Wisconsin Wonderful!

/0 Comments/in /by
Corrie Daniels working to heal ecosystems.

Corrie Daniels, working for healthy ecosystems.

Wow! What a beautiful state and fantastic people!  Today we visited Corrie Daniels and her crew at Taylor Creek Restoration Nursery in Brodhead, WI.

Taylor Creek and sister company Applied Ecological Services, have been around for over 30 years providing native plants grown from locally collected seed as well as ecological design and restoration services.  Founder and sustainability visionary, Steve Apfelbaum, started all this back when “green” was just a color. We will be following Steve in the coming months to explore his approach to land use which brings ecological science to the design process creating a balance between human needs and ecosystem health.  Corrie says of her boss, “Steve is a dynamo. His passion, his absolute passion, is to bring health back to the earth.” Stayed tuned for more on this Wisconsin Habitat Hero!

One of the interesting little critters hanging out at the nursery!

One of the interesting little critters hanging out at the nursery!

Happy 4th of July!

/0 Comments/in /by
Children explore meadow planting.

Children explore meadow planting.

Hello all! We are on the journey and are open to your suggestions of Habitat Heroes. We shoot in Ohio over the holiday and then on to film in Wisconsin for the next week. One program we visit is Earth Partnership for Schools. Teachers engage in week long institutes:
“We invite teachers to participate in a one-week summer Earth Partnership Institute for graduate credit. You will learn how to use the process of ecological restoration as a broad environmental context for teaching and learning about your local natural and cultural communities. The process of habitat restoration is an exciting real-life project that extends through the K–12 curriculum and beyond, and includes many disciplines such as science, math, social studies, language arts, and related arts.”
Effectively teaching our children about the natural world will help grow future stewards and a new army of Habitat Heroes! Looking forward to the next days and the summer institute!

We need your help to make this film. Please DONATE!

Westward Bound

/0 Comments/in /by

We are headed to the mid-west! I am very excited AND happy for the great response yesterday to the fundraising campaign. We need $130,000 for production and we have 60 days to get there. That means every day we need to raise about $2,200. Guess what? You guys stepped up yesterday with exactly $2200! Keep up the support.

Speaking of supporters, I had a nice online chat last night with Betsy, a fellow native plant lover. Here is some of what Betsy had to say:

My husband and I created mini meadows and native plant gardens in our yard several years ago – (mostly inspired by Tallamy’s work) – but also just inspired by childhood in Vermont. and I so related to Tallamy’s story of the frogs! GREAT story! I found my own way to the love of meadows – through the bees. In 2007 I fell in love with the bees- and we got rid of grass and my husband and I planted gardens – and now our yard is full of wonderful native plants and wildlife.  Interesting timing (during our chat) we JUST this minute saw a hummingbird out by the basketball hoop!  Before we transformed the yard we never saw hummingbirds or bees. What a wondrous miracle it all is. I never get tired of watching all the action in the yard!!! Anyway – best wishes on the film – and can’t wait to see it! Hope you have safe and wonderful travels. I just am so happy that you are using your filmmaking gift to help create meadows and habitat for wildlife!!!

Now, I call Betsy, a Habitat Hero! The rest of the night, I pictured her hummingbird, in her bountiful garden!  On, to our mid-west Habitat Heroes.

6Clear_pond_Illinois