A new local initiative, the Nature at Work campaign, has one goal: to encourage the entire community – businesses, churches, homeowner associations, government, developers, schools and residents – to use more native plants for landscaping.

The campaign, a joint effort by the Alliance for Cape Fear Trees (ACFT) and the N.C. Cooperative Extension-New Hanover County, is essential if the coastal region’s biodiverse ecosystem is to be preserved, said Margee Herring, president of the ACFT.

“We are reaching a breaking point,” she said. “We have too much human impact and not enough capacity to replenish the natural order of things. Sustaining the area’s native plant population is more than something that is ‘nice’ to do. If native plants are not sustained, we will all cease to thrive.”

Some scientists estimate that one in every three bites of food humans eat exists because of animal pollinators such as bees, butterflies, beetles and other creatures that need native plants to survive. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, native plants play an essential role in preventing erosion and flooding, and they help moderate the climate.

But native plants, which provide a habitat and food for pollinators, are under attack. While one of the most significant factors is development, using chemical fertilizers and pesticides and the invasion of nonnative species also threaten native plants, according to the USDA.

“If we are coming in there as human beings and taking out everything that’s native and not putting native plants back, we’re reducing that natural habitat that is so important to sustain life,” said Lloyd Singleton, county executive director for the N.C. Cooperative Extension.

The Nature at Work campaign is Wilmington’s opportunity to reverse the decimation of native plants and ensure the coastal region retains, protects and enhances its unique ecosystem, Herring said. The movement, an outgrowth of NHC’s Nature at Home program, is centered around the book Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy.

The campaign calls for a community read of the book, which encourages a grassroots movement to increase landscaping practices that conserve water, reduce the use of pesticides and provide wildlife habitat. Tallamy will present his ideas in Wilmington on Oct. 12 at the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Lumina Theater.

Nature’s Best Hope and its companion version, written for middle-school students, is available at local bookstores and New Hanover Public Library branches and on Spotify and Audible. The New Hanover County Arboretum is distributing free copies for those with limited resources. Readers are encouraged to share the book and commit to making at least one change incorporating native plants in their lawns, gardens or container gardens.

In addition, Herring and Singleton are working to get local businesses and organizations on board, and interest is growing, according to Herring.

Some HOAs are already seeking more information about incorporating native plants into their landscaping, Herring said. Since the local flood plain maps have been issued, they have found that their communities are now in a more threatening flood plain, affecting property values and insurance rates. Consequently, they are considering establishing rain gardens and planting groves of trees for their common areas, she said.

A few schools have also signed on to the idea, Herring said. The Cape Fear Center for Inquiry is coordinating lessons about native growth in its science curriculum, and Williston Middle School, in partnership with Penderlea Farms, is conducting an acorn collection program to teach students how oak trees (which are native to the area) germinate and replenish and feed wildlife.

Several programs exist to help residents shift to native landscaping as well. One such program is the annual Native Plant Festival, where attendees in September learned about native planting and could buy native plants at various local sites. Another is the Nature at Home Certification Program, through which residents learn how to make their landscaping a nurturing space for native plants and wildlife from a trained master gardener, Singleton said.

He said people don’t need an expert to make their yards conservation friendly. They can add a water source such as a birdbath to the lawn, leave leaves on the ground instead of bagging them, fertilize with compost or include native species such as coneflowers, Rudbeckias or other native plants in their flower beds.

“There are a lot of options, such as making planting beds bigger and planting wildflowers in front of shrubs,” Singleton said. “You have a sort of meadow look.”

Other options include planting trees that feed and support birds and pollinators. For example, homeowners could plant oak trees, a keystone plant for the area, or the yaupon holly shrub, which provides berries for birds all winter, instead of the popular crepe myrtles and Bradford Pear trees, neither of which do anything to support or protect wildlife, Singleton said.