Why Native Plants?

The Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will host a public forum online titled “Why Native Plants?” at 10:30 a.m., Sunday, April 14. The speaker is Marcia Goodrich, president of Wild Ones Keweenaw, a chapter of a national nonprofit called Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes. She will discuss the importance of native plants in creating habitat that nurtures wildlife, including bees, butterflies, and birds. She will describe the special attributes of native plants and how to incorporate them into our gardens and civic landscapes. She will share examples of local native gardens, sources for buying native plants, and more. A question-and-answer period will follow the presentation. For the last several decades, global bird and insect populations have plummeted. Unlike many looming environmental catastrophes, this decline can be addressed, in part, by individuals willing to make a difference in their yards and communities. The solution: change the way we approach landscaping. Marcia was already a longtime gardener when she gave her heart to native plants about 20 years ago. To help spread the native plant gospel, she joined with other local aficionados and founded Wild Ones Keweenaw. The organization now has more than 80 members who actively maintain several public native gardens, hold native plant sales and sponsor a variety of events and activities. Marcia retired in 2014 from Michigan Tech, where she was a writer and editor. The forum is open to the public. It will be only on zoom. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83975762265?pwd=TC9BcStaTDF4dFZOU2ZsUHhZTERoUT09 Find out more about Keweenaw Wild Ones at keweenaw.wildones.org.