Native plants are just the start. Here’s how to make your habitat even more inviting to birds, insects, reptiles and more.
"The most common advice for creating wildlife habitat for birds, insects, and amphibians has been to plant native plants, which is extremely important. However, there are also a few simple resources you can add to gardens to better cater to animals’ needs, allowing them to thrive in your yard."
Shaun McCoshum
Shaun McCoshum gardens from his home in Texas and is the author of Natural Habitats and Wildlife Gardening: Inviting wildlife into your backyard.
24 ways ordinary folks can support the fight to protect California’s embattled landscapes
"Stay Informed
First things first: If knowledge is power, then consuming—and sharing—high-quality news and information is essential for defending public lands. Here are four ways to help boost the strongest signals supporting your cause and create great messaging that helps drown out the noise.
1. Keep it real.
Disinformation is everywhere online. Stay on top of facts via rigorously edited news sources like The New York Times, NPR, ProPublica, and others.
2. Trust, but verify.
AI-generated bots, visuals, videos, and other sources of fake information are designed to stir the emotions without the burden of accuracy. Before accidentally sharing misinformation or outright falsehoods, it only takes a moment to check for specific, attributable sources for back-up. If there’s no original source, consider skipping it.
3. Be a primary source.
Wherever you engage, think about ways you can generate high-quality original information for others. Maybe it’s a picture of something you’re observing on public lands and a short, clear caption on Instagram, or a summary of a public hearing or research on Reddit.
Call or Write Your Rep—Really
Your voice as a constituent still matters enormously to elected officials regardless of party—especially on public lands issues, which consistently draw bipartisan support. Here are four ways to make your outreach simple and effective:
5. First, locate your elected representatives and their contact information at house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative.
6. In your call or correspondence, share your personal connection to public lands, especially in your district. See here for a sample message to convey specific concerns about proposed policy changes.
7. Ask them to do something specific and positive to support public lands. For example, signing on to bills like the bipartisan Public Lands Integrity Act and rejecting any large-scale attempts to sell off public lands.
Join the Conversation Online
Much like communicating with your elected representatives, online discussions about public lands matter more than many people realize. Effective online storytelling and advocacy help elevate these issues beyond traditional advocacy spaces while building a broader, more connected, and more resilient community of public lands supporters. Try these four ways to use your voice online and amplify other trusted messengers:
9. Click or tap.
The easiest, most frictionless way to engage is to like, follow, share, and/ or subscribe to storytellers and organizations who advocate for public lands.
10. Follow.
Follow your congressional representatives, state, and local decision-makers, and comment directly on their pages about their involvement with public lands policy. Not only do your comments count as official public comment, but these notes are often also regarded by staff as a meaningful connection point between you and the office.
11. Be genuine.
If you feel inspired to create your own content or post, be yourself. Spontaneity, straightforward language, and authenticity go a long way toward making an impact online. Talk about your personal connections to—or experiences with—public lands and why you’re concerned. Using a very local example and tagging your representatives, supervisors, and other local officials can be especially meaningful.
Posting for Good on Facebook Groups and Reddit
It may not always seem like it, but you can make a swift, sizable, and powerful impact locally by sharing details about public lands via Facebook and Reddit groups. Both platforms host countless groups, subreddits, neighborhood forums, and other spaces for sharing important perspectives and information. They’re great places to highlight connections to public lands protection, correct misinformation, and help build local support for upcoming advocacy opportunities. These groups aren’t always labeled “public lands,” either: Often, these topics come up in a wide range of interest groups, from trail running and horseback riding groups to local political forums or local event postings.
Make Time for Face Time
Even brief conversations about public lands can go a long way: We can’t assume that friends, neighbors, or family members are informed about the dangers facing these precious spaces, or about the consequences of losing them. Here are five ways you can initiate—and sustain—a discussion about public lands with the people close to you:
13. Educate with empathy.
Let folks know that public lands are where we hike, camp, fish, birdwatch, botanize, and spend time with family. They are also places where people build traditions, connect with their communities, and experience the landscapes and biodiversity that make California unique.
14. Explore.
Not everyone is next to a national park, but lands managed by state agencies and/or the federal Bureau of Land Management are a short travel distance from virtually anywhere in California. Grab a few friends or family members for a field trip to the public lands in your area. Better yet, document your trip on social media and tag your member of Congress, asking for their leadership to protect public lands.
15. Take a power hike.
Invite a decision-maker and/or their staff to join you and a few like-minded advocates on a walk through nearby public lands. There’s nothing like an informed first-hand experience to make an influential ally.
16. Volunteer.
While there is no substitute for a fully intact professional workforce supervising and managing public lands, volunteers can help monitor impacts to public lands and facilitate positive connections between community members and our beautiful natural habitats.
Public Action for Public Lands
Public lands protections are far harder to dismantle quietly when people are vocal and engaged. Formal, in-person advocacy remains one of the most effective mechanisms the public has to push back against harmful policy changes. And, as evidenced by recent town halls, people are showing up to defend public lands. Public hearings, comment periods, rallies, and grassroots organizing efforts continue to draw strong participation, even as the pace of attacks accelerates. That work makes a difference. From advocacy training to engaging with legislators, here are seven considerations for taking public action:
18. Know your “why.”
Let folks know that public lands are where we hike, camp, fish, birdwatch, botanize, and spend time with family. They are also places where people build traditions, connect with their communities, and experience the landscapes and biodiversity that make California unique.
