Wild Ones and the Growing Movement to Restore Native Habitats at Home
For most my life, a plant was a plant. I could recognize that a forest was beautiful, or that a yard was particularly lush, without knowing much about the relationships holding either place together.
I was a thoroughly digital denizen whose work demanded an undue amount of time in front of LCDs, and I was never especially known for my love of nature growing up. I hated camping.But all of that began to change as I got older, started a family and became increasingly concerned and engaged with the state of the climate.
When I took up photography as a hobby in 2022, it gave me a reason to slow down and spend more time outside. Somewhere in the process of learning to look more carefully at the world around me, I began to realize how much I had been missing that connection, and how deeply its absence had contributed to my own ennui, alienation and sense of confinement.
A later move gave my family access to enough land to garden. My wife became particularly interested in native habitats and restoration, and the Greater Kane County chapter of Wild Ones became our portal into that world.
Wild Ones, a national non-profit organization dedicated to promoting environmentally sound landscaping practices and preserving biodiversity through the restoration and promotion of native plants, offers a glimpse at what community-led restorative environmentalism can do.
Did you know?
The difference between a native plant and the ornamental plants filling so many American yards is considerably more consequential than a matter of gardening preference.
Native plants form part of the ecological infrastructure that local insects, birds and other wildlife depend on. Many species evolved alongside particular plants for food, shelter and reproduction, while native root systems can also help stabilize soil, absorb water and reduce runoff.
As development and invasive species continue to fragment habitat, even relatively small native gardens can help restore some of those lost relationships and create connective habitat between larger natural areas.
The organization, which started in 1977 as a small, volunteer-led garden club formed by nine people, has since grown into more than 150 chapters that serve as local hubs for ecological education, advocacy, community gathering and resource sharing, all centered around protecting and restoring habitat through the propagation of native plants.
Hyvemind had the chance to sit down with Kimberley Haag, president of the Greater Kane County chapter of Wild Ones, and Josh Nelson, Wild Ones advancement director, to talk about why native gardening has become an increasingly accessible form of environmental participation and how Wild Ones has built a model capable of turning that interest into something communal.
Wild Ones
In Conversation With Kimberley Haag and Josh Nelson
Read the full conversation on native plants, habitat restoration, ecological grief and how Wild Ones is helping people participate in restoring the places they live.
Can you describe the work and mission of Wild Ones? What made a grassroots, chapter-based model feel necessary, rather than, say, a single centralized organization doing habitat restoration itself?
Josh Nelson: The Wild Ones mission is to promote native landscapes through education, advocacy, and collaborative action. Our vision is native plants and natural landscapes thriving in every community.
Our chapter model comes straight out of our history. In 1977, nine people left a workshop at the Schlitz Audubon Center in Milwaukee inspired to work with native plants, and they started the "Wild Ones Garden Club." As they worked to promote native plants in their community, others took notice and wanted to do the same, so they formed their own chapters.
By the 1990s, as the organization grew, it became clear we needed a more formal structure, which led to incorporating Wild Ones, forming a national board, and hiring our first national staff.
That structure grew naturally, but it turned out to be incredibly effective. Local leaders know their communities best and are in the strongest position to inspire neighbors and build real relationships. At the same time, having a national organization behind them adds credibility, takes administrative weight off their shoulders, and connects chapters into a wider network of knowledge and resources.
At its core, Wild Ones is about neighbors helping neighbors, just like our founders did, and that's something you simply can't replicate without local leadership.
Wild Ones has grown to 150+ chapters across dozens of states, almost entirely volunteer-run. What do you think makes native-plant advocacy suited to that decentralized, "plants-roots" model?
Josh Nelson: With so many challenges facing our planet, it's easy to feel overwhelmed or defeated. Our chapter structure pushes back against that in a couple of ways.
First, there's the community itself. Gathering with people who share your goals is genuinely inspiring, and I think that's what keeps a lot of our volunteers coming back. Second, planting native gives people a way to make a real, visible difference right in their own backyard.
So much of what's wrong with the planet feels too big for any one person to touch, but native planting has an immediate, tangible impact you can see grow.
