Alright so at this point I'm so happy to have Lisa Olson with us this morning, she's with wild ones you actually first started as a volunteer with wild ones and then working in her chapter there in Colorado now in a professional role as the chapter liaison
for the wild ones organization. And if you don't have wild ones close to you, Lisa is going to tell you a little bit about wild ones what they do some of their great programs across the country.
We have a really active wild ones presence here in Ohio groups that are doing educational programs demonstration community events plant cells. Other things to really promote the importance of native plants there in local communities.
So this is going to talk about cultivating a community for support of native plants, Lisa, we're really happy to have you here. also your background in horticulture I think as I really need element to what you can, can teach folks about native plants.
So I'll let you go ahead and share your screen and we'll turn the podium over to you.
Awesome, thank you so much to me So, can you hear me. Yes. Oh good, I wanted to make sure I did feel like that microphone.
Thank you so much yeah for me wild ones was a great fit. Because of that sort of interested in in horticulture experience I love that we're able to focus on getting plants into gardens and I was already doing that in my professional life talking people
into by a native plants. And so being able to transition into what really is an alignment with my passion is has been lovely.
I'm really excited that so many people are tuning in today to see that number of registrants continue to grow week to week is cause for celebration and hope.
I don't doubt that attending these sessions listening to the series of talks you are all going to come away with the knowledge and inspiration to make positive changes in your garden.
But we live in a country of over 330 million people and on a planet with 7.9 billion other people. How do we connect and convince those folks who are not in this virtual room to join us.
How do we cultivate a concern for nature, how do we scale up the actions we are taking in our own gardens and transform that into collective action neighborhood, city, state, and nationwide action.
How do we cultivate a community of support for native plants and living landscapes.
Oops, sorry my clicker didn't seem to want to work.
Thank you My name again is Lisa Olson and I am representing wild ones and national supported member organization, it's a nonprofit organization working to inspire and empower people to plant native plants and adopt environmentally sound landscaping maintenance
practices. Wild Ones works in the space of bio cultural restoration rekindling people's connection to add respect for the land as an organization we advocate for restoring biodiverse ecosystems through landscaping with native plants to fulfill that mission.
We must cultivate a value shift in ourselves and our communities through education and experience.
This series tending nature. I'm sorry to jump in, I just noticed that you have your Presenter View so we can also see your next.
So yeah, I don't know if you want to switch that just to.
Sure. Let me see if I can do a new share here.
I can find my cursor thank you for pointing that out. No problem. Sorry I didn't say it right at the beginning I just said, Oh, I know what you're talking about.
Next I can see your next
That looks better Hang on, said any better. Yes, that's it. Thank you. Okay, I'm just going to see if no my clicker is not working, let me just turn it off and and often see again if that makes it happier.
My apologies because that's what caused the air. One moment. See if I can bring that back.
Alright, I apologize for the technical difficulties here. No worries. Every time with zoom, something, something new comes about something is different and fresh so no worries where you arrow, allow you to move your slides ahead your arrow key is that
moved it back. Yes.
Okay. Yes, I will use the arrow instead.
Um, let's see.
Let's see. Where was I oh I'm looks awesome I'm representing wild ones which a national supported member organization, and we are
sorry, working to cultivate that community of support for native plants, the series, which is titled tending nature native plants and every gardeners role in fostering biodiversity features and amazing line up of speakers leaders in their respective fields,
working on the forefront of the movement towards sustainable landscaping gardening in harmony with nature. I'm a bit of an anomaly in this lineup, I think I am coming from our perspective more akin to that of the audience, native plants or something I
discovered a passion for over time. And as a profession, it's something I sort of fell into full disclosure I'm not a botanist and entomologist I don't have years and years of field research experience.
I'm an English major, and I've worked in various service industries, and I'm a perennial students I think that one of the silver linings of the pandemic has been this explosion of opportunities to continue education online, and I am a continuing education
junkie.
And I'm basically a full time volunteer and only recently has my work and my volunteer work and my work work, come into alignment.
So this is me, born in 1969, the same year of the Environmental Protection Agency was founded. I get grew up with give a hoot don't pollute and Smokey the Bear and I've been riding the wave of conservation my whole life.
My grandmother instilled in me and my sister a love of museums and public gardens.
The photo on the right, was taken by my sister a few years ago at the garden surrounding the Natural History Museum smack in the middle of downtown Los Angeles, which is a stellar example of urban habitat restoration.
My family moved from Ohio to California when I was seven, and I continue to be inspired by an all of the natural beauty of this country.
Growing up nature was something to explore outside and on the page. Almost all of my favorite books as to as a child, the characters were all animals and didn't his knees Bambi absolutely shaped my worldview.
Man was in the forest and those are powerful, and chilling words to a child.
I've always felt indebted to nature and have volunteered and work to repair the damage. We as a species has brought full disclosure both my parents were librarian so I grew up around books.
Do not underestimate the power of a good story to instill the love of nature in a child.
I want to pause a moment and talk just a little bit about stories and storytelling in recent days I've heard many references to Abraham Lincoln's talent as a strategic storyteller, which he used to persuade and sway a nation in a time of extreme unrest
stories or how people relate to one another. We connect and found common ground through storytelling stories are memorable they capture the imagination and they inspire action to cultivate community to build strong and lasting relationships.
You need to be willing to share your story. Think about what inspires you.
Why you grew up into a person who cares about insects and birds and plans, what grounds you.
