Big news today: the butterfly milkweed is coming back up!

Happy Earth Day. Later today, Rachel and I plan to mulch some open areas in our backyard for more native species plantings. I’m also learning how to identify garlic mustard (one, two) so I can pull it during my hikes this year. Call it guerrilla forestry.

This is a great presentation by Doug Tallamy, author of Nature’s Best Hope, on the way people can begin repairing ecosystems in our own yards. I often feel my powerlessness to do anything about our rolling ecological disasters, but this offers a way to do small-scale, realistic good. I’m excited to get started on expanding the native species plantings in my yard. The presentation, by the way, was hosted by Sycamore Land Trust, an awesome local nonprofit that is protecting land from development one plot at a time.