Students and faculty installing a garden at Moravian College that will be used for student research.
Volunteers helping to maintain residential gardens installed along the 7th block of Allentown.
Planting a row of native shrubs to alleviate stormwater erosion at Community Garden near Jordan Creek.
Landscaping for Communities and Wildlife Program
Lehigh Gap Nature Center was funded through 2018 by the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation and other grantors to facilitate native plant landscaping throughout the Lehigh Valley. This work benefitted communities and wildlife and promoted healthy green spaces for cleaner soil and water. Through this project, Lehigh Gap Nature Center offered both funding and consultation services to complete project
s.
The overall mission of this program was to develop a community-based model that uses demonstration landscaping and educational programming to promote nature-friendly practices in public and private green spaces.
Types of Projects Funded
We have worked with a wide array of partners and helped support almost forty projects including:
- Native plant gardens installed for student research and wildlife conservation at Muhlenberg, Moravian, and Lafayette Colleges, as well as Penn State Lehigh Valley
- Residential gardens along the 7th St of Allentown in partnership with the Community Action Development Corporation of Allentown
- Urban demonstration gardens in each of the three cities of the Lehigh Valley (Allentown, Easton, and Bethlehem)
- A wildlife habitat garden at Martin Guitar in Nazareth
- Conservation landscaping at a business complex in Bethlehem
- A native shrub planting for storm water control at the Jordan Creek Community Garden
- Learning gardens at many elementary, middle and high schools throughout the Lehigh Valley
- Pollinator gardens that compliment food gardens at several community gardens throughout the Lehigh Valley
- Riparian buffer projects
- A large-scale meadow in Bushkill Township
- Conservation landscaping at the community park in Upper Mount Bethel Township
Project partners provided some matching funds and/or in-kind service. See the map of projects locations below. Funding for these projects also came from the Lehigh Valley Greenways, the Rider Pool Foundation, and other sources.
In addition to these on-the-ground projects, we also continue to offer public programing on incorporating native plants into the home landscape. We’ve developed the resources shown below for residents interested in native plants.