For a national organization, though, reaching individual people is hard, especially with how much information is competing for attention these days.Our biggest advocacy tool is the people someone already trusts: friends, family, neighbors, local leaders. They understand the specific challenges of their own community and can offer support that actually lands.
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Submit Your OrganizationWhere has that structure created friction (chapters diverging on messaging, standards, or priorities)?
Josh Nelson: Because every community has different needs, it's a real challenge as a national organization to serve every chapter's unique situation perfectly.
Chapters do retain a lot of local autonomy when it comes to priorities, shaping programming to meet community needs: for example, a chapter in a storm/tornado-impacted area might shift its focus to the tree canopy: how to manage damaged trees, native tree selection and planting techniques, how to transition beds impacted by tree loss from shade to sun, hosting opportunities to share native plants and seeds (increasing low/no cost access to native plants).
One good problem we've run into is rapid growth. Wild Ones has more than tripled in size over the last five years, and that growth has made it clear we need stronger national systems and more support built out for chapters. We're excited about the progress we're making there.
Wild Ones has promotes the idea that home landscaping choices are a form of ecological infrastructure; that a fragmented patchwork of native yards can function like a "Homegrown National Park." Has this framing has been successful in attracting people to the movement?
Josh Nelson: We see a wide range of things bringing people into the movement. For many, it starts with wanting to do something good for the planet, usually in support of birds, pollinators, and other wildlife.
Others come at it from a more practical angle: less time spent maintaining a lawn, lower maintenance costs, reduced water consumption, greater resilience to drought and changing weather conditions, and better stormwater runoff management. Plus plenty of people who just love the way native plants look!
The idea of being part of something bigger resonates with a lot of people. Early adopters of the native landscaping movement tended to be gardeners who discovered native plants and became drawn to their benefits over non-native ones.
These days, we’re seeing more people join who don't have gardening experience at all. They're coming at it from an environmental angle, wanting to do right by the planet, and native planting is one of the ways they've chosen to act on that. This shows up especially with our younger members, many of them new homeowners or people who just want to get outside and volunteer, make a positive impact, and learn something new.
We see a lot of success with initiatives that let people feel part of something larger. At the national level, that's things like membership, our Certified Native Habitat Program, which lets people showcase their home habitat, or utilizing our range of free educational materials like webinars, the Wild Ones blog, or inspirational Native Garden Designs. Locally, chapters offer certifications, signage, garden showcases, and more.
And we partner with organizations, locally and nationally, to amplify all of it. Homegrown National Park, which you mentioned, was founded by Wild Ones Lifetime Honorary Director Dr. Doug Tallamy. We also work alongside Plant Baby Plant, founded by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Nurture Natives, a youth-focused organization founded by Esther Bonney. Robin and Esther are both Wild Ones honorary directors as well.
Organizations like Pollinator Partnership and Monarch Joint Venture focus on issues closely tied to native plants, and we're glad to partner with them too, because people find their way into this movement from a lot of different directions.
We're also fortunate to work with businesses that support the cause, from nurseries like Prairie Nursery, Prairie Moon Nursery, Izel Native Plants, and My Home Park, to education-focused businesses like New Directions in the Native Landscape and Wildr Places.
There's a lot of entrenched culture around the American lawn, HOA covenants, municipal weed ordinances, a certain aesthetic of "tidiness" that reads as "care for a property." How often does it feel like Wild Ones’ work is a fight over what a well-kept yard is supposed to look like?
Josh Nelson: A lot of this comes down to shifting deeply entrenched beliefs, culture and policy, and that's exactly where our chapters shine. Because they know their communities and local issues, they can tailor their approach to fit what's actually needed. They're also more likely to have real influence with local decision makers, or to be decision makers themselves. The bigger we scale, the harder that kind of change gets.
That said, we've had real wins, states like Illinois and Maryland have passed legislation prohibiting HOAs from banning native plants, and Wild Ones chapters played a role in the larger partnerships that made that happen. Local momentum is what makes larger-scale change possible.
At the national level, one of our biggest tools for shifting how people see native plants, moving away from "wild" or "weedy" and toward something people actually want, is our Native Garden Design Program. We offer free native garden plans that show landscapes can be both beautiful in a traditional sense and genuinely good for the environment.