I encourage you to incorporate parts of your story into your stump speech when talking about native plants, we are engaged in a soft sell campaign to convince our family, friends, neighbors colleagues and communities to plant native plants, sharing why
you care is part of that sales pitch, what are we selling. We're selling a path to a brighter, more resilient future wild ones we are looking to restore ecological value to degraded landscapes of all sorts.
School yards.
Urban sidewalk health strips and they can lots street meetings, sorry street medians and roadside ditches strip malls suburban and business park longs the list is long as we work to restore life and create habitat in the spaces we have impacted.
I encourage you to adopt a more holistic perspective, akin to and an alignment with the views held by indigenous peoples, that have a steward rather than an owner, both as both conscientious and conscious stewards.
I
encourage you to do your best work and work with nature to design and tend to spaces where we live, with many urban and suburban landscapes, we are looking at constructed geographies with houses for mountains, creating microclimates that wouldn't exist
in nature.
To fill these novel landscapes, we have the opportunity to reintroduce plants native to our region to repair broken food webs and revive degraded soils.
We are in a time and space to do the work and create the conditions for regeneration.
The photos on this slide are of the green variety garden. Parking strip or health strip garden in downtown Denver is also a rain garden designed to harvest runoff from the adjacent building and parking lot, that's me in the black shirt celebrating one
of the few thunderstorms that rolled over us in the hot dry summer of 2024 gardeners like the gardens like fees to take root, we need to cultivate community to bring people together, whether that be in person or online to share knowledge and tools to
create the conditions that foster lasting stewardship.
Last week, Doug Ptolemy explained that every person on earth, there's a responsibility for good earth stewardship. He quoted Cherokee elder Stan rush worth the western mindset was, I have rights.
And I should say is, I have rights, the mindset of indigenous people is I have obligations.
As I shared with you today I invite you to think not just about what lessons you can take away from today, but also consider what you can give back what you can give back to the land, and what you can share with those in your community.
Make no mistake, what you do in your garden is important, but what you share with others matters more.
I will begin by sharing a bit about wild ones, and then highlight some of the many opportunities and strategies we might use to expand this community of support for native plants.
Wild Ones promotes environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation restoration and establishment of native plant communities.
I love that wild ones is rooted in continuing education as a perennial student, I attend far more talks that I give, it's nice to know that back in 1977 year my family moved across the country.
Our founders recognized the many benefits that native plants bring to a garden setting, not the least of which is a closer connection to nature.
Wild Ones, is a member supported volunteer driven organization based in Mena Wisconsin.
I had to wait until the last minute to add this slide because that map keeps changing as a chapter liaison I respond to several inquiries each week from folks expressing interest in forming a new chapter in their region.
If you live near a local chapter, please consider joining.
If you live in a region where wild ones has yet to take root. I encourage you to reach out and we can chat about launching a seedling chapter. I love those conversations because I get to talk to my fellow plant peeps members should do support.
Chapter activities, and the many free resources that you find on the wild ones website and links to both the website, and this map of chapters and how to start a chapter, are on that OSU tending nature, web page.
In 2021 wild ones launched a series of native garden designs available to download for free on our website. Currently we have designs for Boston Chattanooga Chicago Denver, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St.
Louis Tallahassee and Toledo.
The garden designs native garden designs website, and the native Garden Design Guide.
This year wild ones has been awarded a second grant, we're very excited to expand the program.
The focus will be on designing for resilience in the face of climate change.
Wild Ones host programs with the designers that include live q amp a sessions recordings of past programs are on the YouTube channel.
Some of our designers are active educators in their communities, Kenton Seth who did the design for Denver offered Front Range chapter members and volunteers and opportunity for hands on learning about bare root planting this past May at Englewood depot
pair prairie Park membership dues support wild ones free educational webinars. Our next webinar features wild ones honorary lifetime director and prairie ecologist Neil Bible.
Speaking about genetic diversity and plant preservation. Last week, Doug Tallamy spoke about the importance of planting genetic variability to ensure resilience in our landscapes.
In this increasingly volatile climates. This program will be a deep dive into what that looks like.
Wild one supports youth engagement with native plants, named for lifetime honorary director Lori auto the wild one seeds for education program is a dunk donor funded program and is designed to connect youth with nature through the planting planting and
caring for native plant gardens. This learned by doing approach to education, not only gets more native plants in the ground it cultivates a new generation of mindful land stewards.
Wild Ones publishes a Quarterly Journal rich with a variety of articles on native plants emerging research member and public gardens restoration projects.
Chapter programs and activities book reviews and more members receive a digital copy of the journal, and be their email and an archive of past journals is available for public viewing on the national website.
Another useful research you will excuse me useful resource you will find on the national website is a list of nurseries and seed sources that cell native plants.
Thankfully that list is growing.
If you have a favorite nursery or seed supplier that is not listed, please visit our website to submit your recommendation. Many nursery support wild ones as business members and are listed in the journal, couple of nursery owners have actually founded
chapters, wild ones is educating and cultivating their customer base and driving the demand for native plants, so the business member relationship is mutually beneficial.
Another useful resource that.
Oh, excuse me, The.
I want to move on to the chapters, because while we at the at the national level, we're small stuff and I joined remotely from Colorado. We offer support and resources and guidance, the chapters really are the height, heart, excuse me of the wild ones
organization, and community chapters are where community is cultivated, and where we see the greatest impact. We are stronger if we connect with one another and collaborate to move the mission forward.
