At our May meeting one of our members, Ruby Moon, introduced us to the Homegrown National Park Project. Founded by Douglas Tallamy and Michelle Alfandari, it’s mission is to energize a grassroots effort to restore habitat to create biodiverse ecosystems. This will help preserve a diversity of wildlife which will help preserve the resources we need to survive.
They are trying to accomplish this mission by challenging homeowners, property owners, and farmers to plant native plants and eliminate invasive species on their own properties. Their initial goal is 20 million acres of native plantings in the U.S. This represents half of the green lawns of privately owned properties.
Tallamy, an entomologist at the University of Delaware, became interested in this effort because of the decline in insect populations, partially because of a loss of habitat from development, conversion of areas to decorative landscaping, and the introduction of invasive species. Insects are important as pollinators and as food for other wildlife, including lizards, frogs and toads, birds and mammals, from rodents to bears. Many of the insects have adapted to only eating certain plants, many of which are native to a region. If enough homeowners in an area create habitat, the wildlife can move from one spot to another.
The resources listed below include a map of the U.S. Property owners that develop natural areas enter their property on the map. You can see those sites by double clicking on an area of the map. Corvallis has 46 sites, including Bessie Coleman School.