Planting a diversity of native trees into our human dominated landscapes is a powerful act that each of us can take in our communities to support diverse wildlife and bufferer local ecosystems as the climate changes.

In this presentation, Wild Seed Project’s Founder Heather McCargo will help you think like a forest with its layers of vegetation above ground to the diverse soil community below, and to also understand the importance of planting seed grown trees to support the genetic diversity of our native plants as we bring more of them into our landscapes.

This event is in person and virtual. Register here.

Join us at our Native Seed Center at Turkey Hill Farm for seed saving and sowing! We will focus on how to process native perennial seeds to prepare them for winter. We will also learn about the diverse plants that grow here in Maine and their unique seed collection and seed sowing processes. We will guide a hands-on exploration of the many steps of growing native plants from seed, and establishing diverse landscapes using seed-grown plants.

We’ll explore the grounds (if weather allows) to identify native plants you may (or may not!) recognize and demonstrate ecologically-responsible seed collecting practices for those plants. Then participants will get to practice winter seed sowing themselves. Get ready to learn the best practices for keeping your seeds outside for the winter.

Register here.

In this hands-on workshop, Maine Audubon and Wild Seed Project staff will introduce native seed propagation for growing your own wildflowers and other plants from seed.

Participants will leave with pots sown with seeds and ready for maintenance-free outdoor germination.

The class will begin outside with a walk around Gilsland Farm to identify native plants and demonstrate ecologically-responsible seed collecting, before moving to the Education Center to teach seed storing and seed sowing.

Register here.

Sustainability Series returns with a talk from Tyler Refsland, Manager of Applied Ecology at the Wild Seed Project, about the importance of planting native trees as a part of working towards a climate resilient future.

In this talk, Tyler explores the important roles that New England native trees play in storing carbon, providing shade and shelter, and supporting local food webs. As the climate crisis intensifies, there is a growing need to change our landscape practices to promote the planting of native trees, especially in (sub)urban environments where existing tree cover is often sparse and impacts from climate change on communities may be particularly severe. The program includes instruction on tree species selection and simple outdoor seed sowing practices that anyone can do to promote native trees in our built landscapes.

Come join the Wild Seed Project at the Falmouth Memorial Library to learn about the diverse plants that grow here in Maine and their unique seed collection and seed sowing processes.

In this workshop, Wild Seed Project staff will facilitate a hands-on exploration of the many steps of growing native plants from seed, and establishing diverse landscapes using seed-grown plants.

This class will begin outside with a walk, identifying different plants in the area and demonstrating ecologically-responsible seed collecting practices for those plants. The second part of the workshop will move us inside, where we will all practice winter seed sowing, and talk through the best practices for keeping your seeds outside for the winter. Each participant will leave with a pot of sown seeds!

Register here.

Join us at our administrative offices in North Yarmouth for a Holiday Pop Up shopping experience!

We will be selling seeds, merch, seed sowing kits, plant guides, and artwork. Cash and cards accepted!

We will be joined by the following vendors:

Vanessa Nesvig

Lin Snow

Come experience the crisp beauty of winter at the blueberry barrens!

In this Brunswick-based Four Season Walks series, participants will learn how to identify many of the native plants growing around the conservation area. Join Emily Baisden, Wild Seed Project’s seed program manager and resident entomologist to explore the flora and fauna of this area. This will be the last of the four walks. If you came to the other seasonal walks, we encourage you to come to this one as well!

The goal of these walks is to foster relationships with place through relationships with plants, and encourage further stewardship of our community spaces. Come walk and learn with Wild Seed Project! We will meet at the parks entrance, at the end of Lindbergh Crossing, accessed via Old Bath Rd.

Register here.

The Scarborough Land Trust (SLT) and Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik (APCAW) and the Wild Seed Project will present on the current state of Ash Trees and the presence of the Emerald Ash Borer in Maine, what these organizations are doing to conserve Ash trees, and how community members can help.

Register here.

Come join the Wild Seed Project for a free online winter seed sowing demonstration. Our Seed Program Director, Emily Baisden, will demonstrate each step of sowing native seeds and talk through best practices and where to find the materials you need to do this! There will be time for participant questions at the end.

