Our Advocacy for Native Plants

The advocacy of the Wild Ones Ann Arbor Area chapter is rooted in the principles of the national Wild Ones organization.

Mission

Wild Ones promotes native landscapes through education, advocacy and collaborative action.

Vision

Native plants and natural landscapes thriving in every community.

Core Values

We inspire change through shared core values:

  • Respect is at the heart of Wild Ones®. We have respect for each other, for nature and for the earth. 
  • We’re an inclusive community. Diverse voices and backgrounds make us stronger. That’s why we welcome everyone to join us. 
  • We provide evidence-based information, because the seeds of change spread most efficiently when grounded in data. We monitor and share the latest evidence-informed strategies. 
  • We’re action and growth oriented. Just dig in! We learn, grow, and share our knowledge. 

The Ann Arbor Area chapter advocates for practices and policies consistent with the Wild Ones mission. We intend our advocacy to address both immediate threats and long-standing barriers to healthy ecosystems in our area. We identify locally urgent issues where intervention can prevent irreversible habitat loss. At the same time, we invest in the long-term education efforts that shift community attitudes and that lead to lasting policy change. 

By way of example, activities might include advocating for pro-native plant policies by governmental units, HOAs, corporate parks, and other landowners or regulatory bodies; identifying important issues of restoration or preservation of valuable native ecosystems under threat; and supporting land management policies that would reduce introduction or cultivation of invasive plant and animal species, and other harmful practices such as turf-grass use.

Our parent Wild Ones organization, wildones.org, supports chapters with valuable resources, including model community ordinance language such as those requiring native plants at new development sites, and repealing legal barriers to tall native plants in home gardens. We also see a need to advocate for connected environments. Isolated patches of native plants do not sustain essential insect life; small but frequent plantings of diverse species, binding together larger, less frequent plantings, are vital to support wildlife movement and healthy ecosystems.

Advocacy Initiatives of the Wild Ones Ann Arbor Area Chapter, a History

Native plant advocacy is, in effect, community building through shared stewardship of the places we love and call home. For our chapter, it is also part of our identity. Here are some notable efforts:

  • Early in our history, our founder Bob Grese organized a coalition of environmental groups across southern Michigan that successfully opposed razing an old-growth woods in Lower Huron Metropark; prevented the construction of a water park at Indian Springs that would have drained a fen; and stopped a proposed marina enlargement at Lake St. Clair Metropark that would have badly damaged one of the area’s last Great Lakes Marshes. 
  • Save the Arb (2024 and 2025) – Our chapter was part of a grassroots campaign to protect the University of Michigan’s Nichols Arboretum from development impacts, advocating for the preservation of its native plant ecosystems and the educational and cultural value it provides. Specifically, we opposed potential construction of an overhead rapid transit monorail through a part of the Arb preserve. Our chapter issued a Call to Action in opposition and joined a SavetheArb community coalition. We advocated with University of Michigan leaders and ultimately obtained a public commitment that no proposal to route the transit through the Arb would be entertained. Going forward, we will advocate for perpetual protection of the Arboretum. 
  • Tree Protection Initiative (2025 and continuing) – Ann Arbor is known as “Tree Town,” but after observing unnecessary damage to many trees on public and private lands due to mowing and weed-whacking damage, we entered a collaboration with the local Citizens’ Climate Lobby chapter to educate and advocate for no-mowing under trees, replacing grass-free zones with native plants, or at least using trunk protectors where mowing is still in use. We have begun a collaboration with Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation to advance better practices that protect and extend tree life. 
  • Preserve Thurston Nature Area (2025) – Thurston Nature Area is owned and managed by the local School Board. We publicly supported efforts by neighbors, school communities, and environmental groups to protect the integrity of Thurston Nature Area, a beloved nature area including a mature Oak Savannah and many native plants, all thriving sustainably and serving as critical habitat and an educational resource for local students and residents. In this effort, we did not succeed. Much of the area including the Oak Savannah, long tended under the stewardship of Wild Ones member Jim Vallem, is being replaced with a newly constructed building. This experience reminds us of all the work that remains to be done.
  • Save Sibley Prairie Coalition (2025 and continuing)– Our chapter joined a statewide effort to protect Sibley Prairie, Michigan’s largest and highest quality lakeplain prairie—a rare, vitally important, and imperiled ecosystem. Sibley Prairie’s 440 acres is currently up for sale. If purchased privately, the land will be developed and the prairie lost for all time. Environmental groups and individuals formed the Save Sibley Prairie Coalition—“Save It, Don’t Pave It!” The coalition persuaded the owner to allow time for fundraising to meet a fixed purchase price sufficient to fund ownership and preservation in perpetuity. We promoted donations to the coalition on our home page, and we continue to promote donations to save Sibley Prairie. Visit the coalition website, https://savesibleyprairie.org/, for more information.
  • Canton Township Wetland Protection (2025 and monitoring) – The chapter submitted a letter to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), asking that it deny an application from Pulte Homes to fill a wetland area in Canton Township for development purposes. Like all wetlands, this one is home to a huge array of plants, animals, and microbes. It filters water, supports birds, fish, and mammals, and sends filtered water through into the lower Rouge watershed. The area has several irreplaceable vernal pools. EGLE rejected the application as originally submitted, but will allow Pulte to re-submit a new proposal that, it suggests, will do less harm. We are monitoring filings at EGLE to watch for a resubmission.
  • Support for MDARD Proposed Invasive Species Order (2026) – The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), which shares environmental jurisdiction with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), solicited comments on a proposed order to bar the sale, cultivation, and possession of six highly invasive species in Michigan, two aquatic (Eichhornia crassipes/water hyacinth, and Pistia stratiotes/water lettuce) and four terrestrial (Berberis thunbergii/Japanese barberry, Frangula alnus/glossy buckthorn, Pyrus calleryana/callery pear, and Rhamnus cathartica/common buckthorn). The proposal was actively opposed by many in the plant nursery business. We supported the proposal as a valuable step in recognizing and controlling the harms to the environment, the economy, and human health that invasive species cause. We were joined in support by the Wildflower Association of Michigan, the Michigan Botanical Society, and many others. MDARD agreed, and the proposed legislation will be adopted into law.