
WHAT YOU
CAN DO
While the power of political action is your opportunity to make the biggest difference, you can take direct action to improve the biodiversity and sustainability of the area you live in to see an immediate positive effect.
Take
to the soil.
Trees
Fruit trees = *
Nut trees = ^
Eastern U.S​
​​
-
Basswood (Tilia americana)
-
American chestnut (Castanea dentata)^
-
American elm (Ulmus americana)
-
American beech (Fagus grandifolia)^
-
Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)*
-
Pines (Pinus sp.)^
-
Eastern white pine (Pinus​ strobus)
-
Red pine (Pinus resinosa)
-
Jack pine (Pinus banksiana)
-
-
Blackcherry (Prunus serotina)*
-
Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
-
Black walnut (Juglans nigra)^
-
Butternut (Juglans cinerea)^
-
American holly (Ilex opaca)
-
Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
-
Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)
-
American larch (Larix laricina)
-
Spruce (Picea sp.)
-
White spruce (Picea glauca)​
-
Black spruce (Picea mariana)
-
-
Hornbeam
-
Hophornbeam
-
American hazelnut (Corylus Americana)^
-
Oaks (Quercus sp.)^
-
Chinquapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii)​
-
Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa)
-
White oak (Quercus alba)
-
Swamp oak (Quercus bicolor)
-
Sawtooth oak (Quercus acutissima)
-
Red oak (Quercus rubra)
-
-
Red mulberry (Morus rubra)*
-
Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
-
Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua)
-
Black gum (Nyssa sylvatica)
​
​
Western U.S​
​​
-
Giant sequoia​ (Sequoiadendron giganteum)
-
Coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)
-
Oaks (Quercus sp.)^
-
Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii)
-
Coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia)
-
California black oak
-
Valley oak (Quercus lobota)
-
Oregon white oak
-
Canyon live oak
-
-
Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
-
Pines (Pinus sp.)^
-
Ponderosa pine​ (Pinus ponderosa)
-
Sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana)
-
Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi)
-
One-needle pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla)
-
Lodgepole pine
-
Two-needle pinyon (Pinus edulis)
-
Foothill pine (Pinus sabiniana)
-
-
Arizona cypress (Cupressus arizonica)
-
Madrone (Arbutus menziesii)*
-
Boxelder (Acer negundo)
-
Western sycamore (Platanus racemosa)
-
Incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens)
-
California bay laurel (Umbellularia californica)
-
Alders (Alnus sp.)​​
-
White alder​ (Alnus rhombifolia)
-
Red alder (Alnus rubra)
-
Grey alder (Alnus incana)
-
-
Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii)
-
Ash (Fraxinus sp.)
Gardening is relaxing but is also well-documented for its ability to improve your physical and mental health. Beyond that, it can be harnessed as a regenerative act to grow your own food, heal the soil, and heal your local native ecosystem.
​
The Rewilding Foundation believes education is a powerful tool in our quest to help save our world's dying wilderness, and showing you how to regrow a piece of nature at your home, ranch, or even apartment is a potent way to fight our biodiversity crisis and play your part in saving species from extinction. It can be hard to believe such a small action can have such huge results, but the effect of thousands of people turning their yards into reflections of their historic ecosystems will create a patchwork of micro-havens for our wildlife. Any individual patch will be beneficialwhich is massively beneficial. This practice is called "habitat gardening."
​
To help you regrow your habitat, we're providing a list of the most ecologically important trees and shrubs, broken down by region.
DISCLAIMER: While broken down by region, the regions used are vast and you should research your specific area to understand what is native and appropriate to plant. Use our site as a starting point for research.
​
Moreover, growing your own food – especially when using permaculture to get the biggest harvests, expend the least effort, and coexist with nature – is another effective means of doing your part for our world, while also benefitting yourself greatly with the healthiest, highest-quality produce, from yard to table.
More resources (food and habitat gardening:
YOUTUBE
MIgardener (East Coast)
Epic Gardening (West Coast)
​
BOOKS
The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times (By Carole Deppe)
​
WEBSITES