The Native Plant Initiative (NPI) is working to restore native plant biodiversity across the Northern Great Plains through research, education and outreach. This initiative is led by professor Lora Perkins, who founded the program in 2019.

   “Previously I worked on invasive species. That got to be pretty heavy,” Perkins said. By reworking her research Perkins thought that “A better question might be, how do we get native plants established back?”

   Native grasses and wildflowers were once abundant in the region, but numbers have declined due to agricultural practices and invasive species. According to Robin Buterbaugh, an SDSU extension horticulture field specialist, it’s believed that only 1% to 3% of original native grasslands remain.

   “It’s a huge ecosystem that is rapidly diminishing or almost gone,” Buterbaugh said, “Here in the great plains and across the world, we are seeing a huge loss of biodiversity due to development.” Buterbaugh explained how this has led to a decline in birds and insects, including pollinators.

   Amanda Bachmann, an SDSU extension pesticide education and urban entomology field specialist, says the NPI program has research projects on campus and out in the field. The NPI harvests native plant seeds and utilizes greenhouse production. Bachmann says greenhouse production can be tricky with native plants.

   “They’ve got some really great resources,” Bachmann said,  “It’s been really awesome having them as a partner in the native plant ecology world.”

   The NPI is raising native plants to sell to people and businesses. Plant sales are sometimes held at McCrory Gardens and the NPI travels across the state to sell native plants to local garden centers.

   “They are trying to encourage the market for native plants,” Bachmann said, “so we can have South Dakota raised plants for South Dakota projects.”

   Bachmann says that her role with SDSU extension is to encourage people to plant more native perennials in their yard.

   “This is hard, though, when people don’t have access to these plants,” Bachmann said. “This is why this project is important.”

   Buterbaugh says that the whole goal was to increase the education about native plants, help to provide more native plant material and provide native plants directly to people’s homes for landscaping.

   Bachmann recommends, “Go to their plant sale and learn about native plants from them, because they are doing a lot of great work with those plants and can tell people how to take care of them.”

   Bachmann says that anyone interested in attending these plant sales should follow their social media page.

   “They usually have a plant list of what plugs they have available each year,” Bachmann said. “Their advertising is mostly done on social media. They attend a lot of McCrory Garden events.”

   Zane Barker, an undergraduate ecology major from Ames, IA said that “These plants are crucial for hunting, game species, and fisheries,” and are important for “not only recreation, but livestock and rangeland.”

   Right now, there are 10 graduate students and a handful of undergraduates involved with NPI. Perkins also says there are some external stakeholders. People from the community have reached out and want to contribute to this project.

   For the third year in a row, the NPI has given out something called the pasque flower award. Perkins explained that, “The pasque flower award that we give was funded by donors who wanted to contribute to and help the initiative.”

   At the beginning of every school year, they ask for applicants and any undergraduate student can apply. The winner of the award has a mentor and they receive money to start their own research project.

   Barker was the winner of this year’s Pasque flower award.

   “I think NPI is important because… it advocates for something people don’t know about,” Barker said. “You don’t need to be a big rancher with many acres to restore land, you can do it right in your own backyard.”

   Perkins says that SDSU is known for excellence in agriculture, but that SDSU has a lot of experts in native plants too.

   “We want crop fields to be the best they can be, but we want the rest of the land to be the best it can too, and that requires the return of native plants,” Perkins said.