OUR CHAPTER
Started as a “seedling” in January of 2022, we became an official Wild Ones chartered chapter in March of that year. Our local South Central Pennsylvania Chapter of Wild Ones serves 11 counties: Dauphin, Lebanon, Cumberland, Adams, York, Perry, Huntingdon, Mifflin, Franklin, Juniata, and Fulton. Our goal is to spread the word about the importance of planting natives in your yard and community. We are a group filled with curious, friendly, and welcoming native plant lovers, from novices to long time experienced native plant gardeners.
Through monthly meetings, field trips, member garden visits, webinars, seed and plant sharing, and more we help each other and our communities grow in knowledge and commitment to “healing the earth, one yard at a time”. Interested? Questions? Contact us at [email protected] or click the mail link at the bottom of the page
- Monthly Zoom Meetings open to all. To request a Zoom link if you are not already a member, contact us at [email protected] or click the mail link at the bottom of the page. Catch up on the minutes of monthly meetings in Archives.
- Monthly activities, such as field trips to public and member native gardens
- Seed and plant sharing
- Tables and talks at community events
- Volunteering at local native plant gardens
- Providing advocacy for native plantings and removal of invasives in our communities and state.
A link to our by laws is provided here: https://api.wildones.org/2330-bylaws.pdf
Member Spotlight
Lorrie Preston has served as the Membership Chair for our chapter most recently. Prior to that, she was the chapter Secretary in 2022 and 2023. Lorrie has been a member of National Wild Ones, as a Partner-at-Large, since 2006 until our chapter was started in 2022. She was critical to helping launch our chapter at that time. Lorrie has served faithfully in many different capacities over 3 or 4 decades in several non-profit organizations, including the local Appalachian Audubon chapter, the Susquehanna Appalachian Trail Club and at the Appalachian Trail Museum. She was a former Penn State Master Gardener in Cumberland County for 11 years, helped customers for 6+ years at Country Market Nursery as a Lawn and Garden Information Specialist, and had her own environmentally friendly garden consulting business for a few years called “Gardens, Naturally!” She also earned a Certificate in Ornamental Horticulture at Harrisburg Area Community College and has taken many courses at Longwood Gardens. Appalachian Audubon has been promoting native plants for nearly 20 years, and she has been involved in using and promoting native plants with them since they got started.
Lorrie’s garden is certified as a Monarch Waystation through the University of Kansas, a Backyard Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation, a Pollinator Friendly Garden through the Penn State Master Gardeners, and is on the map with the Homegrown National Park. She also enjoys hiking and photography, having taken about 30,000 photos while she section-hiked the entire 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail, that spans from GA to Maine, over a 6 ½ year period with my husband, Bob, and other friends, starting at age 50. Lorrie also brought Doug Tallamy to the Harrisburg area for a talk many years ago before he became as famous as he is now, and he stayed with Lorrie at her house at that time!