We also promote cues to care: signage, pathways, borders, things that signal a property is intentional, not neglected. And sometimes it's about compromise, keeping plant heights in check or adding setbacks to keep peace with neighbors.
But honestly, our strongest approach is just being out there working in the habitat and talking to people as they pass by. Those conversations have inspired so many people to start planting native. One of my favorite things is touring a home garden and seeing native patches popping up in neighboring yards too. The homeowner will tell me their neighbor was skeptical at first, but over time got curious, and that curiosity turned into gifted plants and seeds from their own habitat.
If anyone finds themselves in a fight with their HOA or city, we've got resources to help at wildones.org/resources.
Biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation are often framed as large-scale, almost unsolvable problems, driven by industrial agriculture, development, climate change. What's your case for why yard-scale action moves the needle?
Josh Nelson: Large, unbroken stretches of habitat matter enormously to wildlife, but what often gets overlooked is the connective tissue between those stretches. I see this a lot in urban areas, where there might be plenty of wilderness just outside the city, but people don't think about how wildlife actually moves from one side to the other. That's one of the biggest things home landscapes can offer: the food, water, and shelter wildlife needs while migrating between larger habitats.
How do you sustain a national organization built on volunteer chapters, funding, staffing, the balance between what national provides versus what falls to local leaders? What does growth look like from where you sit, and where is it most fragile?
Josh Nelson: Our goal is always to support chapters, never to get in their way. If there's a tool or resource we can offer that makes their work easier or expands what they're able to deliver, that's what we want to build.
Since our chapters are entirely volunteer-led, we try to take on as much of the legal and compliance burden as we can, so chapter leaders can focus on the mission itself. That behind-the-scenes work isn't glamorous, but it's what makes the front-facing programs and projects possible in the first place. We're fortunate that donations and membership dues from our members and supporters make up most of our national budget.
Across the board, interest in native plants is growing fast, and Wild Ones is growing right along with it. But that growth comes with rising demands. Like any organization, we need expanded infrastructure, staff, and systems to serve our members and chapters well.
And investing in that infrastructure takes financial support. Our members and supporters have already given so much, so we're hoping to grow our reach further and build new relationships: businesses interested in sponsorship, foundations with grant opportunities, and individuals who want to contribute directly to the mission.
Can you provide a brief overview of the founding of the Greater Kane County chapter? What drove it?
Kim Haag: Our chapter became a Seedling chapter in 2008, founded by three women: June Keibler, Trish Beckjord, and Pat Hill. All three women had been early activists for native plants. June had been very active in the Nature Conservancy and helped establish the first volunteer group for the Forest Preserve District of Kane County. Pat has been an early advocate for native plants and filled her small lot in Elgin with all native plants. Trish moved here from Michigan and quickly became involved in the native plant movement.
Inspired by Wild Ones of Greater DuPage County, which was established earlier, they became a seedling chapter and then a full-fledged chapter in 2009. They engaged friends and colleagues in Kane County, and word spread and many others (including me) became a member in 2009. Trish, Pat, and June were the early co-presidents. We have had three other presidents before me.
Sadly, both Trish and Pat have died, but June continues on, promoting native plants and landscaping in many venues around the county. We were Wild Ones of Northern Kane County initially, but became Wild Ones of Greater Kane County, once we realized no one was going to establish a southern Kane County chapter.
Who tends to show up to plant sales or apply for membership: longtime gardeners, curious newcomers, people responding to a specific problem in their own yard?
Kim Haag: Our plant sale has established a good reputation over the years. It has become bigger. At first we had no competition, but as the interest in native plants has spread, both the St. Charles Park District and the Foundation of the Forest Preserve District of Kane County also have native plant sales, on different days. I think that most of the people who come know something or have heard something about native plants and are looking to fill gaps in their own gardens.
Membership usually comes when people go from interested to enthusiastic and want to support us. We have a big email list of people who get our newsletter, and some of those people think they are members as they get our newsletter.