19. Know your “what.”
Not everyone is next to a national park, but lands managed by state agencies and/or the federal Bureau of Land Management are a short travel distance from virtually anywhere in California. Grab a few friends or family members for a field trip to the public lands in your area. Better yet, document your trip on social media and tag your member of Congress, asking for their leadership to protect public lands.
20. Seize the day.
Invite a decision-maker and/or their staff to join you and a few like-minded advocates on a walk through nearby public lands. There’s nothing like an informed first-hand experience to make an influential ally.
21. Know your audience.
While there is no substitute for a fully intact professional workforce supervising and managing public lands, volunteers can help monitor impacts to public lands and facilitate positive connections between community members and our beautiful natural habitats.
22. Lean into your perspective.
Taking action together makes conservation engaging and fun. Host a festive get-together for friends and family around the theme of public lands—a letter-writing party, for example, or a Labor Day cookout for public lands. Invite your local decision-makers to the proceedings, or ask them along on your next CNPS chapter field trip to an actual public-lands location, where you can show participants the biodiversity at stake.
23. Join an advocacy day.
CNPS organizes periodic group visits to meet with decision-makers at varying levels. Members team with CNPS staff to prepare. Follow and watch CNPS’s social platforms and emails to join the next event and press for public lands defense.
24. Join CNPS Advocacy Corps
Launched in 2025, CNPS’s Advocacy Corps is training a network of grassroots activists who are ready to act at the federal, state, and local levels during key moments. You can learn more about the effort and sign up at bit.ly/CNPS-AdvocacyCorps."
"Plants For A Future provides free access to a database of detailed information on over 8000 useful plants, with comprehensive search facilities. The database is regularly improved and extended, also aligned with global concerns. We also provide a native plants search. We rely mainly on many small donations to cover our costs. The information we provide is of particular value to food forest/ forest garden projects with community aims, which we encourage and support, and occasionally provide with seed funding, in return for regular feedback and (if possible) site visits. We may provide additional funding for projects which show good progress. We publish reference books featuring selections of plants by type and growing conditions."
Ben Falk redefines the true meaning of living in a more systematic, thoughtful, and productive way. His use of permaculture techniques and planned lifestyle choices definitely do not go unnoticed. If this is your introduction to Ben, I believe that you will be impressed with what you find. If you are, please be sure to check out his company, Whole Systems Design, at the link below.
Bumble Bee Watch is a collaborative effort to track and conserve North America’s bumble bees. This community science project allows for individuals to:
Upload photos of bumble bees to start a virtual bumble bee collection;
Identify the bumble bees in your photos and have your identifications verified by experts;
Help researchers determine the status and conservation needs of bumble bees;
Help locate rare or endangered populations of bumble bees;
Learn about bumble bees, their ecology, and ongoing conservation efforts; and
You may see Cleavers as a weed to get rid of, but it plays a big ecological role, and has been a part of human culture for millennia.
One of my favorite moths, the hummingbird hawk moth, selects cleavers as its larval source.
Imagine my delight when the whimsical hummingbird hawk moth, a favorite of mine, graces the garden. It's a beautiful reminder of the role Cleavers play in supporting our fluttering friends.
When I see this amazing creature flying around the garden, I know I have my wild cleavers patches to thank.
Here are other animals that cleavers support:
Birds
Large birds like geese (thus, goosegrass!), turkeys, and chickens enjoy the seeds of cleavers.
Bees and Beneficial Insects
Small bees and hover flies benefit from cleavers. Beetles are also known to visit the flowers.
Butterflies and moths
Barred Straw Moth
Red Twin spot Carpet
Silver-ground
Common Carpets
Water Carpets
Wave moth species
Large Lace Border moths
Cleavers herb, which is known scientifically as Galium aparine, has long been used in alternative medicine and is still used by herbalists today."
Information above courtesy of:
NC State Extension Master Gardener Volunteers of Union County
"In this video, Joe explains why we should rethink the word "pest" and the importance of finding the root cause if you notice insect damage on your tree or shrub." - Leaf & Limb
"David L. Wagner, PhD., renowned butterfly and moth expert, will lead us in an exploration of the lives of these charismatic creatures. Learn about the threats they face and how to protect and restore the places where these keystones of biodiversity can thrive. --
David L. Wagner is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut with core research interests in butterflies and moths, insect decline, and invertebrate conservation. Dr. Wagner received a B.S. in plant science from Colorado State University and a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Wagner’s most recent book, Moths of the World: A Natural History, released in 2025, and Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History (Princeton) have cemented his reputation as a leading expert in his field."
"National Park Cities are long term grassroots movements for everyone making their city greener, healthier and wilder. The National Park City Charter sets out how we collectively share the ambition, responsibility and power to make our cities places where people and nature are better connected."
"A National Park City is a place, a vision and a city-wide community that is acting together to make life better for people, places and nature. A defining feature is the widespread commitment to act so people, culture and nature work together to provide a better foundation for life and so we can enjoy ourselves too.
It is long-term, large-scale, hyper- local, personal and intergenerational. Everyone in a National Park City has the potential to contribute and benefit every day.
Any urban area or region can apply to join the National Park City Family. But only cities can achieve National Park City status."
Basil Camu is a dynamic teacher and an environmental champion helping us to save the earth through our conscious choices and garden habits. Please spend a little time with him in this webinar to find out just how important trees are, and why we must plant them instead of removing them.
Learn more about the presenter at the following link:
Basil is co-founder of Leaf & Limb, a tree care company in Raleigh, NC, Project Pando, a non-profit that aims to connect people to trees, an
