Events

This presentation explores the biology, ecology, and management of mason bees in mid-Michigan, highlighting their role as solitary pollinators in agricultural, residential and community landscapes. Through a combination of field observations and experimental results spanning nine years, the talk covers species identification, nesting behaviors, life cycle, and other seasonal activities.  It presents data on nesting site selection, drilled block designs, nesting material preferences, revealing strategies that enhance bee reproduction and habitat utilization.  Timelapse footage and videos reveal the bees’ industrious routines.  Odor analysis of mason bee cocoons is also presented, offering valuable insights into how nesting site selection is influenced by scent.  The presentation concludes with a discussion on the cooperation with Dow Gardens including yearly hosting of the bees and presenting at the annual “Viva la Pollinators” pollinators event.  By combining research findings along with experience and practical guidance, this session is designed to equip attendees with the knowledge they need to start raising mason bees and support pollinator populations in their own communities.

This program will take place at the Chippewa Nature Center, 400 S. Badour Road, Midland, MI. Meet at the Visitor Center. The public is welcome to attend.

 Speaker Bio

Matt Masters is an analytical chemist with a B.S. in Chemistry from Saginaw Valley State University and 18 years of professional experience at Dow. Raised on a farm in southern Michigan, Matt is known for an easygoing personality and a passion for learning, teaching, and testing new ideas. While Matt is devoted to his family, he still manages to find time for his passion—raising mason bees and educating others about them.

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This program is brought to you by the Wild Ones Mid-Mitten Chapter, part of a member-based national organization whose mission promotes environmentally-sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration, and establishment of native plant communities. The Mid-Mitten Chapter is based in Midland, Bay, Saginaw, and Isabella counties. It meets monthly on the second Monday, and welcomes new members. For more information go to @midmittenwildones.

In this special collaboration, Robin Wall Kimmerer, author, botanist, and founder of Plant Baby Plant, joins youth leader and Nurture Natives founder Esther Bonney for an intergenerational conversation about belonging, reciprocity, and native plant action. 

Together, they will explore questions such as:

How do we create opportunities for young people to have a voice and feel empowered, even when they are not homeowners or decision makers?What kinds of relationships and mentorships help people stay engaged in native plant work over decades?Why do stories, shared practices, and community invitations matter just as much as plant lists?

Robin and Esther will reflect on what invites people into this work, what keeps them here, and what elders and youth have to teach each other.

Join us in a hands-on session in creating seed packets with labels to be given out at future events. If you have saved seeds that you are willing to give away, please bring them to this meeting. We will print labels and place seeds in envelopes. This is a great way to learn about our native plants, see what the seeds look like, and learn about their growing conditions.

This program will take place at the Chippewa Nature Center, 400 S. Badour Road, Midland, MI. Meet at the Visitor Center. The public is welcome to attend.

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This program is brought to you by the Wild Ones Mid-Mitten Chapter, part of a member-based national organization whose mission promotes environmentally-sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration, and establishment of native plant communities. The Mid-Mitten Chapter is based in Midland, Bay, Saginaw, and Isabella counties. It meets monthly on the second Monday, and welcomes new members. For more information go to @midmittenwildones. 

Our upcoming webinar with Basil Camu explores practical, evidence based ways to heal suburban and urban landscapes by working with trees, soil, and natural systems, drawing on real world practices from Leaf & Limb and community centered models for restoring life where we live, work, and play.!  

Join Wild Ones Mid-Mitten Chapter as Steve Thomas describes the use of native plants among solar arrays. Steve is a consultant with Environmental Technology & Consulting, and his responsibilities include remediation around solar arrays. Steve will describe seed selection and seed mix development to provide optimum plantings. He will also provide examples of these used in Michigan. 

This program will take place at the Chippewa Nature Center, 400 S. Badour Road, Midland, MI. Meet at the Visitor Center. The public is welcome to attend.

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This program is brought to you by the Wild Ones Mid-Mitten Chapter, part of a member-based national organization whose mission promotes environmentally-sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration, and establishment of native plant communities. The Mid-Mitten Chapter is based in Midland, Bay, Saginaw, and Isabella counties. It meets monthly on the second Monday, and welcomes new members. For more information go to @midmittenwildones. 

Join Joey Santore, creator of Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t, for a candid Wild Ones National Webinar examining how inherited garden aesthetics shape native plant landscapes. Drawing on field experience and real ecology, Joey challenges tidy design norms and explores why dense, irregular plant communities are often the most resilient and ecologically sound.

This special meeting will celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the Mid-Mitten Wild Ones Chapter. We will explore the Wild Ones National website offerings and tools for members to learn about our benefits and how we might use them.  Another desired outcome of the meeting is suggestions from the chapter's members as to what they hope to get from their membership in 2026.

This program will take place at the Chippewa Nature Center, 400 S. Badour Road, Midland, MI. Meet at the Visitor Center. The public is welcome to attend.

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This program is brought to you by the Wild Ones Mid-Mitten Chapter, part of a member-based national organization whose mission promotes environmentally-sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration, and establishment of native plant communities. The Mid-Mitten Chapter is based in Midland, Bay, Saginaw, and Isabella counties. It meets monthly typically on the second Monday, and welcomes new members. For more information go to @midmittenwildones.

