Restoring and Rewilding Patches of Nature

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The effects of biodiversity loss can be seen all around us – but there are local, actionable, and easy solutions to help give native plants and animals a foothold to recover!

The easiest way to make a difference is by creating an ARK – an “Act of Restorative Kindness” – a native plant garden of any shape or size. Nature is quick to take over if given the chance, so often times your ARK can be created by… just letting nature do it’s thing!

But recovering nature can look messy, so often the first step in helping your ARK thrive is by building a sign: This is an ARK. Let your community know that nature is recovering naturally. When you’re ready, there are more steps to take to help your ARK thrive – weed out invasive species, ditch chemical sprays, and break down barriers to help animals flow more easily through your natural spaces.

After you create your ARK, make sure you tell us about what you did! Adding your ARK to our database contributes to a citizen science effort to understand what type and how many re-wilding efforts are taking place worldwide.

CITIZEN SCIENCE

Once you build your ARK, do some complementary citizen science in your garden! You can monitor bees, butterflies, native plants and more for scientists via the special ARK iNaturalist project. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/rewilding-we-are-the-ark

EVENT RESOURCES

Want to share the We Are the ARK project with your community? Use these resources!

Video resources:
English: https://youtu.be/B8cvudUP8NM
Spanish: https://youtu.be/tJOAgNxTxhw
English FB: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3363859490578956
Spanish FB: https://www.facebook.com/SciStarter/videos/1148378912858434

Activities from STARNet: https://clearinghouse.starnetlibraries.org/185-rewilding-activities