Coffs Harbour Regional Landcare is part of an exciting new pilot project which will see the development of a native seed bank for the North Coast Region.
North Coast Local Land Services is working in partnership with the Friends of the North Coast Regional Botanic Garden – Coffs Harbour and the North Coast Regional Landcare Network to develop a native seed bank for the North Coast region. 
The seed bank network will bring together partners from across the region to share not only seed, but also their knowledge and skills in seed collection and work practices. This will lift the capacity of the native plant production sector to satisfy the increasing demand for native plant stock in response to a variety of environmental and landscape restoration and recovery programs. A project discussion paper is being written with the assistance of community and professional stakeholders to guide the development of the Seed Bank along with a target species list . Seed collection activities will take place in five sub regional hubs based at Coffs Harbour Regional Landcare, Macleay Landcare, Clarence Landcare, Tweed Landcare and Broder Ranges Richmond Valley Landcare. A small amount of funding has been provided to each of these five hubs to help them build their seed collection capacity. Seed collected by each hub will then be sent to the Seedbank at North Coast Regional Botanic Garden, where it’s details will be recorded in a database, it’s viability will be tested and the seed stored under the right conditions. Seed will then be distributed back out into the region as required.
The Coffs Harbour Hub consists of Coffs Harbour Regional Landcare, North Coast Botanic Garden – Coffs Harbour and Envite Environment. An MOU has already been signed between the three organisations. The Hub will use our allocated funding to create and train a dedicated volunteer seed collection team; purchase seed collecting and processing equipment such as loppers and sieves and where necessary fund a professional seed collector to target the more difficult to collect species.