And this photo is of the members of the Gibson Woods chapter in Indiana. At the start of their annual native plant sale, probably pre pandemic looking at the photo native species can be hard to find a nurseries, many chapters host plant sales to boost
availability of native plants in their region,
public outreach is a big part of what wild ones chapters do tabling booths at home and garden shows Earth Day, and harvest festivals and other community events is a lot of fun and is how we connect with people who are new to gardening for wildlife.
This is where you get to share your passion and your story. And this photos actually of me this past October tabling at a native seed swap.
I love touring public gardens.
Last week, Matthew Ross wild ones board member and director of continuing education at the world renowned Longwood gardens and Pennsylvania presented on America's public gardens highlighting some of the amazing gardens across the country that have embraced
native plants, and that recording is also available on YouTube.
Many of our chapters, arrange guided tours of public gardens, you learn a ton from horticulturist who have killed way more plants than you ever will.
Chapters summer calendars are usually, excuse me, usually feature, at least a couple tours of member gardens.
Nature is constantly evolving and these burdens are typically works in progress. I remind remind garden to our hosts that people don't relate to perfection, attendees are eager to learn about the process, and both the triumphs and the missteps because
of space limitation registration for these tours is often a member benefits
Many tour, Susie many chapters host wildflower walks in the summer months, although I know a few chapters that bundle up and go out in the winter, maybe not to look at wild flowers, but they're out there.
These events provide an opportunity to observe plants preferences and tolerances when it comes to growing conditions. You also see which plants grow well together.
Nature is the best teacher, and it's good to spend time in her outdoor classroom,
lot of volunteer hours, a lot of volunteer hours, go into planning and scheduling chapter educational programs, covering a wide array of topics hesitate hesitate to highlight any one chapters programs because they all do an amazing job.
But I did happen to discover that the kettle moraine chapter has an online program on lichens in April, that I am very tempted to register for because I have never taken a class on lichens and I've taken a bunch of photos but I really know nothing about
like and so that one is definitely on my radar chapters are eager to return to in person programs but I expect many if not most will continue to offer some online, the southeastern Pennsylvania chapter launch just ahead of the pandemic and founder Jesse
Scheffler hosted all of the meetings virtually.
If you have a surplus of time and are keen to learn about native plants, check out the many wild ones chapters YouTube channels.
Some of our chapters host annual conferences or symposiums. Often these events are fundraisers that support grant programs and other chapter activities.
A few events coming up, are the 25th anniversary. Me anniversary toward harmony with nature conference hosted by the wild ones Fox Valley area chapter on July, excuse me January 29 so very soon from shortly.
And then also the landscaping with Colorado native plants conferences coming up it's co presented by the Front Range chapter. On February, 26, and the plant natives 2022 symposium, hosted by the Tennessee Valley chapter is on March 12 and links to those
events are also on the OSU web page, and I do apologize. Apologize to any chapters, whose events I have failed to mention
chapters are where you get your hands dirty several chapters have active propagation groups, some engage in native plants salvage operations. These can occur in spaces slated for development or thinning out unwelcome volunteers in member gardens.
These plants typically find homes in public demonstration gardens, or are adopted at native plant exchanges, or sharing events, many chapters organized phenomenal plant sales in the spring.
Sometimes in the fall, and sometimes both these fundraisers are fabulous opportunities to buy locally sourced native plants.
Among our members wild ones both an amazing level of expertise at a demo day or other hands on learning events gardeners with years and in many cases decades of experience, a growing and tending native plants share their wealth of knowledge and skill
with novice gardeners, this exchange of resources for services mimics nature in exchange for the sweat equity volunteers learn best practices and avoid costly mistakes as Doug Tell me pointed out last week, most of the land in the United States is privately
owned, but that does not mean that the majority of people in this country own land. Many, many people face social and institutional and financial barriers to owning property.
And there are some people who aren't interested in putting down roots. With that in mind, many if not most of wild ones chapters support projects in public spaces to enable broader participation
native seed collections are my favorites. Wild Ones chapters tap into nature's abundance and harvest our gardens bounty which helps ensures our community's capacity to recover from the devastating effects of wild fires, floods and tornadoes.
We collect seeds with permission from both private and public spaces.
I love knowing and sharing the stories of the seeds I collect and I get to do that at native seed swaps on the model for seed exchange events varies from chapter to chapter, but basically these are Pay It Forward events, you get native seeds for little
or no cost. And then in a year or two, You offer a return on that investment by sharing your seeds with others.
I've pointed to some of the many ways that wild ones chapters engage with and support their members, and the public.
But how do we grow as a community. We need to expand this community of support for native plants in order to enact the change that we want to see the change we need to see.
We are living in a time of crisis on a global scale. In 12 2015, the United Nations approved a set of 17 sustainable development goals to provide a globally accepted roadmap for addressing many of the most urgent, economic, environmental and social challenges.
While we engage in outreach, odds are, whoever we are connecting with is working towards one or more of these goals.
All this patchwork of icons looks pretty.
I think this pyramid graphic is a better depiction of those goals.
All of the goals are incredibly important, and there's no denying that the biosphere, is the foundation with everything depending upon it. If the biosphere is not healthy.
We are looking at ecosystem collapse, at a global scale.
But when this stacked with with this, these bulls stacked as a pyramid, you will notice that goal number 17 partnerships for the goals is missing, likely that is because forging partnerships is necessary in order to achieve all of the other goals.
I love that the icon that presents partnerships is in the shape of a flower.
In fact it resembles colorado state flower, the Colorado blue Columbine hollow mines are notoriously promiscuous.
