Principia School students preparing a prairie garden made possible in part by a Wild Ones grant. See more photos of the project.
Wild Ones St. Louis Chapter provides modest grants to non-profit organizations for landscaping projects incorporating native plants in an educational setting.
Grant applicants must be located in the state of Missouri, within 40 miles of (the city of) St. Louis.
Examples of projects we would consider:
- The design, establishment and maintenance of a native plant community such as prairie, woodland, wetland etc. in an educational setting.
- Developing and maintaining an interpretive trail landscaped with native plants.
- Developing a wetland area to study the effect of native vegetation on water quality.
- Establishing an educational rain garden to reduce runoff.
Please note that successful applicants will be awarded funds for the purchase of Missouri native plants and seeds only. Wild Ones does not fund the purchase of tools, garden infrastructure or ornamentation.
What educational organizations are eligible?
- Schools
- Nature centers
- Houses of worship
- Government-owned facilities
- Other non-profit places of learning
2023 grants
AmeriCorps St Louis
$238
AmeriCorps St. Louis’s yearly cohort of national service Members spend the bulk of their 11-month term on environmental stewardship projects throughout Missouri and Illinois. As part of their training, Members are taught plant identification skills through visits to partnering conservation agencies and through surveys of local trees around the Soulard neighborhood where we are headquartered. Upgrading our front planting beds with a selection of native flowers and sedges would provide another outlet for Member education, especially relevant to the cohort’s service on ecological restoration sites where they will encounter some of these species. In addition to use as a training resource within our programs, the space would be used to educate volunteers, partners, and guests on the importance of our work and the benefits of restoring native plant populations.
Danny Coverson Community Garden
$300
This Hope in The Ville’s (HITV) project is tied to our community garden which we hope will provide a place for collaborative work among community members allowing them to socialize and learn about the importance and significance of gardening for food and native habitats. Overall, this program’s purpose is to teach, demonstrate and provide resources that encourage thinking, behaving, and striving for unity within society, growing compassion in the community. This project will restore native shrubs and wildflowers into an otherwise urban area on the north part of the site, and contribute to healthy pollination of the raised bed vegetable garden and orchard.
Lusher Elementary School
$350
Turtle Pond Project is an area in an enclosed courtyard at the school. There are several box turtles that make this their home and hibernate during the winter. They have been successful egg layers and have been raised at a teacher’s house for genetic diversity. We granted the site $350 for habitat improvements. Native plants for dry sunny areas, shade, and a rain garden. They plan to also include a gradual edge into a small water container. The grant team also suggested small native trees and shrubs that will provide fruits for natural food for the turtles and birds. The school is getting a mural painted on the wall enclosures, They hope to attract native pollinators and teach the students about native plants and pollinator relationships. Native plants chosen by grantees and grantors: Purple coneflowers, (purple, butterfly & swamp) milkweeds, columbines, red-whisker cleome, golden alexanders, cardinal flower, beebalm, mayapples, asters, native irises
Principia School K thru 12th
$400
The St Louis Chapter of Wild Ones awarded a $400 grant to the Principia School, 13201 Clayton Road Town & County, MO 63131, for purchasing native plants to enhance the native plant garden in the courtyard between their Biology and Art classrooms. Shade-loving native plant species, including packera, American beak grain grass, alum root, zigzag goldenrod, cedar sedge, Bradbury’s monarda, goats beard and wild geranium were planted in May 2023. These plants will fill in shady areas and help provide year-round interest and instruction resources to biology and art classrooms as well as others passing the area. The objective is to attract more beneficial insects including native pollinators and to educate students about native ecosystems. The courtyard will be used for education purposes for high school and middle school students. The native plantings will be maintained by Principia’s student volunteer students under the direction of April Anderson and Hope Gribble. This grant compliments a nearby thriving pollinator garden that was made possible by a Wild Ones grant in 2012.