In honor of George Floyd and the countless black lives lost at the hands of police brutality, Shirley and I recorded an intro to the conversation we had several weeks ago. We weren’t even sure if we should put out our original conversation, but we both experience the deep healing of nature and talk about this in our conversation. Shirley is an ethnobotanist and restoration ecologist who I deeply respect. We hope this interview can offer something in this time of great and necessary change.

In this interview with Restoration Ecologist Joe DeWolf, we explore the restoration projects he works on and why they are so essential for the vitality of our local ecosystems and ecologies. We discuss the amazing biodiversity of San Diego County, and the many different habitats that can be found here. And finally, we dive into how planting a few natives in our own yards can make an impact in increasing biodiversity and extending habitat, as well.

We take the listener on an audio tour of the plants around our small Southern California property. The main theme of this episode is to highlight the abundance of species you can bring into your yard, and how if you keep at it you will succeed in restoring the land and creating a rich native landscape.

We are so thrilled to have Shana Lipner Grover as our first interview on Becoming a Pollinator Podcast. In this episode, Shana tells about her path to becoming an herbalist and botanist, and to launching her school, Sage Country Herbs. Shana disusses ethical wildcrafting, the importance of plant identification, and how “weed-crafting” (harvesting invasive species for food and medicine) really makes the most sense in many ways! Shana’s fundamental mission is about building community between people and each other and the ecosystems and plants around us.

We discuss the story behind the name, Becoming a Pollinator. And we look at the idea of being human in a new way. We also talk about how the journey of learning about the native plants in your area can seem overwhelming at times. We talk about how most of us have what is known as "plant blindness" (not knowing how to distinguish one plant from the next), and how learning just one plant can start the path to seeing them.

For our first episode, we chat in the back garden and discuss our "why" as it pertains to growing native plants on the tiny bit of land around our house. We also talk about plant communication and how it is not magic but something we feel is natural and easy even if you don't believe in it 100%. The main theme of the episode is how the native landscape has been a major influence in both our lives, having growin up in the canyons of Southern California.