As many species of plants and animals face extinction, the Missouri Botanical Garden is doing its part to address the biodiversity crisis.
BiodiverseCity St. Louis, led by the Garden’s sustainability division, brings together community partners to work toward a common goal: enhancing biodiversity in the greater St. Louis area.
What is Biodiversity?
Put simply, biodiversity refers to all life on Earth: plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Biodiversity includes species, genetic, and ecosystem diversity.
We face a biodiversity crisis as we lose species in all these categories due to habitat loss, climate change, invasive species, and pollution.
Why is there a biodiversity crisis?
Biodiversity is both increasingly important and increasingly threatened due to human activity. Habitat destruction, global warming, and pollution threaten to wipe out 20-50% of Earth’s biodiversity. Right now, there are more than 157,100 species on the IUCN Red List, with more than 44,000 species threatened with extinction. Nearly 40 percent of the world’s plants are threatened with extinction.
Why urban Biodiversity?
As centers of global population and consumption, cities are among the most responsible for biodiversity decline, yet they are also among the most capable to change global trends.
What is BiodiverseCity?
BiodiverseCity St. Louis is a community initiative to promote, protect, and plan for biodiversity throughout the greater St. Louis Region. The Garden works with a network of partners focused on quality of life through education, advocacy, and action that prioritizes nature in our urban, suburban, and rural communities.
the birth of biodiverseCity
In 2012, Garden President Peter Wyse Jackson challenged a group of local sustainability leaders and Garden staff to expand ongoing to work to address biodiversity concerns. The group formed a network with the Garden as its hub and BiodiverseCity St. Louis was launched. The new biodiversity network leveraged early leaders’ extensive connections and partnerships to elevate the regional awareness of biodiversity issues, actions, and opportunities. A top priority has always been public education on issues surrounding biodiversity.
The Power of plants in biodiversity
With the Missouri Botanical Garden as the hub for BiodiverseCity St. Louis, plants have always been central to this work. Native plants play an essential role in promoting biodiversity by by restoring ecological connections that are disrupted by invasive plants and underserved in landscapes that are merely ornamental.
What is a native plant? Native plants are those that occur naturally in a particular region, ecosystem, or habitat without human introduction.
Native plants attract and support pollinators and provide food and shelter for insects, birds, and other animals throughout the growing season. BiodiverseCity has tapped into the native plant movements with partnerships and projects such as:
- GrowNative! is a native plant marketing and education program. Community members can learn more about native plants and find places to buy them locally.
- The Whitmire Wildflower Garden at Shaw Nature Reserve is the region’s premiere example of natural landscaping. Shaw Nature Reserve also hosts fall and spring Wildflower Markets.Visitors can shop from a wide selection of native plants to bring home.
- Metropolitan Sewer District’s Project Clear Rainscaping Small Grants Program, administered by the Garden’s sustainability team, provides grant support for rainscaping. It requires all projects include at least 70 percent native species.
- Bring Conservation Home, a St. Louis Audubon program, evaluates residential properties and provide owners with customized plans to bio-diversify with native plants. This work has engaged nearly 2,000 properties since its launch in 2012.
Community action
BiodiverseCity St. Louis is truly a community initiative in that community members are essential to carrying out its everyday work. Some key projects around the metropolitan area include:
- BiomeSTL: a new online hub of biodiversity data, case studies, model ordinances and more. Watch a short video about BiomeSTL.
- Honeysuckle Sweep for Healthy Habitat: In March and November, BiodiverseCity St. Louis Network partners organize public events to remove bush honeysuckle and replant with native species to improve public spaces for wildlife habitat, recreation, and enjoyment.
Bush honeysuckle, lonicera maackii, is an invasive shrub that leafs out in the early spring before most native species. It holds on to its leaves later into the fall, shading out native woodland plants. Not all honeysuckles are invasive! Learn more native species in our honeysuckle explainer.
- City Nature Challenge is a global citizen scientist learning event focused on biodiversity. Participants can use the mobile app iNaturalist to document the natural world around them. The Garden has partnered with City of St. Louis sustainability leaders to lead this event since 2018.
Drawing on iNaturalist’s popularity, BiodiverseCity also encourages individuals and families to explore our region’s biodiversity all year round. Staff curate and periodically update a map of “50 Nature Places to Love.” - Mosquito Alert STL is a citizen science and public health research partnership. Individuals can use the Mosquito Alert app to monitor and report mosquitoes in their neighborhoods.
Learn more about biodiverseCity
Are you interested in being part of BiodiverseCity?
You can learn more about the project and all its accomplishments in this recent article published by Jean Ponzi.
Catherine Martin
Senior Public Information Officer
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