Sponsor
Teresa Leger Fernandez
Representative · D-NM
Representative · D-NM
The bill strengthens local seed capacity and research partnerships to speed and improve post-fire and restoration revegetation, but adds administrative complexity and risks shifting limited funds or attention away from immediate on-the-ground restoration needs.
Rural and tribal communities near treated landscapes will get more and faster revegetation after fires because federal funding supports seed orchards, seed banks, and seedling production, increasing availability of native seed and seedlings for restoration.
Institutions of higher education, tribes, and local partners can receive grants/contracts and serve as eligible nominators, building local capacity and bringing research expertise to seed collection, maintenance, and landscape restoration planning and implementation.
Expanding eligible partners and contracting (including adding universities and more local partners) will increase Forest Service administrative workload and contracting complexity, which could slow project start dates and delivery of restoration work.
Directing federal funds toward seed collection, orchards, and seedling production could reduce the funding available for other restoration activities if overall appropriations are limited, potentially delaying or shrinking other on-the-ground work.
Greater involvement of universities in nominations and projects may shift program priorities toward research-oriented activities, which could deprioritize urgent operational needs for some communities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes the Forest Service to partner with states, tribes, universities, nonprofits, and coalitions for native seed collection/maintenance and seedling production and adds colleges as CFLRP nominators.
Official title: To amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service, to enter into contracts, grants, and agreements to carry out certain ecosystem restoration activities, and for other purposes.
Introduced August 5, 2025 by Teresa Leger Fernandez · Last progress August 5, 2025
Authorizes the Forest Service to partner with State forestry agencies, colleges and universities, tribes, nonprofits, and multistate coalitions to collect and store native seeds and produce seedlings for ecosystem restoration and revegetation. It also expands who may nominate projects under the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program by adding institutions of higher education to the list of eligible nominators. The bill creates new contracting, grant, and agreement authority to support seed collections, managed seed orchards, and seedling production tied to restoration activities, and makes a targeted eligibility change to broaden collaboration in landscape-scale forest restoration efforts.