Join award-winning author, photographer, and educator Rick Darke for What Is Wild and Why It Matters, a free national webinar on Tuesday, April 28th at 10 am CT. Discover how inviting a bit of authentic wildness can create a vibrant landscape that sustains you and local biodiversity. This national event is presented in collaboration between Wild Ones and Homegrown National Park.

Join us for a special program with a panel of experts answering your questions! You may be wondering about such issues as how to add native plants to existing landscaping, how to remove non-native plants, which plants to pick, or how to deal with pests. Bring your questions to get some expert advice. Our panel consists of: Craig Schafer, Beth Martin, and Chuck Martin. Craig is a Wild Ones Member and Owner of Hoffman Farms Native Plant Nursery in Kochville Township in Saginaw County. He has been growing native flowers, grasses, sedges, trees and shrubs for 6 years and has planted thousands of them in his own backyard ecosystem. Chuck Martin is a senior horticulturist retired from Dow Gardens. He and Beth Martin have created a Conservation@Home yard certified by Little Forks Conservancy. 

This program will take place at the Chippewa Nature Center, 400 S. Badour Road, Midland, MI. Meet at the Visitor Center. The public is welcome to attend.

Join Wild Ones for a hike with Molly Lewis at Little Forks Conservancy's Nelson Woods Preserve. We’ll focus on identification, management and control methods for invasive species. We will also look at the amazing work Little Forks and their volunteers have conducted over the last year to remove invasive species such as Autumn olive and Japanese barberry from the landscape.

Molly Lewis is the Central Michigan Cooperative Invasive Species Management (CM-CISMA) coordinator. She has a bachelor's degree in Environmental Science with a focus on Natural Resources and Conservation. Protecting, managing, and creating natural habitats is a passion of hers and through her current role as the CM-CISMA coordinator she hopes to create positive changes in the Central Michigan area. 

This program will take place at Nelson Woods. Meet at the parking lot at the north end of Vance Road off M-20. The public is welcome to attend.

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This program is brought to you by the Wild Ones Mid-Mitten Chapter, part of a member-based national organization whose mission promotes environmentally-sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration, and establishment of native plant communities. The Mid-Mitten Chapter is based in Midland, Bay, Saginaw, and Isabella counties. It meets monthly typically on the second Monday, and welcomes new members. For more information go to @midmittenwildones.

Wild Ones member Jeanne Henderson will welcome visitors to her native plant gardens for this program. She has added natives to the landscape for over 30 years and will describe the challenges and benefits of native species. The suburban yard includes shade-loving woodland perennials under maple trees and sun-loving pollinator perennials mixed with shrubs and evergreens for birds. The address is 2942 Imperial Drive, Bay City (actually Monitor township).

Next we drive 1.5 miles to the Frankenlust Township Nature Park to see the ongoing restoration efforts. Non-native invasives were removed, fields were drill-seeded with native perennial wildflowers and grasses, native shrubs planted, eight White Birch trees planted by Wild Ones last September. This fall 10 maple trees will be added with the grant our chapter just awarded to them.

RSVP to [email protected].  Please try to carpool.

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This program is brought to you by the Wild Ones Mid-Mitten Chapter, part of a member-based national organization whose mission promotes environmentally-sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration, and establishment of native plant communities. The Mid-Mitten Chapter is based in Midland, Bay, Saginaw, and Isabella counties. It meets monthly typically on the second Monday, and welcomes new members. For more information go to @midmittenwildones.

You planted native. Your neighbor has opinions. Maybe your HOA does too. If you’ve ever felt like the hardest part of native plant gardening is the conversations, not the gardening, you’re not alone.

Wild Ones is thrilled to share this upcoming free webinar as part of the 2026 Less Lawn More Life Challenge. Join Lorraine Johnson for a practical conversation on navigating HOA rules, addressing neighbor concerns, and fostering community conversations about native plant gardening and ecological landscapes.

Native plants are the foundation of habitat, but wildlife need more than food to thrive. Join ecologist and Certified Wildlife Biologist Shaun McCoshum, PhD, to explore how nesting sites, shelter, water, soil conditions, and other often-overlooked resources can transform a yard into a functioning ecosystem that supports biodiversity year-round.

Registration link coming soon.

What does it really take to turn a conventional lawn into a thriving native meadow? Join Owner & Principal, New Directions in the American Landscape (NDAL), Sara Weaner Cooper for a candid look at her family's ongoing lawn-to-meadow transformation featured in The New York Times and BBC. Drawing from three years of hands-on experience, Sara will share the methods, lessons learned, successes, and challenges of converting turfgrass into a dynamic native plant community. Participants will gain practical insights into site preparation, planting, management, and the ecological principles that guide successful meadow establishment, along with realistic expectations for how these landscapes evolve over time.

Registration link coming soon.

Bats are among the most important and misunderstood wildlife in our communities. Join experts from Bat Conservation International to explore how native plants, healthy insect populations, and thoughtful landscape design can help support bats. Learn about the ecological role of bats and discover practical ways to create habitat for North America's night flyers right in your own backyard.

Registration link coming soon.

Monarch butterflies depend on a network of habitats stretching across North America, and home landscapes can play an important role in their survival. Join experts from Monarch Joint Venture to explore the science behind monarch conservation, including the importance of milkweed, nectar resources, and regionally appropriate habitat. Learn practical ways to support monarchs through native landscaping and help sustain one of the world's most remarkable migrations.
 

Registration link coming soon.