Dear friends,

Winter has a way of slowing things down and sharpening our perspective. As landscapes rest and gather strength for what’s next, this season offers a natural moment to pause, look back, and reflect on what has taken root.

This newsletter leans into that rhythm. We’re sharing our 2025 Year in Review as an invitation to explore a year shaped by learning, experimentation, and connection across the growing microhabitat community. You’ll also find reflections on stewardship in unexpected places, insights from new research that reinforces why plant choices matter, and glimpses of how local programs are continuing to evolve and test new ideas.

Together, these stories point to something we’re seeing more clearly with time: meaningful change often unfolds quietly, through patience, shared learning, and care at human scale. We’re grateful to be part of this work alongside so many thoughtful practitioners, partners, and supporters—and we look forward to what the coming seasons will bring.

With thanks,

Tripti & Tom

2025 YEAR IN REVIEW

A year of learning

Our 2025 Year in Review offers a window into a year of learning, connection, and steady groundwork behind the Microhabitat Accelerator. Rather than a comprehensive accounting, it traces how small, locally led efforts—supported through grants, peer exchange, and shared tools—are beginning to cohere into something larger: a growing national community of practice around microhabitat restoration.

We invite you to spend time with the review—exploring the programs, ideas, and partnerships that shaped the year, and the questions they are helping us ask as this work evolves.

TOM’S CORNER

Growing the next generation of stewards

This edition began with a simple question that came up during a casual conversation over coffee: could college campuses play a larger role in the microhabitat movement? That question stayed with me, and it led us to take a closer look at campus-based microhabitat programs across the country—and to create a new Campus Microhabitat Programs Directory on our website, with the help of UC Berkeley graduate, Alex Boren.

What we found surprised and inspired me: A wide range of campus programs serving not only ecological goals, but also helping students find community, meaning, and calm. In this piece, I reflect on what these living landscapes can teach us about stewardship, connection, and the role campuses can play in shaping the future of restoration work.

GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT

Planting a microhabitat movement in Louisiana

As readers may recall from a previous newsletter, The People’s Forest Foundation was the first organization to graduate from our 2025 Incubator Grant program—and they continue to inspire us with their initiative and ingenuity. Through a new website, a creative approach to certification terminology, and the launch of consultation services, they are making it easier for homeowners, schools, and businesses in Southeast Louisiana to begin bringing nature back into everyday spaces. We’re excited to watch how this community-based program continues to take shape and grow.

RESEARCH

Not all native plants support food webs equally

A newly published paper by Kimberley Shropshire and Douglas Tallamy compiles the most comprehensive dataset to date on butterflies and moths in North America—and, critically, the plants their caterpillars depend on. Drawing on decades of peer-reviewed research, the authors document more than 12,500 Lepidoptera species and thousands of host-plant relationships, reinforcing a key insight many of our practitioners already see in the field: plant choice matters deeply for ecosystem function.

For microhabitat programs, the practical takeaway is powerful. A relatively small number of native plant genera support a disproportionate share of insect life that feeds birds and other wildlife. This research provides a strong scientific foundation for prioritizing “high-value” native plants in site recommendations, outreach materials, and habitat scoring systems—especially when space, budgets, or homeowner willingness are limited. It also offers practitioners a credible way to explain why some native plant choices deliver far greater ecological returns than others.

IN THE MEDIA

A trail named in Tom’s honor

The Vineyard Gazette recently marked the naming of the Tom Chase Trail at the Nature Conservancy’s Hoft Farm Preserve with a profile of Tom, using the occasion to reflect on an approach to conservation grounded in long time horizons, community trust, and close attention to place. The trail naming offers a moment to recognize work that unfolds gradually and often out of the spotlight, but leaves a lasting imprint on landscapes and communities.

The article traces Tom’s background as a lifelong Vineyarder and his long career in conservation on Martha’s Vineyard, with a particular emphasis on ecological restoration and stewardship. That emphasis resonates strongly with the philosophy behind Village and Wilderness and the Microhabitat Accelerator: that meaningful conservation can happen at human scale, that restoration is as much about people as land, and that cumulative local efforts—tended patiently over time—can add up to durable, resilient change.

What is a “Microhabitat Program”?

A microhabitat program is a community-based initiative that organizes and sustains multiple microhabitat projects—like native plant gardens in yards, verges, or school grounds—within a locality. Unlike a single project, a program provides structure, coordination, and visibility, turning scattered sites into a connected effort that restores ecosystem function, fosters stewardship, and builds resilience at the neighborhood scale.

What is the “Microhabitat Accelerator”?

The Microhabitat Accelerator aims to increase both the number and impact of microhabitat programs—advancing a growing movement to restore ecosystem function across fragmented landscapes. 

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We help community-based organizations invent, share and grow replicable, climate adaptation solutions. Our flagship project is the Microhabitat Accelerator℠