habitat conservation
Jim Barnett Park meadow installation
Two years in the making, the Sustainability Matters Native Meadow will be Winchester’s first city-owned pollinator-friendly native meadow. By summer 2024, native wildflowers will be sprouting on nearly an acre of Jim Barnett Park, right along the city’s main avenue, Pleasant Valley.
A collaboration between Sustainability Matters and Winchester’s Parks & Recreation department, the meadow represents a new facet of our long-term partnership with the city. In addition to habitat for local birds and bees, it will incorporate spaces for public education and recreation. We’ll be scaling up our engagement with area schools, involving local students as meadow volunteers, citizen scientists, ambassadors, and apprentice educators.
To learn more about the meadow installation and to updates on how it’s progressing, visit our Winchester Native Meadow page!
nature walks
We regularly host foraging expeditions – teaching members of the community how to safely identify and forage native plants and fungi – while at the same time discussing the beneficial role they play in our ecosystems. We believe that as people, we tend to protect and care for the things we love the most. So, there is no better way to inspire environmental activism than by showing people how their local ecosystem can work for them and helping them in their journey to fall in love with the outdoors.
woodlands for wildlife
Forests covering many large tracts in the mid-Atlantic and Appalachian regions are a vital refuge for native wildlife, but they’re also vulnerable to invasive plants, which spread like forest fires and crowd out the natives. Sustainability Matters partnered with Blue Ridge Wildlife Center, a wildlife rehabilitation and education organization in Virginia’s Northern Piedmont, to design and plant a demonstration woodland habitat. We also hosted a webinar on forest management practices to benefit native wildlife, including designing a micro woodland for homeowners who don’t yet have forested areas.
sharing is caring
You don’t need acres of land or a massive meadow to make a difference in your local ecosystem. Even small patches of native habitat can provide hundreds of pollinators and other animals the resources they need to survive! To help homeowners and renters alike plant for pollinators, we regularly host seed gatherings and plant swaps for our members, giving the community the chance to connect and bond over their shared love of natives! And if you come see us at a tabling event, we’ll be sure to have some native seeds for you too!
Native Virginia Now
This seven part video series follows Shenandoah Valley landowners Ali & Jeff Carithers and the flora and fauna of their Spring House Farms prairie restoration habitat throughout an entire season. Aimed at landowners, the series educates about native meadows, plant and insect identification, and conservation strategies. Viewed over 5,000 times across multiple social media platforms, Native Virginia Now’s informational content and humor have inspired landowners throughout the mid-Atlantic and garnered fans from as meadow-improbable locations as Harlem.
See the full Native Virginia Now playlist, or check out a couple of our favorite episodes, in which Ali meets an ungrateful pollinator, and she and Jeff offer lifestyle tips for unwinding after a long day of habitat restoration.