Humans need nature and nature needs our attention right now!

Think of “nature” as all of the species - animals, plants, and other organisms - in our world. The place where all of “nature” lives is called habitat, and all species require habitat to survive. When humans build roads and buildings or put a lot of “lawn” in our yards, some “species” like birds, bees, squirrels, caterpillars, and butterflies can lose their homes and even their lives.

When that happens, we lose biodiversity, which is the variation of species within a given region. A greater variety of native species equals greater biodiversity.

Native species are elements of “nature” that evolved together in a specific area to form an interconnected network called an ecosystem. Every species within an ecosystem performs a specific role that contributes to maintaining balance. This ensures the ecosystem will continue producing the services that support all living organisms. Some key ecosystem services include reducing soil erosion, filtering pollutants from the air and water, increasing pollination, containing carbon, and providing pest or fire control.

When a habitat or ecosystem loses biodiversity, we also lose the ecosystem services that ensure our survival.

Earth is currently experiencing a biodiversity crisis, we are losing biodiversity at a dangerous rate. The good news is that we can solve this problem. YOUth have an important role to play in solving the biodiversity crisis by spreading the word and planting native! Ask your parents, friends, teachers, neighbors, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents to:

PLANT NATIVE 

&

GET ON THE HNP MAP!