And let's take a cue from nature and seize this opportunity for open pollination.
The journal questions posed for this week on the OSU tending nature, learn with us page and Denise has mentioned that page is a expanded learning opportunities places to go for learning opportunities.
She posted questions and for this week she said, what our organizations Excuse me, what organizations associations or groups, focus on native plants, and or biodiversity in your community in person, online or both.
How could you join or foster the creation of such a group.
Now, not that I don't want you to consider joining wild ones or another mission aligned organization, or both. I'm a member of many such groups.
But this is an instance in which we need to learn from nature, we can't afford to specialize, and only join and communicate with organizations that support native plants and pollinators.
We cannot be the small Carpenter be that Mary gardener talked about a solitary be that never leaves or never flies beyond the borders of a single yard.
We need to be generalists, and we need to be the honeybee and dominate the landscape.
If we want to achieve. Widespread transformation of our landscapes, we need to think more broadly about who our allies are and who we are connecting with.
We need to spread pollen, excuse me the pollen of our message, widely and sow seeds of change across the country, if we work together. We don't just survive we thrive in 1943 psychologist and humanist Abraham Maslow introduced his theory of a hierarchy
of needs to explain human motivation. If a person lacks basic physiological needs food, shelter, clean water, the plight of pollinators, and global ecosystem collapse.
These are questions that are not going to be front of mind.
That said, in nature healthy ecosystems meet those needs. We need to collaborate with and support organizations that are working, working to meet the needs those primary needs of members of our communities.
The events of 2020 shone a spotlight on food security in this country. Let's look for opportunities to engage with organization, addressing hunger food swamps and food deserts, connect with local permaculture and homesteading groups community gardens
are great places to introduce native plants, one project that my local chapter got involved in this summer on an urban farm slash community gardener garden, one of the gardeners commented that we were wasting time, energy and space by planting pretty
flowers. That was a teaching moment and as the wild ones volunteer explained that the native plants we were planting would attract and support both pollinators and beneficial insects that would boost the productivity of the adjacent vegetable plots.
There's enough space to feed both insects, and people
native plants formed the foundation of Indigenous People's diets. Today tribal communities are played by high rates of diabetes and other chronic diseases, due to poor nutrition for generations policies at the simulation band not only tribal languages
traditions, but also the consumptions excuse me the consumption of indigenous foods.
This is a quote from the power to heal diabetes food for life in Indian Country, quote, the answer to diabetes prevention may lie in our age old food traditions.
Food is the medicine that will help us reclaim our health, and there is a strong connection between native plants and indigenous food ways, planting native plants isn't just about saving bees and butterflies.
People are part of the ecosystem to, there is an opportunity to collaborate with, and support organizations that are working to restore health to members of tribal communities.
The number of people impacted by housing insecurity swelled in 2020 municipalities have been struggling for decades to continue to struggle with how best to serve the house population.
That's consider partnering with organizations like Habitat for Humanity, which has chapters across the country, or other homeless outreach and advocacy groups working locally such as Earthlings and Denver Earthlings creates opportunities through Earth
centered programs that enable individuals experiencing homelessness and poverty to quote, step out of isolation and into community or storing each other, and the planet and quote, there are opportunities to collaborate with.
Excuse me, collaborate on activities and events that will improve access to native plants and the wildlife, those plants attract in underserved communities, I'm just going to pause for a moment.
The number of people impacted by.
Excuse me,
many diverse organizations are tackling issues of environmental justice, including poor air quality lead poisoning and accessibility and equity in urban parks and tree canopies.
There is space for us to join the conversation and collaborate with organizations working to address these critical issues, native plants are our allies in this work and have the power to clean up our messes.
And the April wild ones National Board Member Ozark chapter founder and environmental scientists Eric fusilli is presenting a series of three webinars diving deeper into fight on marine phytoremediation and green infrastructure, a topic he introduced
in our December webinar.
The topics include stormwater air quality and soil contamination
people discover a passion for native plants through many diverse paths.
In the West, we see economic drivers, people want to save money on their water bills.
Others are motivated by their love of birds, some are beekeepers some love foraging, it's imperative that we listen and identify where those passions, connect and enable collaboration to achieve mutual goals and benefits.
One example, I'd like to point to is that a wild ones member of Marsha Marsha designed an amazing do it herself garden for her grandchildren to enjoy after reading, how to raise a wild child.
Over time, Marcia has added more and more native species, attracting a greater diversity of bees, butterflies birds to the garden.
The children's play house at the back of a corner of the garden was built entirely out of salvaged materials marshes primary motivation wasn't to benefit pollinators or the planet, she wanted to create a space for her grandchildren to connect with nature
close to home.
Many, many parents are looking to do this for their children. As kids are forced to spend more time online disruptions to in classroom learning as a result of the pandemic.
Let's connect with mom and dad groups and share how native plants attract wildlife to home gardens. Let's cultivate a generation of passionate and desert dedicated lizard hunters like Doug colonies granddaughter,
how teachers had the time to invest into school gardens these past two years is beyond me. But the trend to incorporate outdoor learning into school curriculums is held held strong.
There are certainly opportunities to share with both teachers and students the fundamental role that native plants play in sustaining life on this planet.
As students push college campus administration's to reduce pesticide, and herbicide use through initiatives like herbicide free campus, and be campus USA which is an initiative of the Xerxes society.
There is space to join the conversation and educate groundskeepers students and faculty on the importance of native plants when attracting and achieving a balance with beneficial insects pollinators birds and other wildlife.