This event will be hosted on Zoom. Your registration will get you access to the Zoom link, which will be sent out the day of the event. We will also send the recording to registrants after the webinar.

Register here.

Each month, WSP’s resident plant experts join members on Zoom to answer questions and talk all things native plants. Current members will receive a link to the session via email.

Not a member? Join today!

Didn’t get your link via email?  Contact Sara!

Join our Seed Program Director, Emily Baisden, for an introduction to the marvelous diversity of native bees!  Here in Maine we have over 270 species of native bees, each playing a part in the broader ecosystem.  Emily will be joined by Ellen Maling, Barbara Murphy, and Joan Carney from the Tom Settlemire Community Garden to share how they’ve cultivated habitat for pollinators at the garden.  Come away with a deeper appreciation for native pollinators and how you too can welcome them with native plantings.

In partnership with Brunswick Topsham Landtrust.

Click here to register for the event.

Seed Center Director Emily Baisden and Executive Director Andrea Berry will present “Small Scale Native Seed Production in the Northeast” at the annual Native Seed Network Conference.  This talk, in collaboration with Native Plant Trust and Hilltop Hanover Farm, highlights the successes and challenges of increasing accessibility of genetically diverse seed and plants for restoration in the Northeast. What does it take to partner with a diversity of small-scale partners, throughout the ecoregion, to establish and grow a Northeast Seed Network? Come find out!

Note: program listings are Pacific Standard Time.
10:30 AM – 11:10 AM PST / 1:30 PM – 2:10 PM EST

Register at the Native Seed Network Conference website.

Each month, WSP’s resident plant experts join members on Zoom to answer questions and talk all things native plants. Current members will receive a link to the session via email.

Not a member? Join today!

This program is a two hour interactive experience in which we engage in a story of particular events in the history of 400-years of colonization of Wabanaki people by Europeans in this territory now called the state of Maine.

This highly engaging experience requires our full participation in order to genuinely increase our understanding of colonization and what it means for current descendants and future generations; to reflect on what story we are writing for our grandchildren.

We ask participants to participate with their cameras on throughout the presentation in order to experience the program to its fullest.

Wild Seed Project is excited to offer this important program to our community. We hope that this program adds necessary context to the ways in which history informs our present, and how knowing this history can help us interact more thoughtfully with this place, Wabanakik.

Register here.

Seeds of Resilience: The Cultural Dimension Plant Biodiversity

Join Mohawk Seedkeeper Rowen White as she shares her insights about Indigenous seeds and their stewards across North America and her home community of Akwesasne in upstate NY; stories that embody the vision of relationality and kinship between humans and plants and explore the depth of the cultural dimension of plant biodiversity in North America. She will share the collective vision of intercultural healing that emerges when we center Indigenous leadership, traditional ecological knowledge, cultural memory, and sovereignty of living in relationship with the cultural inheritance of land, seeds, and other non-human kin.  Her uplifting stories from her work at the Indigenous Seedkeepers Network will paint an uplifting picture of inter-cultural climate sanity for the regenerative land stewardship movement in these times of great transformation.

Rowen White is a Seedkeeper/farmer and author from the Mohawk community of Akwesasne and a passionate activist for indigenous seed and food sovereignty. She is the Educational Director and lead mentor of Sierra Seeds, an innovative Indigenous seed bank and land-based educational organization located in Nevada City, CA. Rowen is the Founder of the Indigenous Seedkeepers Network, which is committed to restoring the Indigenous Seed Commons, and currently serves as a Cooperative Seed Hub Coordinator.

To register, click here. For questions about this event, please contact Jess Gildea, Director of Community Engagement: jess@wildseedproject.net.

Each month, WSP’s resident plant experts join members on Zoom to answer questions and talk all things native plants. Current members will receive a link to the session via email.

Not a member? Join today!

As part of The Ecology School’s Good Growing Gathering, Wild Seed Project’s education lead Nell Houde will share “Backyard Biodiversity.”  Nell will introduce ways of working with the landscape to welcome more life into your growing spaces.

