Short Description: This talk will cover the history of over a century of plant material development research in the Great Basin and Intermountain West and compare across approaches in the context of past and current land management goals.

Abstract: The Great Basin region of the United States has a long history of large-scale revegetation and restoration seedings that require seed amounts well in excess of what would be available through direct wildland collections. To meet this seed need, several federal research programs have arisen that develop plant materials suited to agronomic production and large-scale use. A few of these programs have existed for over a century. For much of this time only a handful of approaches to plant material development were implemented, focused primarily on selecting for sources and traits that supported ungulate forage value and, to a lesser degree, seed production. Even though other potential approaches were available from the beginning of these programs, decisions made at high levels in the federal government affected the structure and scope of these research programs and, ultimately, which land management goals were supported. Recently, additional development approaches have been established that broaden the range of options for seed producers and restoration practitioners. This talk will focus on the history of plant material development in the Great Basin and compare across approaches within the context of past and current land management research goals.