PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 19, 2025
Native plants build climate resilience, expand wildlife habitat and support biodiversity. They provide essential food and shelter for pollinators, birds and other wildlife — benefits that far outweigh those of most cultivated plants commonly sold at nurseries. Native plants also help to protect our lakes, rivers and streams. Their interwoven root systems provide an anchor for the soil. When the current drought breaks and intense rain events return (remember the 14 straight weekends of rain this past spring?), native plants will absorb some of that rainfall, slowing the flow so it has time to infiltrate into the ground and keeping phosphorus, the nutrient that drives algal blooms, out of our waterways. ~ Tyler Refsland, Wild Seed Project, and Susan Gallo, Maine Lakes