Native Plant Walk

The woodlands and meadows at the Wells Reserve contain a variety of interesting native plants and have a story to tell about the landscape's history. In this native plant walk, Heather will highlight the surprising diversity of species native to Maine, including wildflowers, ferns, and a variety of native shrubs and trees. We will learn which species are adaptable to gardens and developed landscapes, their edible and medicinal properties, unusual reproductive strategies, and the threats to their survival. Learning to recognize the native species in our midst is the first step toward advocating for their conservation.  

Wild Seed Project is a Maine-based nonprofit that works to increase the use of native plants in all landscape settings in order to conserve biodiversity, encourage plant adaption in the face of climate change, safeguard wildlife habitat, and create pollination and migration corridors for insects and birds. We sell seeds of locally-grown native plants and educate the public on seed sowing so that a wide range of citizens can participate in increasing native plant populations. We also have an interactive website, www.wildseedproject.net, and publish an annual magazine, Wild Seed. 

Heather McCargo, founder and executive director of Wild Seed Project, is an educator with 30 years of expertise in plant propagation, landscape design, and conservation. She was the head plant propagator at the New England Wildflower Society’s Garden in the Woods during the 1990s, worked at several landscape architecture/planning firms specializing in ecological design, and has been a contributor to several research projects with USAID, the National Gardening Association, and MOFGA. She has lectured nationally and is widely published in journals and magazines such as Horticulture and American Nurseryman. More locally, Heather designed the master plan for the medicinal gardens at Avena Botanicals in Rockland and was the creator and lead teacher for the Bay School’s Agricultural Arts program. Heather has a B.A. in plant ecology from Hampshire College, and an M.A. from the Conway School of Landscape Design.

Please note: Program fee does not include site admission fee.