Allison McPhail

My passion is native plants and supporting native pollinators and beneficial insects (particularly monarchs and native bees), so if that is something that interests you as well, I can think of a few options for you to look into.

The first would be volunteering as a seed collector. I need to look for the paper I had, but I heard of at least one organization that was asking for volunteers to collect milkweed and other nectar producing native plant seeds (I can get the name of the group if you are interested). I don't know your exact situation, but if you can get out at all with some help, you could help identify plants and collect the seeds needed. Even if you can't do it yourself, you could organize a team to go do the actual collecting and take care of the logistics of sending out the seeds.

Another option would be seeing if there are any volunteer options with your local extension office or native plant society that you could do from home. I live in Pennsylvania, and the Penn State extension is really active in native plant promotion in the counties around me. They do multiple events and promotions, including a native plant sale every year, to bring natives into the spotlight and promote their benefits. If you have something similar, maybe you could help with email blasts or organizing details of events.

If you have the growing room indoors, you could try setting up grow lights and start native plant seeds for planting in your local area. If you guys have the land and space for it, you can establish native gardens. From what I have been learning lately, the best way people can help our native wildlife is to increase available habitat by planting more productive gardens in place of alien species and lawns. If you have the space for planting, start seeds for a new garden or an existing one you can expand. If your family or friends are willing to take care of the outside work after you get the plants started, that would make a huge impact on your local ecosystem. You could do host plants for local insect species, seed producing plants for birds, or even start trees from seeds to get good native trees in the ground for wildlife and to act as a carbon sink.

Or if you don't have the room to plant where you live, see if you can start seeds for your local extension or native plant society. They may be more than happy for donations. Maybe you could even start some to give away in your local community to anyone interested. That would be an interesting outreach project to get the word out about natives and their benefits over lawns and exotic species.

I hope this helps!