Land Conservation Efforts Grow

Our land conservation team worked through a variety of important projects and, simultaneously, expanded our Native Plant Nursery into its best year yet! We sold 11,681 native plants, enabling you to restore habitat in your own backyard while also helping fund various restoration efforts across our 300+ acre campus. Our team installed a new monarch way station, with funding from Monarch Watch. Eight staff and 25 volunteers prepared, planted, and continue to monitor 764 milkweed and other pollinator plants. Later we discovered Catalpa Sphinx Moths in the same area and nerded out about them!

One project in particular—our work to remove chaste trees, funded by the National Environmental Education Foundation—is a great example of using conservation knowledge in the field. Our staff watched a species that was originally planted intentionally and was a named arboretum species, and saw it had invasive tendencies before it became far more difficult to remove.

Our dedicated and inspiring Native Landscape Apprentices are learning while contributing so much to our land conservation and restoration work, and we’re so grateful for them (and to the many funders who make their time with us possible).