Empowering Youth to Make a Difference

MEADOWSCAPING FOR BIODIVERSITY (MS4B, www.meadowmaking.org) is a STEAM-learning, project-based, environmental education program that exposes youth to the benefits of being outdoors in nature and empowers them to be good environmental citizens. Youth learn “intentional gardening”—gardening with pollinator-friendly perennial native plants—with the intention of building healthy, resilient communities.

MS4B offers two program lines: 1) Out-of-school-time Meadow Clubs and Meadow Camps, environmental enrichment courses for youth, age 7-14, and 2) the Youth Environmental Entrepreneurship Program (YEEP), for teens age 15-19.

YEEP, a career-readiness/community-resilience program, guides high school students through the creation and operation of a specialty landscape business where the students sell and install native plants throughout their community. YEEP links learning to working and puts youth on a path toward defining their career and academic interests. Both programs ignite curiosity and give youth tools to address major challenges to the environment and society. These are nature-deprivation disorder, climate change, ecological indifference, and lack of biodiversity.

Today, few children spend time experiencing nature and the benefits of outdoor recreation, education, and contemplation. The term “nature-deficit disorder” describes how reduced outdoor time has serious negative impacts on children’s physical health, mood, aggressiveness, and intellectual development. Students who spend time outdoors and build a connection to nature tend to exhibit traits of compassion, empathy, and an appreciation for science and their surroundings that they carry into their adulthood.

WHY MEADOWSCAPING? Over the past 60+ years, man-made changes to the American landscape and our climate have significantly compromised the biodiversity essential to support life. Over 80% of landscaped area is resource-intensive lawn and 16% comprises non-native, often invasive plants. Invasive plants and other invasive species are overwhelming and destroying native flora and fauna, upsetting the balance of nature. In MS4B programs, we emphasize the need to increase wildlife habitat by repurposing turf lawns, ornamental plants, and worn-out land into meadows filled with perennial native plants that provide food, safety, and habitat.

Meadows filled with hardy, drought-tolerant native, perennial plants that appeal to bees, caterpillars, butterflies, and birds, help restore biodiverse habitats essential to plant, animal, and human life. Meadows also supplant invasive species, store carbon in the soil, cool the earth, and soak up rainwater, preventing runoff from polluting our streams, rivers, and oceans—and, thus, contributing to community health and resilience.

MS4B = A PROVEN, SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM

For youth. Since 2014, MS4B has provided meadow club and vacation camp programs to over 300 youth in the Waltham elementary schools, the Park School in Brookline, Sociedad Latina in Boston and the Waltham YMCA. The YEEP summer employment program has empowered dozens of high school and college students to make a difference in their communities of Waltham, Cambridge, and beyond. All MS4B students gain stewardship and 21st C. career skills that will support their future success.

For wildlife. MS4B’s 5,000+ sq. ft. in ecosystems gardens provide habitat for pollinators, insects, birds and other wildlife. Two of MS4B’s meadows have National Wildlife Habitat Certification and three more are eligible. Through Oct. 2018, MS4B students and volunteers have installed native-plant meadows or pollinator patches at 4 churches, 9 public spaces (including Waltham Common) 2 schools, and 12 homes, and donated plants to the Boston Esplanade.

For educators, gardeners and ecologists. MS4B staff have designed and delivered educational workshops at the annual conferences of: Mass. Environmental Education Society (MEES); Mass. Horticultural Society’s School Gardeners’ Conference; the Cambridge Science Festival; the Mass Green Summit, New England Grassroots Environmental Fund; the North and South Rivers Watershed Association (NSRWA); and the Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA), among others.

Partners and Supporters: Dr. Doug Tallamy, Department Chair, Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, University of Delaware;

Dr. Eric Olson, Senior Lecturer, Entomology, Heller School, Brandeis University; Waltham Cultural Council; Russo’s; Sean Greenhow; The Nature Conservancy; The National Wildlife Federation; Waltham Garden Club; Waltham High School; Waltham Partnership for Youth; Watertown Savings Bank; Bio4Climate; Boston Esplanade; City of Cambridge; City of Waltham; Green Cambridge; Green Newton; Grow Native Massachusetts; First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, Waltham; Friends of Jerry’s Pond; Friends of Kennard Park; Friends of Magazine Beach; Friends of Somerville Community Gardens; Mass. Audubon; Mass. Hort.; New England Grassroots Environmental Fund; New England Wildflower Society; Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA); Reservoir Church; RTN Federal Credit Union; Russell’s Garden Center; Laura D. Eisener, Landscape Designer; and Russell Cohen, Environmentalist and Naturalist.