🦋 Are you a busy homeowner in the eastern U.S. who is already attracting pollinators and wildlife to your property?
🦋 Do you want to do more but don’t know what to do next or how to do it?
If so, we created the Backyard Ecology Community just for you.
The Backyard Ecology Community will help you improve, maintain, expand, and enjoy your pollinator and wildlife habitat. Our goal is to empower you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to confidently create and maintain a functioning ecosystem on your property that attracts lots of pollinators and wildlife, while also giving you time to sit back and enjoy what you’ve created.
Do you ever wish there was a place you could go to…
🦋 get help figuring out how to attract more pollinators and wildlife to your property in a way that balances and works in harmony with the way you and your family use your land?
🦋 find encouragement and support when your habitat or pollinator project doesn’t go the way you planned, you’re struggling with a stubborn invasive species, or run up against a challenging situation?
🦋 get answers to questions that you don’t even know you have, while bouncing around ideas and supporting others who are trying to do similar things?
🦋 share interesting plants, insects, or other animals that you find with others who are just as excited about your finding as you?
🦋 just generally geek out about nature?
You don’t have to wish any longer!
We created the Backyard Ecology Community to help you improve, maintain, expand, and enjoy your pollinator and wildlife habitat. It is a safe place to ask questions, learn, celebrate accomplishments, and help each other attract more pollinators and wildlife.
Our goal is to empower you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to confidently create and maintain a functioning ecosystem on your property that attracts lots of pollinators and wildlife, while also giving you time to sit back and enjoy what you’ve created.
I have access to lots of people who have plant knowledge, but it is really nice to have a source of people who are thinking about the plants as part of an ecosystem and not just a garden. Every time I participate in the Backyard Ecology Community, I go away with a piece of information that I didn’t know before. ~ Sue Ann B.
Benefits of joining:
1) Save time and frustration by not having to figure it all out by yourself.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to ask a trusted group of friends who are also creating pollinator and wildlife habitat if they have suggestions for how to do something, rather than constantly struggling to figure it out on your own?
Wouldn’t it also be nice to know that you have direct access to experts who are willing to answer questions, teach relevant content, provide coaching opportunities, and share their own personal stories, struggles, and experiences?
That’s what you get as part of the Backyard Ecology Community.
We strongly believe that everyone has knowledge, wisdom, and experiences that someone else doesn’t and that we all benefit when everyone shares what we know.
2) Become empowered to confidently improve and expand the pollinator and wildlife habitat on your property.
There’s lots of free information available for creating a pollinator or wildlife garden. However, utilizing that information means investing the time to find the information, sift through everything to discover the parts relevant to you, and then understand how to apply it in the most efficient way.
You could also hire someone to do it for you, but that can be expensive especially when you want to slowly expand your pollinator and wildlife habitat.
The Backyard Ecology Community is designed to help you gain the knowledge to confidently think through the process, weigh your options, and implement your plan without having to invest crazy amounts of time.
3) Get answers relevant to your unique situation and your unique goals.
We all have different properties, different situations, different goals, and different resources.
All those things can influence the types of habitats we create on our properties.
But where can you go to get guidance and advice tailored specifically for your situation, goals, property, and resources?
The Backyard Ecology Community gives you that place.
Exploring concepts and plant life, all while connecting with individuals who share my interest in ecology, has been a transformative experience. My involvement in this community has not only nurtured my personal growth but has also instilled a profound appreciation for the natural world. The ability to share the beauty of the outdoors has been a powerful source of motivation for me. I was initially apprehensive about using Zoom for our meetings, but the welcoming atmosphere quickly erased any reservations and encouraged open dialogue. ~ Adam P.
Behind the Scenes Tour:
What’s included:
🦋 A forum where you can post questions, share successes and challenges, geek out about nature, and interact with others who share your interests and desires without the hassle and toxicity of traditional social media.
🦋 2 live, monthly events led by Shannon and Anthony where we provide a bite-sized lesson about a topic relevant to that month, answer questions about your pollinator and wildlife habitat projects, and facilitate group discussions.
🦋 The ability to request an Opportunity Seat where we dive deep into a specific challenge you are facing and help you develop a plan and course of action.
🦋 Direct access to Shannon and Anthony. We are actively involved in the community – answering your questions, teaching, coaching, and sharing our own stories, experiences, and wisdom.
🦋 Opportunity to make new friends and help others who are on similar ecological journeys.
Quarterly Membership
(3 months at $42 / month)
$126
Annual Membership
(2 free months compared to quarterly rate)
$420
What to expect:
🦋 Guidance and support from Shannon, Anthony, and your fellow community members to help you improve, expand, and maintain your native plant gardens and other pollinator and wildlife habitat.
🦋 Fun, live, virtual events that balance learning, guidance, and interacting with your fellow members.
🦋 Opportunities to get to know others who also love nature and are trying to make their properties more pollinator and wildlife friendly while still serving their needs and those of their family. You know… others who can empathize with your challenges and celebrate your successes with you.