Many faith communities and service organizations are joining the discussion and taking action towards conservation.
One such example is rotary in June of 2020 rotary leadership unanimously voted to add supporting the environment as an area of focus. Joining peacekeeping, excuse me, peace building and conflict prevention.
Disease Prevention and treatments, water, sanitation and hygiene maternal and child health.
Basic Education and Literacy and economic Sunni Community Economic Development so all those other goals I mentioned before, that's rotary was engaged in those but now the environment is part of their agenda.
Sacred grounds is a National Wildlife Federation program that recognizes congregations houses of worship, and faith communities who both create wildlife habitat and actively link phase practices and caring for the environment.
If you belong to a community that is exploring ways to better steward the environment. Encourage them to consider incorporating native plants into their objectives and landscapes faith communities, water an awful lot of non functional turf grass in this
country,
native plants lend a sense of place to residential developments. Encourage your city planner or Hoa to incorporate more native plants into parks and open space along and alongside public path pathways.
If you are unable to make headway considering joining your consider joining your Hoa board policies are shaped by those who show up. Many prairie plants co evolved with fire, and prescribed burns simulate the conditions under which prairies regenerate.
I suspect that communities on long Colorado's Front Range will be taking a closer look at the role of fire in healthy grassland ecosystems in the wake of the recent devastating Marshall fire.
These photos are other development called prairie crossing in northeast Illinois, the birthplace of the wild ones liked prairie chapter.
If you wish to transform the landscaping policies and practices of your municipality or parks department's.
Take time to meet with them in person. Share your story share why you care, elected officials represent people not pollinators. They are more apt to respond to stories about the positive impact that native plants and habitat gardens have on people.
If you see transformations taking place in your communities. Take time to thank the representatives that and staff that made that happen.
Officials tend to only hear from constituents, when there is a problem, they desperately need to hear from positive feedback from us when they implement policies and practices that support healthy ecosystems.
In December of 2019 I had an opportunity to explore. Part of the habitat garden exhibit at the Smithsonian Gardens on the National Mall in Washington DC, the expansive habitat exhibit, of which was across approximately 50 acres included medians of roadside
native plantings water sources pollinator gardens, a monarch waste station and a variety of snags insects hotels and other habitat features. It was wonderful to see this transformation of what is essentially America's front yard, the habitat exhibit is
now on tour across the country and is currently on display at the works, Ohio center for our sees me for history, art and technology in Newark Ohio.
In the most recent journal issue wild ones business member aaron Michael invited fellow native plant enthusiasts to contact the Biden administration and show support for native landscaping on the grounds of the White House, the people's house.
I've shared a link to send a message and email message to the White House on the resources web page.
Habitat gardens can be a source of civic pride vision and desire for a butterfly garden and pollinator garden in Antigua Wisconsin community of about 8000 prompted the formation of the wild ones North Woods gateway chapter, and a whirlwind of fundraising
and volunteer opportunities, resulting in a beautiful garden in the shape of a butterfly.
This new community resources within easy reach and walking distance of to grade schools, senior residents hospital. several health care facilities and community baseball fields.
One man's trash is another man's treasure gardens can be installed on a shoestring budget using recycled and salvage materials.
The story of the green Brian garden that I mentioned at the start of the talk resonates with anyone who is passionate about recycling.
And I raised my hand I'm one of them. I'm part of that tribe.
Many people were stuck at home in 2020, and many tackled landscape projects. This resulted in an abundance of free materials trees drums river rock pea gravel squeegee filter it, and urbanite which is broken and concrete.
Volunteers collected materials and installed the hard scape elements of the garden for next to nothing. Donors were pleased to be rid of unwanted materials and happy to support a native plant demonstration garden
solar farms and solar garden is run more efficiently when paired with plants that moderate the temperature around the panel's native plants thrive with little or no additional inputs and had minimal cost to a solar farm.
Minnesota was the first state to adopt voluntary pollinator friendly solar farm standards in 2016 with a scorecard laying out benchmarks for biodiversity native plants and blooming seasons.
If solar farms are sprouting up in your region, reach out and suggest a pivot to a pollinator friendly garden. Solar pardon.
Reading Room screen or living rooms or another challenging space where native plants can thrive.
If green roofs are trending in your area, reach out to the living architecture community, and suggest adding native plants to current projects and future designs, many corporations are implementing sustainability plans and exploring ways to lighten their
carbon footprints, transforming water guzzling corporate campuses.
All those longs to native landscapes is both good for the planet and good for the bottom line.
Farmers and researchers in regenerative and organic agriculture, point to the benefits of incorporated native species into windbreaks at hedgerows an inter planting and under planting with native species to attract beneficial insects, and sometimes yields
Secretary secondary income in the form of pasture, or pastor forage or native seeds.
Some years ago at a pollinator summit, I attended I learned about a program in eastern Colorado that caught my attention because of what appeared on the surface to be unlikely partners that were involved, quoting from the Pheasants Forever website, quote,
corners for conservation is a partnership between Pheasants Forever farmers, Colorado Parks and Wildlife Natural Resources Conservation Service, high plains Land Conservancy and muli fanatics to create habitat for birds bees, bucks and butterflies.
That helps farmers make their land, more profitable and gives the public open space, access for hunting.
What a win for everyone, especially the wildlife and quote.
The fact that pheasant and mule deer hunters were potential allies for pollinator conservation was an eye opener funding from Pheasants Forever chapters pays for five critical components of this unique partnership, equipment, labor seed landowner incentives
and outreach, farmers use the center pivot irrigation that use sorry center pivot irrigation to will convert to those awkward to irrigate corners, those seven to eight acres per corner into lush wildlife habitat with walk in public access for hunters.
