Village and Wilderness is interviewing established and innovative programs to record successful and replicable solutions to common problems. Our growing list of case studies will be posted here, providing a menu of options that programs can learn from.
CASE STUDIES
Building a Volunteer Cadre for Native Seed Collection:
Lessons from Heather McCargo, Founder of Wild Seed Project
Backyard Habitat planting with Verde
Source: Audobonportland.org
Diversifying Participation in Backyard Habitat Programs Through Community Partners
Lessons from the “Backyard Habitat Certification Program” of Columbia Land Trust and Portland Audubon.
The Backyard Habitat Certification Program (BHCP) is a microhabitat program jointly managed by Columbia Land Trust and Portland Audubon. This program, which currently includes over 10,000 backyard habitats, aims to restore ecosystem function via private sites throughout the Portland-Vancouver metro area of Oregon and Washington states.
This case study explores how BHCP is working to create a more inclusive and diverse program, thereby expanding its ecological and social impact and benefits. To increase access for people who do not own their own backyards, for example, BHCP now includes over 400 community sites such as churchyards and apartment-complex gardens. Another strategy has been to partner with mission- and culturally-specific community organizations in the area. BHCP’s experience reveals useful takeaways for forging relationships with community organizations. Briefly:
Innovations in Creating Responsive Native Plant Markets:
A Community Supported Model
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
Figure 1: Map of the geographic scope of programs
Source: A survey of American residential garden conservation programs, Journal of Urban Ecology, Volume 9, Issue 1, 2023.
A Survey of American residential garden conservation programs
TOOL KIT
Nature Advisors’ Volunteer Training and Resources Website
Microhabitat program map.
Photo source: Village and Wilderness
Map of Microhabitat Programs Nationally
Over the past year, we have been raking the web, research papers and other sources to find microhabitat programs that provide in-person support and site-specific recommendations to program participants. We have located 25 programs to date, enough listings, we figured, to warrant a cartographic depiction of program locations. Do you know other programs that should be included in the map and directory? Please refer them to us at in**@vi******************.org. We would love to learn more about them.
PODCASTS
MISCELLANEOUS
Check out our list of the top podcasts for busy microhabitat program practitioners to stay attuned to important research, debates, perspectives, events and opportunities, while on the go. Each podcast host uses a unique lens to explore the topics of native plants, ecological landscaping and the natural world, with relevance to microhabitat programs and ecological restoration in human-dominated areas. Find these podcasts on your favorite podcast app and add them to your listening line-up for 2024.
Bridge to rewilding.
Photo source: Pixabay
Rewilding Magazine
Check out Rewilding, a wonderful magazine that aims to build “a community of storytelling about rewilding in Canada and the world.” We were particularly drawn to this essay by US-based author and ecological landscape designer Ben Vogt: “Why wildlife gardeners need to become garden designers ASAP”. It underscores the importance of incorporating intentional design and management principles into naturalized landscaping, so that they bring more people along via a “bridge” between ecological and traditional gardening.
April Is National Native Plant Month
In a time of political polarization, it is surely noteworthy that a resolution to declare April as National Native Plant Month passed unanimously in the US Congress in March. Learn about the impetus behind this effort, led by the Garden Clubs of America and its partners, or click on the button below to read the individual state proclamations and more. This annual re-designation prompts optimism for further support for native plants, such as North Carolina’s recent bipartisan law (page 604) and the City of Somerville’s native plant ordinance. What more can be built upon such a foundation of consensus, at local, state and federal levels?
Microhabitat Programs as Native Plant Refugia
Seeds at Nachusa Grasslands Preserve, Illinois.
Photo credit: ©Ami Vitale/TNC
Native Seed Collection Training
Combination of wild bergamot and butterfly weed.
Photo by Tripti Thomas-Travers
Favorite Native Plant Combinations
Combination of wild bergamot and butterfly weed.
Photo by Tripti Thomas-Travers
Village & Wilderness in Blue Dot Magazine
Let your garden grow wild
Invasive Species Eradication Funding Opportunity
Village and Wilderness at Rally 2024
Access to native plants, preferably of local genotype, is essential for microhabitat programs. But the availability of these plants, and the seeds to propagate them, may be very limited because the careful gathering, processing and propagation of local seed is not always commercially viable. Microhabitat programs may then undertake this work themselves with volunteer help. This piece gathers advice from Heather McCargo, founder of Wild Seed Project, a noted, Maine-based, seed stewardship and distribution organization, on fostering a volunteer cadre for seed work. The lessons imparted are also applicable to volunteer engagement more widely. Read more…
More case studies coming soon