Visit from New Hope Audubon Society
On May 11, Pilgrim’s campus was visited by three members of the New Hope Audubon Society. Pilgrim has applied for certification as a bird friendly habitat, and this was a site visit to look at our contribution to the ecosystem. We were excited to hear about the benefits of our many native canopy trees, understory trees, shrubs and the plants in our new pollinator garden. We learned a lot about how to manage our (also many) invasive non-native plants. Look forward to hearing more when we receive our report from New Hope Audubon in a few weeks!
May 22: We have the Audubon Society report! Here are some comments from Dee Sailstad:
It was exciting to listen to these “wealth of information” individuals describe and comment on our space. They identified non-native plant species and explained that these plants push out native plants and the native plants provide the food for the birds - from larvae that live on specific trees to berries produced by understory plants. I was expecting that all they would see was the invasive English Ivy and laugh at the idea of certifying us. Quite the contrary. They made wonderful statements about our thriving large white oak trees, our magnificent understory of dogwood, redbud and our shrubs of blackberries, and Hearts’ a Burstin. We scored points for the oaks and native plants, and lost points for invasive and non-native species.
We have just received their final written report with a detailed assessment of our campus along with recommendations for improvement. Even though we don’t qualify for a certificate at this point in time, the assessment is very encouraging and shows us the work required to get there. I still think that you should stand as proud Pilgrims for several reasons:
We are the only church that has requested an evaluation by this group.
They were excited that as a community we care for our environment and that we are a working example of how to take small steps towards making a difference to our planet.
They loved the idea of creating a habitat where we as a community can enjoy - it is seen as a teachable opportunity for our children and our neighbors on how we may take a few tiny steps to help the birds sing!
And, I think that makes God smile.
Thank you Pilgrims!
Dee