The hunters needed access land in this region is 98% privately owned the program invested into no till drills, which are used to seed over 1600 acres each year with a diverse mix of native species.
Programs like this serve as a model for what's possible when you think more broadly about who to include in your community of support for native plants, and just an update.
Since then I doing this research for this program I recognize that Pheasants Forever is leveraging its success with corners for conservation.
In February of last year in 2021 they launched a $500 million national campaign to cultivate the next generation of conservationists enhance over 9 million acres of applying the habitat.
They.
And they project to permanently protect 75,000 acres of land.
They should be on our list, our growing list I should say of allies.
Speaking of campaigns I should share that wild ones is not a political organization, but our members and chapters do engage in policy advocacy public policies reflect the values of the people, many are outdated and fail to adequately addressed the current
climate and biodiversity crises, as well as economic, social and racial inequities.
If policy advocacy is an arena that you are wish to engage in. I encourage you to reach out to the wild ones team of volunteer wild lawyers. The link to contact them is also on that tending nature page.
The lawyers that can't represent you in a case or speak on your behalf, but they are in a position to offer their working knowledge of policy revisions and interpretations.
and they can also offer some guidance.
Not everyone out there loves the look of a native habitat garden. We get a lot of questions about how to respond to an advocate for changes to local weed ordinances, this March, join November, joined volunteer, wild lawyer, Iowa attorney and business
Professor razon pawns as she explains what to do if the weed police, knock on your door
cultivating community building relationships with organizations and individuals takes time, be mindful of the that the relationship you build is reciprocal, and be sure to cash in on your investment, invite people to you connect with to share their story
More broadly, with the community stories can be shared online via social media or virtual programs or in person, the pandemic has limited people's capacity to connect.
Marshall Tucker, whose garden I highlighted earlier hasn't been able to host another garden tour or attend events, but she has collected and donated seeds from her garden.
Be sure to identify and share diverse opportunities for engagement. I find that most members of this community are extremely generous. And I'm not talking about money, although in many cases that is also true.
I'm talking about time and expertise and labor and plants and seeds, like nature gardeners are givers. Be sure to provide opportunities for people to give back.
I would be remiss not to mention a few obvious allies in this work to build support for native plants natural landscaping native plant nursery owners and staff Botanic Garden staff.
Nature Center and public lands staff extension agents university faculty and many landscape designers are well positioned and eager to share their knowledge.
We need to give them an opportunity to speak, by organizing programs hikes and tours and introducing them to new audiences.
And speaking of connecting with new audiences marketing campaigns like the Missouri prairie Foundation's bro native program. The plant Virginia natives marketing partnership resource Central's garden in a garden in a box and plant select in the Rocky
Mountain region do a wonderful job, educating consumers about the importance of incorporating native plants into home landscapes.
While neither garden in the box or plan select exclusively promote native plants, the native species that are in those programs have gained traction and are enjoying mainstream demand while others have not many Front Range residents discover native plants.
through these two well publicized and popular programs, a solid marketing campaign helps shift public aesthetic perceptions and drive up the demand for native plants, prompting nurseries to grow more native species to generate widespread support for native
plants. We need to shift that aesthetic. To do that we need the plants, we need them planted in demonstration gardens, we need them growing in front of our libraries and our synagogues and along the expressway and in the Costco parking lot we need them
in our gardens we need them in public gardens. People need to see these plants in home and public spaces in order to recognize their beauty and deem them desirable, rather than weedy
to generate widespread support for native plants and natural landscapes gardens have to be pretty many native plants are highly adaptable and show well in both naturalistic and formal gardens.
Many excel at providing year round interest. Many landscape features boulders rock walls crevices containers and water features are critical habitat elements, but they can also be highly decorative attention to these elements invites a connection with
rock garden society and the cactus and succulents society and all manner of mainstream garden clubs,
writer and botanist Susan j Twilight recommends designing to reflect the terroir of our flavor of a place.
We live in a country of migrants, many people move across states, multiple times in their lifetimes. There is a tendency to want to plant what is familiar.
What, and not what is native.
A big part of shifting aesthetic perceptions is introducing the public to locally sourced materials.
When designing a native plant garden.
Choose elements and plants that are evocative of the region garden should look like they belong in a space.
If you live in the Rocky Mountains, use rocks in from the region in the garden.
Look to the natural world around you for design inspiration.
I want to mention the important role that signage plays in generating support for native plants messaging matters. When your neighbors look askance at the logs and branches in your yard, put a sign up that demonstrates that what you're doing in your garden
is intentional wild ones, the National Wildlife Federation and Audubon Rockies they all have garden certification programs that have signs, both the California native plant society and the Xerxes society, which focuses on the conservation of invertebrates,
they have signs in Spanish, other local organizations have a garden certification programs and there are loads of signs on Etsy science go a long way towards educating and engaging your neighbors.
I'm convinced that there is a segment of the population that cannot survive without their smartphones, and it's not just kids.
I openly admit that the internet is my favorite gardening tool, but I'm not tethered to it. I think some people are to enable those folks to dig deeper include a QR code on your signs linking back to your local wild ones website, or your YouTube channel
or other resources or perhaps link to a blog post about your garden or a plant list that they can download QR codes are a cheap way to facilitate learning and connect people to your organization and its mission garden signage prompts people to slow down,
learn and observe science passively educate people, but they can also prompt action, focusing attention towards a particular plant or feature cultivating a closer connection to nature.