What we ask in return:
🦋 Come with an open mind. Your solutions and balancing points may be different than someone else’s, and that’s ok.
🦋 Be willing to participate in the activities, including engaging in the community forum, to the extent that you are able and feel comfortable doing so. The forum will be the primary location where we interact and continue our conversations beyond the live activities.
🦋 Share your knowledge and experiences with other members of the group. We all know something that someone else doesn’t – whether it is about gardening, plant or insect identification, how to operate the tech, or something else entirely. And we all benefit when everyone shares what we know.
What sets Shannon and Anthony apart is that they are not only good at their chosen career, they’re passionate about their chosen careers. For me, the biggest benefit has been guidance in the many directions you can go. ~ Darrell W.
FAQs
🍄 Why should I join the Backyard Ecology Community?
It’s been shown that community support is invaluable when it comes to making positive changes in personal habits and practices. That’s just as true for engaging with nature and taking meaningful ecological actions in our yards and communities as it is for exercising, losing weight, or quitting smoking.
When you become a member of the Backyard Ecology Community, you gain that support. You are able to tap into the expertise and experiences of other nature lovers and Backyard Ecologists who, like you, are working towards making their yards and communities more ecologically friendly and sustainable.
As a member of the Backyard Ecology Community, you are no longer alone. You have a whole community supporting you, encouraging you, and helping you accomplish your goals.
🍄 How is this different from a private Facebook or other social media group?
Have you noticed that in many social media groups…
😒 topics are polarized?
😒 all you seem to get are overly simplified, one-size-fits-all approaches?
😒 you never know who is giving you advice or what level of expertise they may have?
😒 no one really listens to each other or tries to have a real conversation?
Are you tired of it? Does all the unnecessary drama leave you feeling drained and not very interested in participating in those groups anymore? If so, we get it. We’ve noticed and are tired of it too. That’s why we’re doing something different.
We’ve chosen to create the Backyard Ecology Community off Facebook and other traditional social media platforms because we want to provide a supportive place where we can have real conversations and feel comfortable asking each other for help without all the drama that often comes with Facebook groups or other traditional social media platforms.
Check out this short article for a more in-depth discussion of some of the specific ways this community is different from a private Facebook group.
🍄 What if I’m just getting started and don’t know much about native plants or creating pollinator and wildlife habitat?
That’s ok, and you’re not alone. Everybody started out at the beginning at some point in their journey and none of us know everything. We believe that curiosity, an open mind, and a willingness to learn are the perfect tools for success no matter what your experience level is.
You may also want to check out our small group coaching programs specifically focused on helping you design your pollinator and wildlife habitat.
🍄 How much time will this take?
The community is very laid back. You can invest as much or as little time in forum discussions and attend as many or as few of the live events as you like. (All of our live events are held at 7:00 p.m. CT / 8:00 p.m. ET to allow the greatest number of members to attend.)
Obviously, the more you engage and participate in the various opportunities, the more you will get out of the community. But you get to choose the level of engagement that is right for you at this moment in time.
🍄 Will the live events be recorded?
All of our live events are held at 7:00 p.m. CT / 8:00 p.m. ET to allow the greatest number of members to attend. However, we also recognize that other things come up and you may not be able to make every event. That’s why the main part of the live events will be recorded, but not any breakout rooms that we may go into for smaller discussions. The recordings will be available for one month after the live event.
🍄 What if I have another question?
Contact us and we’ll be happy to answer your question.
Who are we?
We are Shannon and Anthony Trimboli. We live in southcentral Kentucky and are life-long nature lovers. Shannon has an M.S. in Ecology and a B.S. in wildlife biology. Anthony has an M.S. in Agriculture and a B.S. in wildlife biology.
We are passionate about sharing our love of nature with others. We enjoy inspiring people to form their own connections with nature and then take action to create their own natural oases.
In addition to hosting Backyard Ecology, we operate a small native plant nursery and habitat consulting business for pollinators and wildlife. Shannon has also written multiple books and we both give presentations and keynotes focused on the topics we cover through Backyard Ecology.
Like you, we are also actively working on and managing our property to attract pollinators and wildlife. So, we understand all the excitement, challenges, frustrations, and celebrations that come with trying to create functioning ecosystems on your property because we’re experiencing the same things.
Let us help you improve, maintain, expand, and enjoy your pollinator and wildlife habitat by empowering you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to confidently create and maintain a functioning ecosystem on your property that attracts lots of pollinators and wildlife, while also giving you time to sit back and enjoy what you’ve created.
Backyard Ecology’s Guiding Principles:
🦋 Curiosity: Nature is fun, interesting, and worth exploring. We will never know everything. Answers lead to more questions. That’s half the fun.
🦋 Balanced: You don’t have to choose. You can support nature AND the lifestyle you desire.
🦋 Science informed: Habitat creation and management should be based on the latest scientific research available.
🦋 Stewardship: Anyone can make a positive difference in the natural world and leave an ecological legacy on their property.