Great Lakes Restoration Initiative: Interfaith Pollinator Gardens/Native Plants are Solution to Spreading Invasive Plants

EarthKeepers II is an Interfaith Energy Conservation and Community Garden Initiative to Restore Native Plants and Protect the Great Lakes from Toxins like Airborne Mercury – across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and northeast Wisconsin – in cooperation with the EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, U.S. Forest Service, 10 faith traditions and Native American tribes like the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

EarthKeepers II and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative are battling non-native invasive species that ruin ecosystems and hurt pollinators like bees and butterflies.

The EarthKeepers II Technical Advisor for Community Gardens is Jan Schultz, head botanist at the USFS Eastern Region (R-9) Office in Milwaukee, WI.

Schultz is sharing her expertise about pollinators, native plants, invasive species, cultivars and other issues related to a healthy ecosystem.

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EarthKeepers II Project Coord. Kyra Fillmore Ziomkowski on 30 interfaith community gardens in U.P.

EarthKeepers II (EK II) Project Coordinator Kyra Fillmore Ziomkowski explains creating 30 interfaith community gardens (2013-2014) across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that include vegetables and native species plants that encourage and help pollinators like bees and butterflies.

The video was shot on April 5, 2013 at the Big Bay Point Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast in Big Bay, MI during a meeting of EK II representatives.

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EarthKeepers II, Great Lakes Restoration Initiative-MI/WI Interfaith Goal to Reduce Airborne Mercury

Thanks to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, EarthKeepers II is helping reduce airborne mercury — by assisting northern Michigan religious communities as they reduce energy consumption in their homes and Houses of Worship.

EarthKeepers II (EK II) is an interfaith community garden and energy conservation initiative across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Northeast Wisconsin.

The two-year project is funded by the EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in cooperation with Anishinaabe Native American tribes and 10 faiths representing 250 churches and temples.

EK II supports the planting of 30 interfaith community gardens that include vegetables — and pollinator-friendly native plants.

Reducing airborne mercury is the goal of energy conservation audits at 40 houses of worship — completed by the fall of 2013.

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