FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Partnership Helps Track and Encourage Biodiversity Restoration Across North America
ITHACA, N.Y. [June 1, 2026]— An exciting new partnership between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Garden for Birds program and Homegrown National Park is making it easier than ever for you to access the resources needed to create bird-friendly habitats, document your impact, and join a growing movement across the U.S. and Canada to restore biodiversity through native plant gardening.
Whether you are a birder, an insect lover, or simply someone captivated by the sweet aroma of a blooming flower, this partnership is for you. Garden for Birds will provide free monthly guidance on using native plants to create bird-friendly habitats, and the interactive HNP Biodiversity Map will allow you to track and share your restoration efforts alongside thousands of others working to bring nature back where they live.
“You could just have a patio or a window box in your apartment and still choose to add native plants to experience caterpillars feeding on them or birds foraging on them,” said Becca Rodomsky-Bish, the project leader of Garden for Birds. “[Planting native plants] is something that not only will be good for you and the environment, but it’s also accessible to [start], no matter where you are living and what and where you call home.”
The partnership will also help participants see their contribution as part of a larger conservation effort. Every native plant added to a garden provides food and shelter for insects, especially caterpillars, which in turn support birds and other wildlife. And every new acre registered on the map helps make the collective impact of these individual actions more visible.
“[Homegrown National Park] loves to see the Biodiversity Map as a hub that not only allows people to visualize where action is happening and where it still needs to happen, but also as a tool for people to understand the depth of this movement and how their choices affect the nature around them,” said Grant Jensen, Marketing Manager for Homegrown National Park. “People now understand that we have the power to bring back nature where we live simply by what we plant in our yards and by encouraging our communities to do the same.”
Across North America, more than 50,000 individuals have already documented their habitat restoration progress on the biodiversity map. Together, these individual gardens, patios, and window boxes add up to a powerful restoration movement — and your space can be part of it too.
Are you ready to join?
To get started, add your habitat to the interactive HNP map to join the Garden for Birds Project and explore Garden for Birds’ bird-friendly habitat planting resources at Gardenforbirds.org.
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The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a nonprofit, member-supported organization dedicated to the understanding and protection of birds, wildlife, and our shared planet through research, education, participatory science, and conservation. birds.cornell.
Homegrown National Park catalyzes people to plant native and remove invasive plant species at home and in their communities—one of the most impactful actions anyone can take to restore and protect the natural habitats that support all life.
Grounded in the science of renowned ecologist Doug Tallamy and co-founded with Michelle Alfandari, Homegrown National Park demonstrates how restoring native plant communities supports the insects, birds, and other wildlife that keep ecosystems—and people—healthy. This work is essential to safeguarding the natural systems we all depend on: clean air and water, food production, and climate stability.
Through our Biodiversity Map and practical tools, we support individuals, organizations, and communities in taking meaningful, science-backed actions as part of a growing, collective movement to make native habitat restoration mainstream.
Learn more at: https://homegrownnationalpark.
Media contacts:
Jessie Eagan,
Communications Coordinator, (317) 488-7349, Press@homegrownnationalpark.
Kathi Borgmann, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, (607) 254-2137, klb274@cornell.edu