Campaign for the CONSERVATION+CLIMATE ACTION
THE NATIVE SEED CENTER: A Hub for Conservation
EVERY
SEED IS DIFFERENT
– in one season, a single plant could produce thousands of seeds, each with varying tolerances for heat, cold, drought, salt, or pollution. In nature, these seeds have a low survival rate – they become food for birds and mammals, they land on rooftops and roadways, or are washed away in the rain. At the Native Seed Center— a 25-acre historic farmstead property located in Cape Elizabeth, in partnership with the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust —we will collect and propagate seeds from every plant, generation after generation, building genetic diversity across each population, passing down adaptations, and growing a climate resilient future.
Plants grown at the Native Seed Center won’t be isolated from their habitat, as they often are in conventional nurseries. Our plants will grow in and among nature – along the woodland edge, throughout the marshland, in the farmstead meadow. This gives these plants their best shot at evolving and adapting to a rapidly changing and unpredictable climate.
A LEARNING HUB
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, THE NATIVE SEED CENTER
WILL SERVE AS A LIVING EXAMPLE FOR VISITORS – for teachers, families, farmers, and gardeners – of what is possible when we recover what we have lost. Our education programs give community members the skills they need to do this work, in their own way, in their own backyards.
BUILDING A MOVEMENT: IMPACT-DRIVEN COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
At the Native Seed Center we’ll be able to show our communities what biodiversity looks and feels like, that it is achievable not only in forests and marshes but all around us, whether we live in cities or suburbs or rural areas. There is so much that is out of our control, yet there is so much that we can save. Every patch of grass, every strip of dirt, is an opportunity, no matter how small. Bit by bit, yard by yard, we are restoring native plants to the environment, building back biodiversity from the ground up, and strengthening climate resiliency, one seed at a time.
Community members and volunteers who come to the Native Seed Center to learn and engage with our work bring their knowledge and expertise back to their communities, where they in turn educate and mobilize neighbors, public officials, and other community stakeholders to return native plants to the landscape and restore habitat and biodiversity.
NATIVE PLANTS?Why
Wild plants have evolved and adapted to our unique region over millions of years, and along with the food webs and wildlife they support, they are losing out as we face expanding human impact, loss of biodiversity, and a rapidly warming climate. By rebuilding populations of plants native to our region, we welcome back the insects, amphibians, birds, and mammals who have been driven out of our sanitized landscapes. Native plants support rich habitats teeming with life, while improving soil health and sequestering carbon, wherever they are – in backyards, on city stoops, in pots and containers, along sidewalks and roadways, in farm fields and forests. We are creating pathways for reviving habitat where we live and for direct climate action at home.
90+ Species
10,000+ Seed-Grown Plants
30 Million Seeds
NON-PROFITS & CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS PUBLIC SCHOOLS & UNIVERSITIES CITIES & TOWNS LIBRARIES LAND TRUSTS & PUBLIC PARKS MISSION- ALIGNED SMALL BUSINESSES For our Growing Community: RETAIL CUSTOMERS 4,000 MEMBERS 1,800
THE GOAL: $600,000
Site Preparation: $25,000
Grading and weed removal; greenhouse site prep; deer fencing
Construction & Installation: $150,000 Greenhouse; potting shed; trellis; shade structure; nursery frames
Solar Panel installation: $25,000
Seed Collection & Storage: $50,000
Refrigeration; sand and soil; seed storage and packaging
Ongoing operations (two years): $350,000
Seed Program staffing; rent; utilities
DONOR at $100,000 1
DONOR at $75,000 1
DONORS at $50,000 2
HOW WE GET THERE: A Community Effort
DONORS at $10,000 10
DONORS at $25,000 6
DONORS at $5,000 15
Name(s):
Address: City, State, Zip:
Email:
Phone: home cell work
Gift Amount
Total Amount of gift: one-time gift multiyear commitment per year for 2 years or 3 years
This gift is made in honor memory of:
This gift is anonymous.
BE A PART OF THE NATIVE SEED CENTER AND INVEST IN A CLIMATE RESILIENT FUTURE.
For bank transfer information, or to make a gift of stock, contact jess@wildseedproject.net.
21 Memorial Highway, Suite A North Yarmouth, Maine 04097 wildseedproject.net