LINPI 2023 Year In Review
Thank you for your support in 2023!
We've had quite a year at LINPI, thanks to our amazing staff and wonderful volunteers!
I wanted to give you all a brief update of what we have accomplished and what we are looking to do in the future.
Doubled Our Capabilities
Doubling our staff with Maggie and Pam enabled us to increase our volunteer days and availability to 4-5 days a week (2022, we only were running twice a week). This included multiple recurring groups like AYLUS and corporate groups.
Our plant production also increased, and we were able to sell over 6,600 native plants across all our plant sales!
Education & Outreach
LINPI participated in our first Suffolk CCE Spring Garden School and ran a webinar and plant sale in partnership with the Quogue Wildlife Refuge. We also participated in new events in conjunction with Northshore Land Alliance and Long Island Conservancy. I was also interviewed on WBLI and WBAB for the "Plugged into Long Island" podcast.
We also expanded our partnerships with ReWild Long Island and Northport Native Garden Initiative while setting the foundation for further evolving partnerships with the NYS DEC, NY State Parks, and Pollinator Pathway.
LINPI Rebrand, Website, and Swag
Melissa Feudi helped us reimagine the LINPI brand by designing our logo and colors, which we utilized in the relaunch of the website and the redesign of our emails. These designs also fueled our new signage as well as our stickers, hats, and garden signs now available for sale.
Greenhouse Improvements
The LINPI greenhouse underwent a large improvement project, replacing and automating its doors and sides. We also built many extra plant tables for our increased production.
Maggie designed and implemented a new LINPI rain and pollinator garden next to our nursery yard.
Donations
At the end of the season, we donated several hundred plants to State and County Parks as well as other restoration and education projects across the Island (Hempstead Plains, Custer Preserve, Hofstra Bird Sanctuary, Sensory Garden for Veterans to name a few).
Looking to 2024
With the increase in public awareness of the importance of native plants and the rise of organizations with similar goals, I see a lot of great potential to do more this year.
More events, including our bi-annual Resilient Long Island Symposium hosted jointly with LIISMA at Hofstra University. More volunteer events, including seed collections and more group engagement. More education and outreach, with new materials and information. More partnerships with organizations who foster native plant education, installations, and restorations.
We will also look to further improve our greenhouse with our garage door mural project, a redesigned irrigation system, rain barrel collection, and potential for seed banking with walk-in refrigeration.
If you are interested to take a more active role with LINPI please reach out we'd love to talk with you. With your help, I am sure we will continue our growth and get closer to fulfilling our mission this year!
Thank you all,
Greg Lowenthal
President, LINPI
In the News
The Case for Native Plants (Northforker, April 2023)
Less lawn chemical, more native plants, healthier Earth (Long Island Advance, March 2023)
A Beeline for Spring: Gardening School, Groups Can Help You Help Pollinators (03/18/2022)
A Growing Education: Islip Students find ‘Joy’ in Planting Native Garden (07/09/2021)