The projects and entities listed on the pages
to which we link below are by no means representative of all - there are
many more of which we are not aware. Our intention is to give you some
great ideas for helping Nature, a method for soliciting volunteers for YOUR
projects...and to show how much momentum is building for doing this work.
To current and potential volunteers...we can assure you
from personal experience that habitat restoration volunteer projects are
both worthwhile and fun! It's a great way to directly help,
while meeting like-minded people who share the same goals for restoring and
preserving biodiversity and ecological process.
Why we do and promote habitat restoration: One of the
greatest threats to native species and biodiversity is the loss of
viable habitat. It's not enough to save habitat and wild places
from development. Creating legal boundaries to save places from development
is the critical first step, but definitely not the entire solution. We
must also protect existing habitat - including our parks, backyards,
community areas and so forth - from invasions of non native species.
Invasive non native species are a major component of habitat loss.
These species are a problem because they behave more aggressively when
they are not in their native ecosystems with their natural competition
(plants & wildlife) with which they evolved. As such,
they displace natives and reduce biodiversity by creating biologically
poor systems. The scientific information to support this is available
on many of the web sites of organizations linked to in the above lists.
Gardening & landscaping with native plants - whether your garden
is a few containers on your balcony or patio, a an urban or suburban yard
or several acres - provides not only exquisite natural beauty, but also
sustainable habitat for native wildlife from insects to mammals. Native
Habitats endorses using locally native plants as a source of food & shelter
for wildlife.
Click
here to link to an article by Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt, regarding
invasive non native species.
"When environmental restoration is most successful, it also improves
our hearts, and cultivates an enduring relationship with Nature...Done properly,
environmental restoration restores far more than just the land".
(Helping Nature Heal; Richard Nilsen; Ten
Speed Press; ISBN 0-89815-425-1)
(Please visit often - there are frequent updates to specific pages linked to above)
Return to Native Habitats' home
page
Native Habitats, 17287 Skyline Blvd #102, Woodside,
CA 94062-3780, U.S.A.
email: info@nativehabitats.org
web:
http://www.NativeHabitats.org
(Native Habitats' email & web addresses are not case-sensitive)