Bismarck Plant Materials Center (NDPMC)
Serving the States of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota
Established: 1954
Size: 60 acres
Land Ownership: North Dakota Association of Soil Conservation Districts
PMC Operation: NRCS
Over the past 50 years, the Bismarck Plant Materials Center in Bismarck, North Dakota has provided plant solutions for the diverse landscapes in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.
The Center offers technical assistance for native landscaping, windbreaks, revegetating saline-alkaline soils, improving productivity of range and pasture lands, enhancing wildlife habitat and wetlands, and enhancing native prairie ecosystems.
The Center has released over 40 improved conservation plants including varieties of blue grama, buffalograss, western wheatgrass, purple prairie clover, narrow-leaved coneflower, stiff sunflower, silver buffaloberry, black chokeberry, hybrid plum, and intermediate pubescent wheatgrass.
Highlights
DECLINING WILDLIFE HABITAT
Enhance wildlife resources
- Midwest Manchurian crabapple is widely used in conservation plantings and grown by most conservation nurseries.
- Getting Started in Prairie Revegetation - A Recipe for Success provides technical information for restoring native habitat on disturbed prairies.
- Sage-Grouse Habitat Restoration - Getting Started in the Dakotas outlines restoration guidelines for sage-grouse habitat.
ENERGY AND RESOURCE DEMANDS
Increase alternative uses of conservation plants developed to reduce energy demands.
- Fourteen tree and shrub species developed for windbreaks, which cool in the summer and protect buildings, roads, and livestock in the winter.
- Living Landscapes - A Guide to Native Plantscaping promotes prairie landscaping and low-maintenance plantings for Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
- Rain Gardens - Capturing and Using the Rains of the Great Plains is an illustrated guide on establishing a rain garden to reducing the need for supplemental water. Rain gardens provide excellent habitat for wildlife and pollinators and retain run-off and pollutants.
AGRICULTURAL LANDS
Maintain and improve productivity of agricultural lands.
- Grasses for the Northern Plains - Growth Patterns, Forage Characteristics, and Wildlife Values: Volume I and Cool-Season and Grasses for the Northern Plains - Growth Patterns, Forage Characteristics, and Wildlife Values: Volume II, Warm-Season provides detailed information on forage values for livestock producers.
- Promote the forage value and biomass production of big bluestem and indiangrass, with three technical publications: Big Bluestem -High Quality Summer Forage for the Northern Plains; Big Bluestem Biomass Trials in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota; and Indiangrass Biomass Trials in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota.
- Plant Materials for Salt-Affected Sites in the Northern Great Plains provides plant recommendations for increasing productivity of salt-affected soils.
Bismarck Plant Materials Center
3308 University Dr.
Bismarck, ND 58504-7564
Telephone: 701-250-4330
Fax: 701-250-4334
