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 – Content coming soon
  • 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.