Achieving 30x30: Percentages Matter, We’re All in This Together, and What You Do to Help Counts Big-time

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Green space in the Chicago region (credit:  Chicago Wilderness Alliance ) Did you know that back in December, one of the most important planetary environmental agreements in history got approved in Montreal? This would be the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), approved by the 15th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which clearly states the goal of protecting, conserving, and restoring 30% of Earth’s lands and waters by 2030. Not only was another opening created for the concept that non-human species have the right to exist and live their lives according to their kind in appropriate habitats, but indigenous peoples were included and given their due as primary keepers of land. If countries actually follow through on commitments (one of the biggest ifs) there might be a chance that biodiversity could start recovering, and we might have a chance of getting to half-earth by 2050. By providing enough habitat for 80% of species on eart...
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About

Posted by
Adrian Ayres Fisher
Native plant gardening, natural area restoration: everything is connected to everything else.

Gardening and the outdoors have always been important to me. Years ago, several life-altering events, coupled with my Quaker beliefs and concern for the environment led me towards an earthcare-centered life that includes learning about and practicing ecological, or regenerative, gardening and natural area restoration.

As a long-time volunteer with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, I am site steward at National Grove Woods, 54 acres of oak woodland, savanna, and floodplain forest. 

I also monitor rare plants for Plants of Concern. In addition I serve as programs co-chair on the board of West Cook Wild Ones.

In the past, I was sustainability coordinator at a community college, trained and volunteered as a University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener and worked at an independent garden center as a native plant buyer and gardening coach.


My garden:
My home is a 35x150-foot urban lot in an old neighborhood built at the turn of the twentieth century on a prairie in the Chicago Lake Plain. The soil is black silt loam. The garden is mostly in the backyard. What started as grass with narrow borders of annuals along the fences has evolved into a bird and pollinator-friendly polyculture of mostly indigenous species of trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses, along with herbs, rhubarb and raspberries, and a small raised bed for vegetables, all surrounding a small polyculture lawn. Like most gardeners, I am always experimenting with new plants. The garden functions as a kind of lab and its aesthetic appeal arises out of its ecological functionality rather than adherence to conventional principles of visual design.

Ongoing collaborative project:

Landscape planning and maintenance, Friends Illinois Yearly Meeting/Clear Creek Meeting property, McNabb, Illinois
  • This project involves a twelve-acre property in central Illinois corn/soy country which is being made more sustainable. There is a restored pocket prairie and remnant hedgerows. We have planted many native trees and developed a plan to restore the hedgerows with native berry and nut-bearing species. We are now planning a pollinator garden to be installed June, 2022.
Past projects:

Campus rain gardens and bioswales, with students and faculty
  • These were professionally installed as part of a LEED building site. Maintaining them is part of horticulture students' experiential learning.
Prairie Garden, with students and faculty
  • We started this project in 2009 by seeding into sod. We also propagated native plants from collected seed and plugged them in during Spring 2010. 
Talks and Workshops:
From time to time I give talks about garden-related subjects. Topics have included "Your Garden Is an Ecosystem," "Ecological Gardening," "Reconciliation Ecology," and "The Polyculture Lawn."

2024
Healthy Soil, Native Plants and Backyard Carbon Sequestration: How We Can All Draw Down Carbon While Increasing Biodiversity
September 21, Gibson Woods Wild Ones Native Plant Symposium, Schererville, IN

Native Shrubs Belong in Every Garden
September 19, Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory (online presentation)

Easy Does It: When, Where and How to Start Native Plant Gardening
February 25, Temple Har Zion, River Forest IL

2023
Native Plants and Living Soil and the Joys of Complexity in the Garden
March 23, Riverside Public Library Facebook Link   YouTube Recording 

2022
30x30: Good News for Ecosystems, Wildlife, and our Climate
September 28, West Cook Wild Ones (online presentation) YouTube recording

Birds, Bees and Butterflies: Gardening for Nature
June 2, Eisenhower Public Library, Harwood Heights, Il (online presentation)

Native Plants and Living Soil: The Joys of Complexity in the Garden
May 12, Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory (online presentation) 

2021
Native Plants, Healthy Soil and Carbon Sequestration
March 3,  Eisenhower Public Library, Harwood Heights, Il (online presentation)

2020
Native Gardens through the Seasons: A Virtual Walk
September 12, West Cook Wild Ones. My garden was one of three featured in the online presentation.

Native Bees in the Garden
June 14, West Cook Wild Ones. (online presentation)

Bees, Birds and Butterflies: Gardening for Nature
March 4, Mather’s—More Than a Café, Chicago

2019
The Gurneys of Tower Grove Park
April 28, Tower Grove Park, St. Louis

Climate Change, Soil Carbon Sequestration and Regenerative Gardening
March 30, Chicago Community Gardeners Association conference

2018
Native Shrubs and Why We Should Love Them
November 8, DuPage Organic Garden Club

Native Plants and Living Soil: The Joys of Complexity in the Garden
May 5, Chicagoland Daylily Association

Backyard Carbon Sequestration
March 7, Ecological Landscape Alliance Conference, UMass Amhurst
December 4, webinar of talk

2017
Healthy Soil, Native Plants and Backyard Carbon Sequestration
September 12, Triton Community Gardening Club

 Native Bees in the Garden
April 6, South Barrington Library

Healthy Soil, Native Plants and Backyard Carbon Sequestration
March 25, DuPage Organic Gardening Club Conference, Carroll Stream Public Library

Monarch Conservation
March 23, IGEN Sustainability Conference, Heartland Community College, Bloomington

Native Bees in the Garden
January 2, DuPage Organic Gardening Club, Carroll Stream Public Library

2016
Healthy Soil, Native Plants and Backyard Carbon Sequestration
May 3, Lake to Prairie Wild Ones, Fremont Library, Mundelein

Native Bees in the Garden
January 9, Barrington Village Hall

2015
Do Three Shrubs Make a Hedgerow? Reflections on Hedgerow Structure and Usefulness in Several Contexts: as part of the symposium Life Along the Edges – A discussion of the value of field margins, hedgerows, and buffers in the modern landscape.

March 27, Society for Ecological Restoration - Midwest-Great Lakes Chapter Annual Meeting, Chicago Botanic Garden

Native Bees in the Garden
January 31, Chicago Wilderness Wild Things Conference, UIC

2014
Native Bees in the Garden,
August 17, sponsored by West Cook Wild Ones, Dominican University, River Forest

2011
The Polyculture Lawn, Oak Park Art League

2010
Oak Park Friends Meeting, Oak Park
Washington Park Conservancy, Chicago
Triton Community Horticulture Club, River Grove
Friends MCGM Meeting, Oak Park
Proksa Park Garden Club, Berwyn

2009
Friends Illinois Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions, McNabb
Trailside Museum, River Forest

Comments

TheGardenDiaries said…
Love your blog! I am also a garden writer and blogger and love your lawn posts and native bees ones. Have you ever gone to the Garden Bloggers Fling? It is a yearly conference where garden bloggers get together and tour gardens. And you meet fellow writers. It is in Madison this year.
February 26, 2020 at 4:35 PM
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