Betty Ford Alpine GardensBetty Ford Alpine GardensBetty Ford Alpine Gardens
Seed banking is one of the major conservation initiatives of Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, which contributes to the global effort of protecting biodiversity of plants for future generations.
A seed bank is a storage facility built to preserve dry plant seeds at low temperatures. Seeds are stored to protect plant genetic diversity, prevent extinction, and ensure future food security. There are more than 1,700 seed banks around the world, preserving more than 7 million seed samples and representing more than 50,000 different plant species.
Without seed banking, the rare alpine species that exist above the treeline are in danger of disappearing, as the climate shifts and this ecosystem experiences the effects of changes in temperature, precipitation, and the invasion of non-native species. Our seed banking program works to preserve rare alpine plant species before climate change alters their habitat forever.
Volunteers assist our conservation scientists in collecting seeds from the wild in summer, then preparing them for long-term storage. Before they can be seed banked, seeds need to be cleaned and counted, which is a big job for our interns, staff and volunteers. The aim is to collect and bank the native alpine flora of North America, around 2,500 species. Locally, efforts are focusing on the Colorado and Wyoming mountains, but Betty Ford Alpine Gardens is working to encourage other botanical gardens to help build this collection. Primary collections go to the USDA seed bank with Betty Ford Alpine Gardens’ seed bank as a backup.
By carefully storing seeds, our conservationists help ensure that rare and endangered plants will not be lost, even if their natural populations decline. These seeds are a valuable source of genetic material that can help re-populate areas damaged by an extreme climate event like flood or wildfire, and re-seed for future re-population.
Learn more about our Seed Banking and Collections Policy.
For more about our Seed Banking efforts, read “Saving The Alpine One Seed At A Time”, featuring Emily Griffoul, Conservation Scientist.
Read our blog “From The Field: Racing The Seasons for Alpine Seed”, an account from Brooke Weller, our Summer 2026 Conservation Intern about a trip scouting, documenting and collecting plants and their seeds across our local mountain range.
Together, with partner organizations in Maine and Newfoundland, we are working to collect and preserve 75% of all endangered alpine plant species by 2030. We are actively working on this project which could result in as many as 21 additional alpine seed collections in the National Seed Bank.