As part of the Color Your Community Green network, Healthy Yards Monroe County has active groups across many towns with projects aligned with our overall mission statement and goals. Below highlights each town resident group and what they accomplished:

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Brighton Healthy Yards

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Chili Healthy Yards

• Hosted educational programs through their library on Rethinking the American Lawn. Collaborated with one of their Garden Clubs to install a native pollinator garden on Library grounds.

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Fairport Healthy Yards

• Hosted “Parkinson’s, Pesticides and Policy“ educational event at Fairport’s Public Library, with Dr. Ray Dorsey (URMC), Christopher Wainwright (NYS DEC) and Jen Lunsford (NYS Assembly) for their insight about the relationship between certain pesticides and Parkinson's Disease, the current regulations of those pesticides, and related NYS policies. 

• Promoted “No Mow May” and “Leave the Leaves” initiatives within the community.

• Communicated desire for native pollinator plantings in a Village pocket park that is in planning stages.

• Planning for “Healthy Yards for Busy People” event scheduled for January 27, 2024 at the Fairport Public Library. The event will focus on easy steps to maintain healthy soil without chemicals, and to incorporate native pollinator plants in landscaping by starting in small spaces.

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Henrietta (see below)

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Irondequoit Healthy Yards

• is pleased to be building relationships with our town leaders and neighbors.

• Successes this past year include speaking with our Conservation Board for residential landscaping guidelines to be more inclusive of healthy yard practices, and to provide suggestions for improving our current town tree program.

• We are establishing project partnerships with our schools, library and local nature center including one effort, a "Retree" plan, with native tree plantings at local schools and a hopeful goal of fruit trees at our food cupboard. 

• Meanwhile at our farm market we promoted transitioning to more sustainable landscape practices which led us to two mini–Native Garden (plus) learning experience tours and a social event for a Native Plant (plus) Exchange.

 

Penfield Healthy Yards

• Collaborated with Town Sustainability Engineer Sarah Waterman to fulfill goals of the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge:

• HYMC members helped achieve: Classes on The Art of Native Seed Sowing, Designing, Planting, Maintaining Native Pollinator Gardens, Rethinking the American Lawn, New Nature Friendly Fall Clean up Practices.

• HYMC members installed and maintained two native pollinator gardens at the Penfield Library/Rec. Center, distributed free host plant seeds for the Monarch Butterfly in January at a public seed swap, provided native plants at the Rec Center May plant sale which partially funded the installed pollinator gardens.

• Collaboration with Scribner Road Elementary School had their environmental group plant a native plant garden here in spring and a native seed sharing with instructions on planting for their families.

• Members spoke with Park Foreman on the benefits of ecological mowing practices for our parks with meadows and at board meetings advocating for Tree City USA status.

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Pittsford Healthy Yards

• Partnered with the Town of Pittsford to initiate a “Pittsford Pollinator Pathway” challenge - to encourage residents to plant native trees, shrubs, and flowers in their yards, and post a sign (obtained from town) identifying their yard as part of the “pathway”.

• Additionally, the trees, shrubs, and flowers planted at our habitat restoration site in the Great Embankment Park thrived (planted fall 2022).

• Lots of interest from passersby on canal trail; educational signage will be installed in the spring.

• We hosted a class “Gardening for Life;”

• assisted the Go Green group at The Highlands in their native plantings efforts;

• hosted displays at library about healthy gardening and leaf cleanup practices;

• members participate in town’s preparation of a Climate Action Plan.

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For more information, visit www.healthyyardsmonroecounty.org, or contact Megan Meyer at meganmeyer12@gmail.com.