PIW - Plant It Wild

10/13/2026

We all can benefit from getting into the dirt and lending a hand.

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*edit* We bet against Mother Nature and lost! Due to predicted wind gusts and rain, we’re rescheduling this workbee for Tuesday, October 27th at the same time schedule*

Looking to get outside and enjoy our beautiful fall weather? Come join ISN and the Leelanau Conservancy to help install native plant plugs! We have about 2,000 plugs to put into a new native garden plot - these plants will be used to collect seed for restoration projects and outreach (have you attended one of our winter seed sowing workshops? They'll help provide seed for those!). We'll be starting the planting at 10am and go until 1pm, and you can drop in whenever and for however long you want. Register for this event on Leelanau Conservancy's website at: https://leelanauconservancy.org/events/planting-workbee-at-deyoung/

10/08/2026

Ben Vogt. Landscaper and author.

Grab a spiced drink or warm tea, sit back, and enjoy the seasonal show in the garden. Nature will thank you.

10/06/2026

Saw Pokew**d at Meijer garden this weekend. Not propagated, in a wild space. Such a valuable native plant. Learn all about its benefits and risks here:

**ds most misunderstood w**d in A...

10/01/2026

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Frogs, bats, spiders, and dragonflies are more than just creatures we happen to find around our homes and fields. They are part of the natural system that helps keep insect populations in check.

A frog can consume large numbers of insects, bats feed on flying insects, and spiders capture countless prey in their webs. Even dragonflies contribute at an earlier stage of their lives: their aquatic nymphs eat mosquito larvae and other small aquatic organisms.

None of this means nature’s predators can eliminate every pest, or that agriculture can simply stop using pesticides. Ecosystems are far more complicated than that. But it does show why indiscriminate chemical use can have consequences beyond the insects we are trying to control.

When pesticides affect beneficial predators and pollinators along with pests, we can end up weakening some of the very organisms that help ecosystems function.

That’s why protecting habitat matters.

Healthy wetlands give amphibians and dragonflies places to reproduce. Native plants provide food and shelter for insects, birds, and other wildlife. Reducing unnecessary chemical use gives beneficial species a better chance to survive and continue doing what they have evolved to do.

Nature already has its own pest-control network.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is protect the habitat that allows that network to keep working.

10/01/2026

A marvelous discovery. All is not lost when we can claw back our natural habitats!

A tiny native fish just delivered some enormous news for the Rouge River: greenside darters have been found in the Lower Rouge for the first time since 1924.

Friends of the Rouge staff and volunteers made the discovery during their final fish survey of the year near Inkster and Dearborn. When multiple greenside darters appeared in their net, the crew started screaming loudly enough that people walking along the river stopped to ask what they had caught.

The excitement makes sense. State fisheries records show the 3-to-5-inch fish had not been documented anywhere in the more than 125-mile Rouge River system since 1941.

And this little fish is picky.

Greenside darters prefer clear, oxygen-rich water and swift, shallow riffles flowing across rocks and gravel. Michigan DNR fisheries biologist John Buskiewicz described them as a biological indicator of water quality, making their return especially meaningful on a river once so polluted that it caught fire in the 1960s.

Years of cleanup and habitat restoration have followed. Recent projects have removed contaminated sediment, restored wetlands, controlled invasive species, removed debris jams and created fish habitat.

The signs of recovery extend beyond one species. Friends of the Rouge found 21 fish species during a survey at Ford Field Park in Dearborn. Before industrialization, the Rouge supported 55 native fish species, according to the organization.

There is something wonderfully Michigan about celebrating a fish small enough to fit in your hand.

After a century away from the Lower Rouge, the greenside darter is more than a surprising catch. It is living evidence of what can happen when a river gets another chance.

09/23/2026

This is such a motivational project! Very thoughtful with land use, water use, design, and public education.

Be like Denver.

09/23/2026

On Sale This Week: $8-off ferns, regular $18. 50% off Sassafras, regular $20. $2 each on Cardinal Flower, Copper Shoulder Sedge (Carex bicknellii), and Common Milkw**d. We have lots of trees to browse:
Tulip Poplar
Paw Paw
Shagbark Hickory
White Oak
Tamarack
Black Cherry
American Mountain Ash
White Cedar
Red Cedar
White Spruce
Balsam Fir
White Pine
Red Pine
Sycamore
Basswood
Flowering Dogwood
Pagoda Dogwood
Red Oak
American Elm
Paper Birch
Yellow Birch
River Birch
Sweet Gum
Black Gum
Allegheny Serviceberry
Sugar Maple
Silver Maple
Red Maple
Hop Tree
Redbud
Mountain Maple
Witch Hazel

09/22/2026

Call for GTRLC Volunteers!

Peeps, plenty of opportunities to get out in the field this fall. Contact th Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy to sign-up.

Volunteer this fall season
Consider joining us for a fall volunteer session this September or October, with plenty of native planting and seed collection events to choose from! You can see all of the opportunities on the website calendar, along with the highlighted sessions below.

NEW! Trailbuilding at the Perch Lake Addition to Upper Manistee Headwaters - 9/23 @ 1-3pm

NEW! Trailbuilding at The Ridge - 10/2, 10/9, 10/16, 10/23, 10/30 @ 9:45am

Plug plantings at Mitchell Creek Meadows Nature Preserve - 9/23, 9/30 @ 9:45am and 10/9 @ 3:30pm

Plug planting at Arcadia Dunes Nature Preserve, understory plants - 9/29 @ 9:45am

Invasive species removal at Torch River Ridge - 10/8 @ 9:45am

Fence removal at Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve - 10/27 @ 9:45am