involving the communities in the creation of any reports. Distributing draft copies for comments also gives the community an opportunity to be involved in the process. When people receive a study or proposal that is highly finished and formatted they tend to regard it as already "cast in stone". It is also more difficult and expensive to make revisions to the work as it becomes more refined. Presenting the information contained in this study and others to communities in person is also needed to allow discussion of the process and the findings.

Conducting a survey, research or focus group meetings are tools for engaging a local population and educating them on the need to restore natural areas and preserve biodiversity. Presentations, flyers, recruitment events, etc. are also ways to reach out to new groups of people. The advantage of surveys and focus groups is that they create a two-way dialogue by asking questions instead of simply presenting information without giving the audience an opportunity to respond or participate. It is essential that communities be involved in the process of defining their needs as the first step in meeting these needs.

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