We sometimes get questions about specific garden issues on our email or at our monthly meetings where we try to present a variety of educational talks about nature, the natural world in general and how we can be supporters of the environment and not just observers.
What does it look like when a resident goes from "interested" to actually converting part of a lawn to native planting?
Kim Haag: Some people tend to stay at the stage of trying to create a pollinator garden. And that’s fine. But I think that as people become more educated about the negative role some of the invasive plants play to the detriment of our wildlife, they become more focused on getting rid of those plants and substituting ones that benefit wildlife.
And the more we educate people that non-native plants, even the non-invasive ones, are more like frosting on a cake, pretty but with no real substance, they realize that if we want to save our insects, birds, and wildlife, we need to provide them food of substance.
We also try to talk about water, such as runoff, plants that help water penetrate the ground, the negative effects of herbicide and too much fertilizer on the soil. We also try to educate people about the value of insects, and that they may be pesky at times, there are ways to mitigate the annoying ones and still let them do the job nature had intended.
So, in summary, the more education about the benefits, the more people are interested. One can tell by the kinds of questions they ask that they are already committed and want to tweak or enhance what they are doing.
Is there a specific yard, project, or person that's stayed with you since you got involved with the chapter?
Kim Haag: I got involved in October 2009, so have been part of this chapter almost since the beginning. June Keibler, who I mentioned as one of our founders, has continued to be an inspiration to me.
She never stops advocating for native plants and natural landscapes, the basics of the vision statement of Wild Ones. She continues to educate herself and others and is not hesitant to step into a discussion of what could be done to make that vision a reality!
There's been a broader cultural conversation lately about ecological grief and climate anxiety, especially among younger people. Do you see that showing up in who comes to Wild Ones, and does hands-on yard-scale work function as an antidote to that feeling?
Kim Haag: When we talk with one another, we can get down, especially with the often detrimental and destructive attitude the current administration has towards public lands and protecting people from environmental destruction.
But we try to stay focused on what we have accomplished in our part of the world. It is hard and depressing, especially lately, but we hope for a brighter future.
Josh Nelson: I think that's genuinely one of the things that draws people to Wild Ones. We don't just offer practical steps people can take at home and in their community, we offer connection and support through our chapters. It reminds people they're not alone in caring about this, and that working together actually makes a difference.
Which chapters have reached a wider audience? What has worked so far?
Josh Nelson: We've seen some great examples of chapters expanding their reach. One standout is our Chesapeake Bay Chapter in Maryland, which has done incredible work engaging youth through its partnership with Nurture Natives, a youth-led native plant nonprofit that has since grown into one of our national partners.
What do you hope someone who gets involved with Wild Ones, at the chapter level or nationally, carries with them afterward? And what broader shift, culturally or ecologically, do you hope this kind of work adds up to over the next decade?
Josh Nelson: Our goal is always to inspire people, to plant native, to care about the planet, to appreciate the natural landscapes around them. Every action taken is one more step toward a healthier planet. Our hope is that, ten years from now, all of it adds up to a future where we're no longer fighting a crisis, but simply maintaining a healthy one.
Take Action
Get Involved With Wild Ones
Interested in bringing more native plants into your own yard or getting involved with restoration work where you live? Wild Ones offers free resources, local chapters and programs to help you get started.
Find a Chapter Near You
Connect with Wild Ones members in your area to find local plant sales, educational events, volunteer opportunities and people already doing restoration work in your community.
Start a Native Garden
Explore free professionally designed native garden plans created for different regions across the country, including recommended plants and layouts to help you begin.
Learn What Is Happening in Your Yard
Wild Ones' Science at Home resources can help you better understand native plants, wildlife, ecological relationships and the role home landscapes can play in supporting biodiversity.
Certify Your Native Habitat
The Certified Native Habitat Program recognizes gardens and landscapes that support native plants and wildlife while helping make visible the growing network of habitat being restored at home.
Explore Wild Ones
Learn more about the national organization, its educational resources, native landscaping work and the growing network of Wild Ones chapters across the country.
Keep Learning
Learn more about the conservationists, scientists and educators serving as Wild Ones Honorary Directors and explore the ideas helping shape the broader native-plant movement.