Hello ,

As we head into a new season, we reflect on the busy summer behind us. Village and Wilderness coordinated a workshop at the Land Trust Alliance’s Rally featuring the inspiring work of four programs in our network. The workshop was attended by over 70 people, indicating ever more interest in microhabitat work within the land trust world. We recruited three more microhabitat programs to our Practitioners Circle and continue to focus on making this a valuable peer community. Grantees from our inaugural Catalyst Grant round are reporting back exciting initial progress and we look forward to sharing their results with you in the months ahead.

A number of other initiatives are also underway…a "how to" manual and other resources to help startup programs, prioritizing research to objectively evaluate the ecological and social impact of microhabitats, and exploring more partnerships to amplify the great work our programs are already doing. As someone said on a recent Practitioners Circle call, “we need to be doing more, more, more,” and that’s exactly what drives us here at the Microhabitat Program Incubator.

Kind regards,

Tom & Tripti

PROGRAM SPOTLIGHTS

The MPI Practitioners Circle Welcomes 3 New Members

A warm welcome to the latest programs to join the Practitioners Circle: 

The Certified Backyard Habitat program of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania

The Habitat Haven Backyard Certification Program of Lane County Audubon Society 

The Nature At Home Certification Program of NC Extension Master Gardener Program

The MPI Practitioners Circle comprises community-based programs—typically nonprofits and local agencies—with two elements in common. One, they provide on-site recommendations for microhabitats. Two, they have ongoing efforts to renaturalize multiple spaces over time within a community. Know of programs that might be a good fit? Send them our way!

IN THE NEWS

Homeowner Associations Can’t Ban Native Plants, Thanks to New Illinois Law

Openlands, home of the Lands in Harmony microhabitat program in IL, has contributed to the crafting and passage of a new and nuanced Illinois law preventing the banning of native plans by HOAs. Our Practitioners Circle colleague Sarah Surroz is quoted extensively in the article.

RESEARCH

Humanity for Habitat: Residential Yards as an Opportunity for Biodiversity Conservation

Seeking scientific research on the impact of yard habitats? This important paper conducts a wide literature review and synthesizes some of the key evidence on the efficacy of yard-level work and of a range of yard management practices for biodiversity, climate resilience and human well-being. Desirée Narango, one of the authors of the paper, is a member of our Advisory Committee.

TOOLS & RESEARCH

Downloadable Native Garden Designs from Wild Ones

We are excited to learn of this Wild Ones resource: A growing collection of free, downloadable, native garden designs tailored to different U.S. ecoregions and light, soil, and moisture conditions. Each design is accompanied by a plant list, showcasing the beauty and diversity of native plants. The page also includes links to Wild Ones’ (free) webinar series featuring noted ecological garden designers.

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Whether you are new to our newsletter, or just missed our last update in your inbox, you can now catch up on all the back issues.

What is a “Microhabitat Program”?

Microhabitat programs restore ecosystem function in the fragmented landscape be it for people or biodiversity or both. Examples include community-scale efforts to create backyard habitats, bioswales in urban areas, pollinator patches along agricultural margins and more.

Interested in supporting our work?

Donate today. Your support allows us to provide pro bono services to community-based nonprofits to help them create and share community-scale climate adaptation strategies—such as microhabitat programs. 

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