A new Ohio law allows individuals and conservation organizations to collect and share native plant seeds.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 364 on Wednesday, following the unanimous approval of both the Ohio House and Senate.
An old state law had required all seeds go through a certification process before they can be shared, sold or donated – even homegrown milkweed pods.
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The Nature Conservancy — a nonprofit land conservancy and environmental organization — supports the passage of what they call "common sense legislation."
"A lot of native plant growers collect seeds and use those seeds for native plant propagation on their own properties," said Peter Blank, the Northwest Ohio program manager with the Nature Conservancy in Ohio. "This bill will make it easier for conservation agencies and for individuals to share those seeds between them. And I see this as a wonderful thing for conservation because we need more native plants in the landscape."
"Native plants are really the cornerstone of conservation."
The Nature Conservancy's mission is to protect lands and waters around the world and the biodiversity that lives there.
Important ecosystems in Ohio are supported by native plants like spice bush, cherries, native willows, prairie plants and milkweed.
These plants offer habitat for insects that pollinate and provide food to other organisms within the food chain.
"Native plants are really the cornerstone of conservation. If you start with native plants, you provide habitats for native insects," Blank said. "Those native insects pollinate and they provide food for other organisms up the food chain like birds and small mammals. And it all starts with plants. If you have native plants at the bottom of the food chain, the entire ecosystem is much healthier."
The bill goes beyond supporting the allotment of native seeds, said Mary Turocy, director of Policy and Government Relations for the Nature Conservancy of Ohio.
“It will have a really big impact on our efforts to remove invasive plants and replace them with native plants," she said.
This bill will allow nonprofits and groups like the Conservancy to promote and protect ecosystems through sharing seeds. According to Blank, they expect to share their resources widely with other Ohio organizations.
"So there are a lot of different plants that we want to collect seeds for, share those seeds and then grow them out with our partners on our conservation properties," he said.
Turocy said organizations previously couldn’t share these native plant seeds without purchasing them elsewhere, even if another organization had extra available to share.
"An organization that needs them might have to buy them from out of state and might have to take essentially seeds that are less than native, that aren't necessarily pre-proven for the exact — local genotypes."
