Many Thanks Supporters!

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Hyssop. Hummingbird Heaven! photo Catherine B. Zimmerman

Hyssop. Hummingbird Heaven!   photo Catherine B. Zimmerman

On behalf of the Hometown Habitat film crew, Doug Tallamy and the Chesapeake Conservation Landscaping Council, I want to recognize all the generous folks who have joined our team by donating their dollars.  As independent filmmakers, we can’t produce this important documentary without your help and support!  Thank you!

One of our biggest donors is the Wild Ones Natural Landscapers, who pledged a minimum of $5,000. With Wild Ones chapters all over the country contributing, they are well over $6,000 and have earned a place in the credits!  I am proud to be an honorary director for such an amazing organization! Here’s what Executive Director, Donna VanBuecken, said about why Wild Ones are backing Hometown Habitat.

“The heroes in Catherine’s film “Hometown Habitat” will depict what Wild Ones all over have been doing for 35 years. Moving the cause for natural landscaping along any way they can with little shoves or big pushes.  We have been taught from childhood that gardens are for beauty, that they are a chance to express our artistic talents, to have fun with, to relax in, but not that they are necessary to our very existence on this planet. If we are to preserve other forms of life and the role they play in human sustenance, we must change the way we landscape our yards and our green space.  But we as individuals can only do so much.  It is up to our city planners, businesses and developers to take up the cause as well.  They will have the biggest impact on the way we humans live our lives in harmony with nature.  It is our hope that Catherine’s film will push that impact forward that much faster.”   — Donna

Wow!  Love that sentiment!

At this point, we are only about 1/5 of the way to our fundraising goal of $176,000.  We need you!

It is our hope that many more  individuals and organizations, like The Wild Ones, will support as they see the potential impact this film will have on communities and homeowners to change a lawn based culture to one that embraces nature and recognizes all the great benefits we gain landscaping with native plants.  Fabulous benefits, such as providing oxygen, cleaning water, building topsoil, capturing storm water, pollinating food plants and sequestering carbon!

For more of this…

Bullocks Oriole with Bee on Trumpet Vine    copyright Cheryl Mills & Allen Lang

and this…

Emerging Monarch Catherine B. Zimmerman

Emerging Monarch Butterfly     photo  Catherine B. Zimmerman

and this…

Dragonfly at twilight. photo Catherine B. Zimmerman

Dragonfly at Twilight   photo Catherine B. Zimmerman

Help us spread the word about the value of native plants.  Please support Hometown Habitat!  BONUS… Your important donation is tax deductible!     —- Catherine

35 Years of Wildness!

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Wild Center, Neenah, WI

WILD Center, Neenah, WI   photo Catherine B. Zimmerman

The Meadow Project has spent most of the post 4th of July weeks roaming around Wisconsin, visiting people and organizations we call Habitat Heroes. The Wild Ones Natural Landscapers was on our radar as one of the oldest organizations in the mid-west to have a mission of “promoting environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration and establishment of native plant communities.”

I discovered Wild Ones while researching Urban & Suburban Meadows and was extremely impressed with their history and accomplishments in environmental health.  I was so  excited by their work I wrote a blog post for Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens,  In Praise of Wild Ones.  

Wild Ones formally began in 1979 in Wisconsin, a state with a rich heritage of environmental activism.  Thirty five years later they have spread to fourteen states with over 40 chapters. Not only have we been able to follow Wild Ones activist Ned Dorff, we were able to sit down with Executive Director, Donna VanBuecken for an interview for Hometown Habitat.

Wild One Ned Dorff works with other volunteers to plant Kress Library Native Plant Garden. along the Fox River Trail.

Wild Ones Ned Dorff works with other volunteers to plant the Kress Library Native Plant Garden along the Fox River Trail.

 

 

 

 

Hometown Habitat, behind the scenes interviewing Wild One Executive Director, Donna VanBuecken-just a touch of powder!

Behind the scenes of Hometown Habitat interviewing Wild Ones Executive Director, Donna VanBuecken-just a touch of powder!  photo Rick Patterson

Donna spoke eloquently of Wild Ones co-founder Lorrie Otto, naturalist and crusader for healthy, pesticide free yards and towns.  Lorrie’s battle to ban DDT resulted in Wisconsin being the first state to outlaw the deadly pesticide and two years later it was banned nationally! The Wild Ones’ thirty five years of activism is grounded in Lorrie’s philosophy;

“If suburbia were landscaped with meadows, prairies, thickets, or forests, or combinations of these, then the water would sparkle, fish would be good to eat again, birds would sing and human spirits would soar.”

“One person can make a difference”, Donna says. “Lorrie Otto started in 1977 just to try to heal the earth, one yard at a time.  Through her insistence, that people become knowledgeable about native plants and natural landscapes, we have become Wild Ones.  From a group of seven people, we have become four thousand and growing!”

Donna VanBuecken, Executive Director Wild Ones Natural Landscapers

Donna VanBuecken, Executive Director Wild Ones Natural Landscapers  photo Catherine B. Zimmerman

Lorrie Otto, Donna VanBuecken, Ned Dorff and Wild Ones all over the country, congratulations on 35 years of wildness!  You are true Habitat Heroes!

For a more in depth look at Wild Ones see my blog post in Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens.

For great natural landscape resources or to start up a Wild Ones chapter visit Wild Ones Natural Landscapers

 

Earth Partnership for Schools

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Filming the children as they begin to sweep the prairie to explore the insect population.

Earth Partnership for Schools holds summer institutes for teachers, students and community members to learn how to make ecology more relevant in the classroom, home and hometown.

We are visiting for two days to see how participants learn and grow and take these concepts home to their own communities.  Here we follow kids visiting a prairie, the Curtis Prairie, for the first time, as citizen scientists, observing, collecting data and learning how to make use of that information in their daily lives, including living with nature!

Students use nets to collect specimens for observation and learning.

Students use nets to collect specimens for observation and learning.

Students work in teams taking turns sweeping for insects and photographing and recording the data on iPads.

Engagement, inspection and identification. Future Habitat Heroes!

Engagement, inspection and identification. Future Habitat Heroes!