I recently chatted with Kimberly Symon, owner of kms late of plant nursery on Long Island. There's a lot of plants activity happening on Long Island at the moment I really hope we get to establish a wild ones chapter there soon.
Kimberly shared something that I wanted to share with you. And first she shared a story of how our customers are amazed at the home and buzz of life they find when they visit our garden and her nursery, but she also shared a story about a neighbor.
This neighbor regularly and liberally spray, pesticides, to control who knows what in their garden.
When this neighbor asked if he could purchase some of the plants some native plants from her, she refused. She said, and I'm paraphrasing, if I sell you the shrubs pollinators will come insects will come, birds will come.
And then you will spray.
And they will all die. And if you stop spraying, I will sell you the plants but only if you stop spraying the neighbor did not stop spraying and Kimberly didn't make the sale.
And that's why I wanted to share this story.
First, it's a good teaching moment and second did echoes Mary gardeners point that pesticides are detrimental to healthy ecosystems and we need to stop spraying, but it also points to our values, wild ones we recognize the people are on a spectrum of
familiarity with native plants. Some folks are brand new to gardening and know nothing about plants native or otherwise, while others are seasoned botanist with decades of field experience and gardens with native plants that are native to their precise
location, as a community, we welcome anyone who wants to learn and share.
But as individuals, it's okay for your values to shape your personal codes your standards I'm hunting for the right word to describe and it's eluding me and standards isn't quite right but I can't find the right word.
If you are designer that only wants to design, install or maintain 100% native short grass prairie gardens, make that your business model and part of your mission and marketing.
I think clients who I think the clients who share that vision and want to pay for your services they will find you share those standards and message them as a speciality as a selling point.
I think in many regions maybe not most, maybe not all, but in many regions or industry professionals can now afford to be the specialist be.
A few years ago I attended a workshop in Southern California on yard transformations to native landscaping, the instructor was a landscape designer worked in San Diego, and she said something that has stuck with me.
She said that she wanted to make an impact in her community she wanted to see the necessary shift to more ecologically sound landscaping in her lifetime.
So she changed her business model.
She only designs front yards, she might do entire properties but she won't take a backyard project.
She said that in her community for every one front yard transformation within a year or two. For more households on or near that street followed suit.
People need to see the change to make the change. They need to be inspired. for her it made great business sense design a beautiful water wise garden full of native plants that people see everyday Driving through the neighborhood.
and the more people will want one.
This is a solid example of what's good for the environment is good for the economy.
Well the call in for action is urgent, and the time feels ripe native plants are trending on Tick Tock after all. I urge you to practice a little patience.
People respond and act in different ways, and in their own time. Lifetime wild ones member Betty Joe page told me that it took, hearing, Doug Tallamy three times, hearing him speak three times and this was pre pandemics so he made at least three trips
to Denver before she realized that he was talking to her and that she recognized that there were changes she could make on her property in her front yard to better support the ecosystem.
Betty Joe is a lifelong organic gardener and educator, you would expect her to run headlong into habitat gardening and she has, but it took time under the pressures of the pandemic.
People are stretched thin, more so than ever before in my lifetime.
I think it wise to be mindful of that and to practice both grace and patience when reaching out to build this community, not everyone will have the capacity to respond.
But don't be afraid to ask the worst that can happen is someone says no, in my experience, more often than not, that not the answer is yes.
This community is like a garden it needs tending exercise your observational skills and pay attention when you talk to people listen for opportunities to collaborate and contribute.
And don't be afraid to ask for help.
If you do have the capacity to volunteer to share your passion time and skills. I encourage you to raise your hand and reach out, organizations like wild ones depend on volunteers to move the mission forward.
If you love event planning or if you are a social media maven or a graphic designer or web designer if you're a good writer or a talented photographer, none of these skills require a green thumb and all of them come in very handy when cultivating when
connecting a community.
All of these programs and activities and resources the chapters are running, they don't organize and produce themselves.
Of course if you are a gifted grower we need you to most of all we need people who are willing to share their passion with others through posts print photos and through person to person dialogue, but can you give How can you serve.
How can you best support this growing community.
And we are growing like the perennial plants that sleep creep and then leap in our gardens. This community has taken root and planted seeds and is now flourishing.
We can now say with conviction that native plants are no longer the fringe, but they are the future of landscaping.
And with that, I would love to address some questions and I will move to my contact information, which you are welcome to reach out to and I'm going to try and on share, well maybe I'll leave that screen on for just a little bit.
That's fine. Thank you Lisa so much folks I see lots of you're putting thank you in the chat box I appreciate that we ran over a little bit I let Lisa go we lost a few minutes in, with some tech issues but I also put the, The link the direct link there
in the chat box a few places it's still you have to scroll up. That's the link to all the resources that Lisa compiled the information about why laws and ordinances, some of the webinars coming up many of you put in the chat box you were interested in
the in Neil de Bold's webinar and other webinars, all that is on that resource that Lisa offered to us and it's also on our learn with us page so we're all of our readings are, you'll find her whole list of resources.
So again, Lisa Thank you lots of really great ideas and projects places, I love the idea of stories I think that stories really get people engaged, and let's take a few questions.
Do you have suggestions for what can be incorporated into vegetable gardens native plants, and a ferry from region to region. So I would lean heavily on those plants that are just pollinator magnets in my region, there's a plant it's not the prettiest
plan out there and it has one of those really unfortunate names called curly cup GM we'd.
