Conservation News

The YIES Learning Garden fosters community and reconnects students post-COVID through nature-based learning. Designed with staff input and supported by the PTO and WCCD grant, it was installed with volunteer help in 2021-2022. Summer maintenance is ongoing, and plans include teacher engagement, curriculum integration, and artistic additions to enhance the garden's role as an educational resource.

This potluck-style event encouraged everyone with an interest in native plants to attend whether or not they brought a plant to "pass".

Increasingly more residents and landowners are joining and sustaining this cultural shift to diversify our yards and communities with native plants for the benefit of the birds, and the bees... and really, all life on this shared planet!

​Do you have an invasive tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) in your yard, farm, or woodlot? Then you have a love match for the invasive spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula). Don’t let this insect’s strikingly pretty appearance fool you!

If you know Kathy & Norm, you will know them to be some of the kindest, hardworking, considerate, and positive people. This pair is very deserving of this recognition for not only the time any effort they contribute to our events, but for all that they give to the community beyond WCCD.

​When it comes to Conservation Agriculture and row crops in Washtenaw County, there are few operations, if any, that successfully practice conservation as well as Lee Maulbetsch. Going back to 1978, the Maulbetsch family has consistently farmed corn, soy beans, and wheat, in Northfield Township.

​Going back generations, the Whitney Family consistently demonstrated a commitment to a high level of Conservation. In fact, in the year 2002, Gilbert Whitney was named the Washtenaw County Conservation Farmer of the Year. In 2022, todays generation of the Whitney Farmers we awarded.

In 2020 Green Things Farm, Land Loom and Ann Arbor Seed Company combined forces to become the Green Things Farm Collective (GTFC).