‘Seeds are life’: How a seed bank in the Mojave Desert is preserving an ancient ecosystem under threat | CNN
For several years, I was the President of the Mojave Desert Land Trust, the organization described in this story. The story describes the work of Madena Asbell, who started up, organized and manages the seed bank. Madena is an amazing person. Low key but intensely brilliant and practical.
Excerpt from this story from CNN/Call to Earth:
Inside a Mojave aster flower, a tiny bee is fast asleep. At night, the pale lavender petals close, providing a safe resting place. In the morning, as birdsong rings out across the desert, the flower opens, revealing its tenant.
Here in southern California, in the middle of the Mojave Desert’s vast and arid landscape, it’s just one of many natural treasures hidden from view.
In long sleeves, pants, and wide-brimmed hats to guard against a harsh sun in a cloudless blue sky, a team of four led by Madena Asbell crouches in the dirt, looking for another treasure.
They are searching for a plant called erodium texanum, (common names Texas stork’s bill or heronbill), a type of herb native to California. More specifically, they are looking for its seeds.
“There’s so much life here,” Asbell says, “but it’s easy to not realize that when you’re in the desert.”
Asbell is the director of plant conservation for the Mojave Desert Land Trust (MDLT), a non-profit land conservancy that works to preserve and protect the Mojave and Colorado desert landscapes of California.
A quarter of the state is desert, home to roughly 2,400 plant species, according to MDLT. Eight years ago, Asbell had an idea. What if there was a way to preserve the ecosystem, centered around the seeds that facilitate all the life here? The result was the Mojave Desert Land Trust seed bank.
“The goal is to preserve this amazing genetic diversity that we have and make it available for restoration or reintroduction of species, should there be a disaster that wipes out a population,” Asbell says. “Plants are the foundation of most ecosystems, so when we protect these plants, we’re protecting everything that depends on them, like desert tortoise, burrowing owls and pollinators.”
In an ever-changing climate, the seed bank was just the type of “proactive” idea the organization was looking for, says Kelly Herbinson, executive director of MDLT.
“As a land trust, we’re realizing that just protecting land or buying land to protect it wasn’t going to be enough – that we had to take extra steps to really invest in that land,” Herbinson says.
In 2016, Mojave Desert Land Trust officially launched the seed bank project, which has since been described as a “Noah’s Ark” for southern California.
Three white refrigerators at MDLT headquarters in Joshua Tree, California, house the collection. There are over 5 million seeds from nearly 250 species and counting, according to the land trust.
Seeds come in from the field teams and undergo a “cut test” to determine viability – confirming the seed pods are full, and that there hasn’t been too much damage from insects or mold, making the seeds worth saving.