🎉Congratulations to Ingrid Kaatz, (@ingrid_kaatz) the winner of our inaugural LLML Campaign! Ingrid has rewilded her entire yard and has been documenting all the wildlife for years. This summer she posted over 1,240 observations!

🌿A total of 50 people participated in this first-of-its-kind event and recorded a combined 10,832 observations with 2,664 unique species of plants, insects, and birds—all the wonders of nature ❤️ we can experience and share if we ditch our lawns for more life!

🌱Let's follow Ingrid's lead and make space for nature in our own yards. Together we can create a healthier planet for all. #rewilding #natureappreciation #Lesslawnmorelife #conservation #plantnative #leavetheleaves

See LinkedIn announcement here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/11813204/admin/feed/posts/

Thank you all for participating! We'll be following up with findings and next steps soon!

Best
Murray "Swampchicken" Fisher

You're invited to celebrate the power of rewilding

Thursday, October 19th, 2023
Drinks and snacks 5pm - 7pm
58 Pound Ridge Road, Bedford, NY 10506 (Murray's Barn)

Join us to hear about Plan it Wild's new innovative programs and projects to bring back natural habitat to our communities. We will feature some "first-take' insights from our science initiative, we'll toast the participants of the Less Lawn-More Life campaign and show-off some of their incredible observations this season. Mingle with scientists, naturalists, partners and fellow rewilders.

SNEAK PEEK at the SCIENCE
Bram Gunther will share early insights from the biodiversity science pilot

PLEASE RSVP BY OCTOBER 4TH to info@planitwild.com

You're invited to celebrate the power of rewilding

Thursday, October 19th, 2023
Drinks and snacks 5pm - 7pm
58 Pound Ridge Road, Bedford, NY 10506 (Murray's Barn)

Join us to hear about Plan it Wild's new innovative programs and projects to bring back natural habitat to our communities. We will feature some "first-take' insights from our science initiative, we'll toast the participants of the Less Lawn-More Life campaign and show-off some of their incredible observations this season. Mingle with scientists, naturalists, partners and fellow rewilders.

• SNEAK PEEK at the SCIENCE
  Bram Gunther will share early insights from the biodiversity science pilot

PLEASE RSVP BY OCTOBER 4TH to info@planitwild.com

Hey everyone -

I hope you are having a good week! If you need inspiration for getting out and documenting what might be living in your yard and/or native garden or woods, please check out some of the incredible photographs our Westchester neighbor Clarence Holmes has taken and submitted to our project:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?captive=any&page=2&place_id=any&project_id=165904&user_id=cholmesphoto&verifiable=any

Congratulations, @cholmesphoto, on taking the lead in our "Less Lawn, More Life!" competition and for finding so much biodiversity in your yard!

We now have 81 people in our campaign but only 48 have posted something on our iNaturalist project so please start posting! September is going to be a sprint and then the competition is over on October 7th! If you have any issues or questions please let me know here or at murray@planitwild.com

Otherwise, see you on Friday at 12 noon! Zoom invite here:

Less Lawn, More Life!

Murray "Swampchicken" Fisher

Hello rewilders -

We are ON for a zoom tomorrow for anyone who wants to join! Tomorrow will be a time to answer your questions, from "How to take a good photograph of a butterfly?" to "How to stop mowing half your yard?" to "How to upload an image on iNaturalist?" and everything in between! Please show up with any questions like these but also with some ideas about how to leverage the data we are gathering in the larger effort to catalyze a movement.

We believe that transitioning a lawn from turf grass to native habitat can sequester more carbon. We are proving that many more species live in the rewilded habitat. We are learning how much more engaging it can be for all of us. And we know it can be cheaper, too.

How do we take these learnings and share them beyond this group?

Speaking of which, Plan it Wild would like to host a party in early October once the competition is over to celebrate the work we have done, to meet each other, and to recognize the participants with the "healthiest" yards. So let's set a date for that and do some planning, too!

Looking forward to seeing many of you tomorrow at noon!

Murray "Swampchicken" Fisher

P.S. The calendar invite is here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7216738169?pwd=anFqVXVUbnhYUnExSVVEclAwYWRGUT09

Hey rewilders -

I guess we could have predicted that noon on Friday would be a hard time for everyone to meet, myself included! I cannot make the zoom today, so its cancelled. Sorry.

But clearly everyone is outside a lot as I can see from the amazing observations from your "yards"! (By the way, we need a better word than "yard" that describes "a place around a home that is actively (or passively) managed for maximum ecological benefit." In my opinion, the existing words are insufficient: "yard" connotes lawn; "garden" requires an additional descriptor like "flower" or "formal" or "vegetable"... At my home, my wife and kids call it "your wild area" 😂 😂 which isn't right either as isn't entirely wild; it takes some effort and curation to strive for and/or maintain an area for maximum biodiversity. Let's save the discussion for another zoom or comment below. What do you call the part of your property that you are actively managing for biodiversity? From my perspective, the absence of the appropriate word indicates a general lack of a cultural understanding of our goals and objectives.)