Oh my gosh, I was at a native collections the collection and this plant was, you know, growing out there, just doing its thing. And it was so distracting I mean it was, it was covered with with species and it isn't just because the the seeds, well the
flowers are kind of sticky. I mean, it wasn't like bugs were just getting stuck to the plans, I mean it was a magnet, of all kinds of pollinators bees beetles everybody was on that plant.
So I would do a little digging in terms of which plans are just hands down, going to be the magnets.
For for pollinators and definitely check out how their homes resources for that she's got some great plant lists on who goes to what you might want to maybe for a community garden situation if you got little kids maybe don't do so heavily on the, on the
plants that attract bees but go for the ones that are going to attract the flies and the and the other critters that maybe are less intimidating for really young children.
That would be my suggestion.
Okay. You mentioned some library book titles related to native plants and insect bio diversity is that on the resource list that you shared or can you.
If you can pass titles on to me I can add that to the only one that I didn't put on the list was to how to raise a wild child that was actually written by someone affiliated with the Natural History Museum here in Denver, so it was kind of a locally produced
book I that may have been a high it was on our radar. There were so many books out there though that that speak to nature engagement now and and how critical it is, but also Doug Tommy's books.
If you haven't read them, do if you haven't watched last week's webinar do because, Oh my gosh, I've heard him speak a bunch of times and I still learned a bunch from from his talk.
But yeah, the other thing I didn't mention getting child of librarians are chapters that are looking at seed libraries as a potential way to incorporate native plants into broader communities, because there are many seed libraries that offer vegetable
seeds, but they don't all have native seeds and so one of the focuses for this year and are collecting locally, was to get some of those easy to grow species, the ones that just produce and produce and produce seeds like you can't.
You don't know what to do with all the seeds and and if they drop on the ground, you're going to regret it because then you will have a forest of Rocky Mountain v plants, and you won't be able you know to see out of your yard.
So you'll get one of those tickets so can you talk about the seed sharing because that was actually one of the questions.
There's a big misconception that you're not legally allowed to share seeds so if you want to talk about the sheet, sharing and seed catalog.
There are rules, there are rules and regulations we are not selling seeds I'm going to make that very very clear these are free events.
That said, gardeners donate and it's been really rewarding to see how much people are supportive of these events.
But, you know, it is sort of an honor system we do sort of say, you know, to the best of our knowledge, these are the species that have been collected because we are relying on on novice novices to collect, many of the seeds we do get some amazing diversity
from some of those people I mentioned in that horticulture Rome, who also have amazing gardens. They've donated, an amazing diverse array of species at this past year's event.
We had over 180 native species represented throughout the season of native seeds, which I find astounding I think that's just amazing.
But the intention is not to sell these seeds, these are not seeds that are being purchased by or taken by, by, you know, industry professionals, these are home gardeners that are coming to take seeds, try their hand at growing them out themselves leaning
on propagation groups for resources to get those seeds growing.
That said, there are some rules as far as the seed libraries go, and it doesn't hurt to check with your local USDA office and see what those rules are they, I know the boulder Public Library has an envelope that they've sort of pre printed saying, you
know, this is what this species is we do ask that people include like the location of the collection The date is very critical in our area we asked to include the of elevation I know that's not a thing and most of the country, but in our part it's it's
a big deal as to whether a plant was grown at 5000 or 10,000 feet and so we we want people to indicate that on the, on the seeds that they submit to the swamps and to the, to the seed share events and that way you know if you're looking to adopt seeds,
you're finding the most geographically relevant and the plants that are just going to do the best best adapted to your elevation your region.
There were several questions about that maybe we can we can wrap up here with folks who are maybe they just learned about wild ones from you, they'd like to find out about chapters, um, how did they get a list of those chapters and also Is there anything
in Canada we have quite a few in Canada and they want to know, can I know we get a lot of of questions about our friends to the north, wild ones is currently only registered to, you know, do business I mean we don't really do business but that's what
we're licensed to do as an educational nonprofit.
In the United States, so we don't currently have members.
Well that's not true we have members in Canada, but they join us partners at large, they aren't we can't start chapters in in Canada at the moment that will take some time to work through those hurdles but honestly, we're still jumping through the state
hurdle, because every state is different.
So, the number of every time a chapter pops up in a new state and this week that was Virginia Hello southeastern Chesapeake, that was Monday. So we have chapters popping up and some experience a slow start others take off like wildfire and really I think
depends on the person who starts it as to whether or not they are a wallflower or, you know, butterfly.
If they're, they're going to talk to everybody they ever met about native plants that chapter is going to take off quickly, but there's no time limits as far as starting a chapter goes.
The list of chapters you asked is on the chapters tab on the on the website so if you go to the homepage and just click chapters I'll pops that map, and yes it does keep changing.
This week, we did well. Okay week plus one day we've had two chapters launch both one in Virginia and another or third in Pennsylvania.
Great, thanks Lisa and I think you got a couple few new members I see that marriage have joined the Ann Arbor group so very nice. Yeah, and our great group.
So thanks again for putting your presentation together for gathering lots of different ideas and programs and projects to share with us to get us thinking a little bit beyond just the plant, how do we pull the people piece then wider.
And that folks Thank you for coming. Thanks for all of your comments in the, in the chat box sorry for all those questions you had great questions we weren't able to get all all those in.
And we'll see each other next Friday with a brand and for talking about specialist BS. again thanks and everybody have a great day.