Why Rewild?

Rewilding a part of your yard will benefit you and native pollinators, as well as increase native biodiversity around you. This can look like more butterflies and hummingbirds, adding new herbs and berries to your diet, brightening up your property, having a low-maintenance garden that looks great, and learning about what grows natively in our State.

Habitat Fragmentation

One of the biggest threats to wildlands is habitat fragmentation. This occurs when roads, cities, and industrial developments break continuous habitats into isolated patches. Fragmentation disrupts animal migration routes, increases mortality, and reduces reproduction rates. It also lowers the genetic diversity of plant communities by confining reproduction to smaller areas. As a result, native pollinators lose food sources, leading to population declines.

How To Use This Site

Native Plant Lists

This tab contains information about what plants grow locally, the conditions they prefer, and how to take care of them. It also describes some of their many uses! NOTE that all edible/medicinal information here should be double and triple checked. Before ingesting any part of any plant, the identification must be certain. Make sure you're not allergic to any relatives of a plant you plan to eat. Do your research, be safe, and have fun! These tables also contain links that point to where the plants can be purchased. If they are out of stock, simply google another place they can be purchased. Some of the best seed providers for native Idaho plants are Snake River Seed Cooperative and Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds.

Plant and Climate Map of Idaho

This tab has an interactive map in which you can search for the occurances of native plants in Idaho. It has a climate overlay that shows what the coldest winter temperatures are across Idaho. Use this in conjunction with the cold hardiness temperatures listed on the plants page to decide what is suitable to grow in your area. For example, Longleaf Groundcherry will grow great in the red and orange areas, but rarely occurs in the wild in the cyan and blue areas.

Habitat Haven

If you are interested in putting in a native garden, and you live in Southeastern Idaho, check out the Habitat Haven initiative by the Sagebrush Steppe Land Trust. This is a great way to familiarize yourself with native plants and get to know some people in the area whose interests align with your own! They are always at the Portneuf Valley Environmental Fair.

Our Yards: America's "New National Park"

If we replaced half of the lawns in the United States with native plant landscaping, we would have created a 20,000,000 acre "National Park" without having to pass any legislation. For scale, Yellowstone is 1/10th of that size, ~2,200,000 acres. You may not want to replace your whole lawn with native plants, and that is ok! Adding any amount of native plants will benefit your property and contribute to the "New National Park." If you're interested in this concept, make sure to check out the work being done over at Homegrown National Park!

Key Terms

Rewild

To restore an area of land to its natural, wild state

Native Garden

A landscape that uses plants that are native to the local region

Ecoculture

The management of natural ecosystems to enhance their production of useful products

Biodiversity

The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem

Idaho Native Plant Lists

The information in these tables is by no means exhaustive, but it is a great place to start if you want to learn about where native plants grow and how to take care of them. Most of the major groups/genera are represented here, and their unlisted relatives are likely to inhabit similar areas.

Wildflowers and Forbs:

Shrubs:

Trees:

How Do You Plant A Native Garden?

Planting a native garden is pretty straightforward. You can be successful even if this is the first time you've planted something. Following a couple of general rules-of-thumb will help you put the right things in the right places.

When to Plant

When you are planting something native, you have to think like the plant in question. When does a penstemon drop its seeds? This is the time that it wants to be planted from seed. For most native plants, they should be direct seeded in late summer or fall. Many people will cold-moist stratify their native seeds in the refrigerator. This only mimics what is already happening to those seeds outside in nature. If possible, it is better to seed in the fall, as the plants may sprout and develop roots during its first winter, thus establishing itself before it would if you just stratified the seeds to plant in the springtime.
If you are planting by root divisions or hardwood cuttings, this should be done in late winter or early spring, because that is when those sections of the plant are shifting from being dormant to producing new growth.

Planting in Layers

When planting, it's good to consider the edge a forest. Closest to the forest are the tallest trees, then the smaller trees, then shrubs, and then the smaller bushes and annuals, herbs, and forbs. Far from the forest are plants that grow bulbs and tubers. Even within the forest there are things that grow right on the ground.

(Artwork by Graham Burnett from his book “Permaculture A Beginners Guide” – www.spiralseed.co.uk)

When planting native gardens, you should try to imitate the conditions in which your plants are found in nature. It is a good idea to spend some time in wild places to familiarize yourself with those conditions. The "Light" category in the native plant lists can indicate whether the plant wants to grow under other plants, or if it wants to be out in the sun. Most of the plants that are from semi-arid parts of the landscape will do fine with little to no additional water. They are adapted to getting what they need from the rain and snow. Some of the plants that occur at higher elevations or near streams will require a little supplemental water to stay healthy. At any rate, you will conserve water by choosing to grow native plants.

In a small yard setting, it can be useful to plant your trees closest to your fence and gradually planting smaller plants as you get closer to your house. In larger yards, consider having trees in the middle, and gradually planting smaller, radiating out from the trees.

(Example of many of the different layers a native garden could have. Keep in mind that it's not all-or-nothing. Even one patch of wildflowers in your yard is a native garden.)