Anyway, you all continue to do so much! We now have 72 members who have observed 1,872 Research Grade species! Congratulations. Take time to look through what people are posting. There is SO MUCH LIFE here in Westchester and Fairfield... Imagine if everyone treated their properties with this much respect and affection for wildlife! But I'd like to get everyone participating. So far it appears that only 43 people have contributed observations to the project. I know its not easy, but its extremely valuable citizen science (and its educational and fun!) To help folks gain confidence and start posting please watch this tutorial: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/video+tutorials#add_mob

In addition to observing, don't forget to help each other out by identifying others observations as well. Ideally, find a taxonomic group that you are comfortable with and start going through the "Less Lawn, More Life!" observations and adding identifications where you are confident. This will help you develop your skills in that taxonomic group and is also a great service to science as well as the broader iNaturalist community. There is a need at every level, in each taxonomic group!

Okay, happy rewilding and observing! As always, ask me anything!

Murray "@Swampchicken" Fisher

Hi Rewilders!

Apparently this week is moth week, which makes perfect sense because we're all seeing lots of moths right now! If you haven't yet, take an hour to observe the insects - particularly moths - that congregate outside your porch light(s) if you have them. I normally check it out around 10pm and will always see a couple species (and lots of beetles too.) It helps to have a flash or flashlight to give additional light for your photographs, and as Michele (@mmsorensen) pointed out last week in her great presentation, it also helps to have something to help photograph individuals that are high - either a monopod, a selfie stick, or some kind of ladder. (I use a rickety chair from our kitchen.. bad idea!)

Moths are one of the best indicator species, meaning we can learn a lot about the ecological health of your property by observing and cataloging the moths (and especially caterpillars) you find. Which is exactly what we are all trying to do together!

I'm traveling tomorrow so no zoom is scheduled (Fridays in the summer are tough...) But I'll be checking our "Less Lawn, More Life" project observations to see how many of you have submitted a moth or caterpillar photo this week!

Thanks again - look forward to seeing many of you next week,
Murray "Swampchicken" Fisher

Good evening Rewilders!

Tomorrow's zoom session will be a nature photography workshop led by Michelle Sorenson, a participant in "Less Lawn, More Life" Campaign (https://www.inaturalist.org/people/mmsorensen) and a master gardener and environmental educator in Connecticut.

As you all know, we're trying to understand how rewilding our properties increases the biodiversity, and how best to measure it. One way is here on iNaturalist, but that requires taking good photographs! Judging from the number of participants on our Campaign (58) and the number people who have uploaded observations (38), we have a lot of learning to do so that everyone can contribute the valuable data about what is living in their yards!

Michelle will lead the workshop but it is open for anyone else to contribute, so please join the zoom tomorrow and be prepared to share your tips for capturing great photographs of those tough moths or damselflies!

Best
Murray "Swampchicken" Fisher

Hello rewilders!

I hope everyone had a great celebration of the birth of our nation...but did you read the news that Monday and Tuesday were the two hottest days ever in recorded history on earth? So let's keep doing everything we can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to sequester more greenhouse gases!

Let's plant more natives and let the grass go and let's keep proving to everyone that a rewilded yard is GOOD for nature and our earth.

The observation of the week is of a Yellow-fringed Dolichomia Moth from Ingrid Kaatz, who has been running a rewilding project on her own yard for a couple years. See below. Congratulations, Ingrid!

Look forward to seeing you all today at noon when we’ll be unveiling our scoring system for observations in your yard. Please join and give us your feedback on our methodology!

Thanks again,

-Murray “@Swampchicken” Fisher

Join project

Get added to Weekly zoom meet-ups (or email me)

murray@planitwild.com for any questions

Hi everyone!

What a beautiful week to be outside!

In my own “passive rewilding” area (where I stopped mowing and started putting my leaves), I have a bunch of milkweed and some nice monarch caterpillars already. It's thrilling to invite these special species back to our properties with such little effort.

You all are doing amazing work attracting more species to your properties and documenting the biodiversity!

So far on our “Less Lawn, More Life!” Project on iNaturalist we have a total of 2,836 observations. Check out the observations your neighbors in Fairfield and Westchester are making here!

Great work to all who have contributed!

There are now 52 people in the project so the key this week is to GET EVERYONE MAKING AT LEAST ONE OBSERVATION on iNaturalist! Here is a quick youtube tutorial on how to do it: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/video+tutorials#add_mob

Remember, our goal is to turn this into a contest to see who has the healthiest yards. So the more species you document, the higher your score will be. We’re working behind the scenes to be able to generate conservation scores for 9,000 species in our region, so get out and get planting and taking photographs of everything!

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow. Bring your questions!

The zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7216738169?pwd=anFqVXVUbnhYUnExSVVEclAwYWRGUT09

Best -

Murray “Swampchicken” Fisher
murray@planitwild.com for any questions