The whole Good Growing Gathering is an opportunity to learn about and celebrate growing food in the Northeast. This weekend-long event will be a wonderful opportunity to live and learn at River Bend Farm, share information about gardening and farming, and build a community around growing food. All are welcome – beginner and master gardeners alike.

Attendees will enjoy four meals from the on farm kitchen and stay in the beautiful and comfortable dorms built with sustainability as a priority. During your free time, enjoy and explore our beautiful campus along the Saco River. Weekend Cost is $30 made possible by Hannaford Supermarkets.

Visit The Ecology School website to register.

We’ll be at the annual MOFGA Seed Swap & Scion Exchange, sharing info about how we do seed collecting and saving.  Come say hi!

The swap is a fun, bustling event attended by hundreds of gardeners and farmers, sharing seeds, scionwood, plants, hatching eggs, kombucha starters and more.

No registration required; find more information on the MOFGA website.

Wild Seed Project’s 2024 Guide is all about Planting for Climate Resilience, and we want to hear from you all, our community, about the questions you have regarding caring for plants and other life in a changing world.

We are hosting a 1 hour open Q&A to talk through what we have been seeing in the Northeast, and how we have been adapting.

Bring your questions about winter sowing in warming winters, assisted migration, the adaptive capacity of plants and ecosystems, and anything else related to planting for climate resilience.

Emily Baisden, our Seed Center Director, Maura Sanchi, our Retail and Nursery Coordinator, and Nell Houde, our Educational Programs Manager, will be there from Wild Seed Project to answer your questions.

We want to highlight that there’s a lot we don’t know, and there’s a lot we’re learning every day. This is an opportunity to bring your questions and also share in conversation about what we have all been noticing, and how we are thinking about resilience in an unknown future.

Register to reserve your space!

In addition to helping to sustain vital pollinators, birds and other wildlife, native plantings offer countless other benefits that are indispensable in the age of climate change. When created and maintained with ecologically attuned landscaping practices, they can minimize flooding and storm water runoff, shade and cool cities, survive droughts, and facilitate carbon storage more effectively than the landscapes dominated by turf and mulch that blanket so many of our communities. Join our Executive Director Andrea Berry to learn about the actions you can take to make your corner of the world more biodiverse and resilient to the effects of climate change.

Hosted by Grow Native Massachusetts at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA.  No registration required; find more into at Grow Native Mass.

Wild Seed Project is pleased to be the nonprofit beneficiary of this year’s Green Home & Energy Show.  Ticket proceeds will benefit Wild Seed Project.  We’ll be tabling at the show all day with information and merchandise.

Executive Director Andrea Berry will also present “Planting for Climate Resilience” sharing actions you can take to make your corner of the world more biodiverse and resilient to the effects of climate change.  In addition to helping to sustain vital pollinators, birds and other wildlife, native plantings offer countless other benefits that are indispensable in the age of climate change. When created and maintained with ecologically attuned landscaping practices, they can minimize flooding and storm water runoff, shade and cool cities, survive droughts, and facilitate carbon storage more effectively than the landscapes dominated by turf and mulch that blanket so many of our communities.

Presentation is at 1pm in the Student Lounge.

Each month, WSP’s resident plant experts join members on Zoom to answer questions and talk all things native plants. Current members will receive a link to the session via email.

Not a member? Join today!

***DATE CHANGE*** Monday April 15th 2024

Join us at our Native Seed Center at Turkey Hill Farm for an Earth Month Celebration with the Wild Seed Project! Bring your binoculars and your work gloves for a fun-filled morning. The day will proceed as follows:

9:00 AM: Collect at Turkey Hill Farm for bagels from Scratch Baking and coffee.

9:15 AM: Go for a birding walk around Turkey Hill (maybe we’ll see blue birds!) led by our staff entomologist/bird expert Emily Baisden.

10:00 AM: Get a tour of the seed center, and begin spring site preparation. This will likely include removing sod and prepping planting beds. Stay for as long as you wish, we are grateful for any and all help!

Please register so we know how many bagels and shovels to bring.