EVENTS

Leslie Pilgrim has spent the past decade working with her local city and county governments, school district, and others to "claim dirt" wherever she can. While the process has been complex and frustrating at times, the rewards have made the journey worthwhile. From a 1/2 acre city roadside boulevard planting, county roadside native vegetation demonstration project, city curb-cut raingarden program, schoolyard forest, and more, each incremental project introduces an elevated local awareness of the importance of nativescapes.
 

Leslie is the founder of Neighborhood Greening, a non-profit dedicated to community environmental education and stewardship. Founded in 2017, the non-profit publishes the free ezine, The Buttterfly Effect, which is sent to thousands of subscribers residing in the East Coast, Midwest and Southern Canada. She is also co-president of Wild Ones Twin Cities, editor of her chapter's ezine, Wild Ones Reflections, writes a Substack column called "Life in the Anthropocene", and is the co-founder of Roots in the Ground Mendota Heights, a community initiative formed to get 5,000 new trees planted in the city to replace the thousands of trees which will be lost to EAB.