Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: NPCC Affiliate Project trains inmates to restore Sage-grouse habitat
May 30, 2019
Since 2014 the Project has out-planted over 1 million native plugs, mostly on federal lands. The
Institute for Applied Ecology, a non-profit organization based in Corvallis, OR, oversees the project in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Corrections. The Winnemucca BLM District Office in Nevada, for example, has received hundreds of thousands of sagebrush plugs grown by inmates.
Sagebrush communities are a focus of restoration efforts because they are habitat for the imperiled greater Sage-grouse. Sagebrush restoration is complicated by invasive grasses which create conditions that encourage large fires, making it difficult to re-establish native plant communities. Sagebrush does not recover quickly after a fire, often taking 30 to 50 years to become reestablished. Transplanting seedlings with a developed root system supplements re-seeding efforts and gives sagebrush a head start over invasive weeds.
For inmates, the Project provides an opportunity to work outside and nurture living things. For some, it may be the first time they have given back to society. An inmate at South Boise Woman’s Correctional Center in Idaho summed up the project with these words:
“This program gets you out and about with a purpose. It is far easier to stay out of trouble when you are busy. Growing sagebrush gave me back some of the dignity and respect that you lose when sentenced to do any time behind bars.”
To learn more about how to start a similar program to help inmates, native plants and habitat see
Photo: Greater Sage-grouse (c) Michael Weatherford, Arkansas Native Plant Society
Institute for Applied Ecology, an NPCC Affiliate. Inmates at eight prisons in in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Wyoming grow seedlings of sagebrush and other native plants as part of efforts to restore sagebrush communities in the western U.S.