Lands and Waters South works with the community to reinforce healthy ecosystems

Lands and Waters South is a grassroots nonprofit organization based in Carrboro. As a company, they are dedicated to watershed protection and education, working with the community to create thriving ecosystems by planting native gardens in North Carolina. 

Jeanette O’Connor, director of LWS, said most of their work revolves around the installation of native gardens, mainly at schools. 

“Some of our projects address stormwater issues a school is facing, while the goal of other projects is to create natural spaces for teachers to use as ‘living classrooms,’" O’Connor said. “We have also installed native gardens that offer a calming space for students having difficulty regulating their emotions, and native gardens that work in conjunction with vegetable gardens to draw in pollinators.” 

She said LWS' main goals are to create flourishing ecosystems by planting native gardens, utilizing sustainable landscaping practices to promote healthy environments and designing spaces that offer wildlife habitat, curb stormwater runoff and allow people to reconnect with nature.

O’Connor also said the organization is dependent on like-minded non-governmental organizations and local businesses for their generous discounts and donations. 

“Without our school partnerships we would be unable to further our mission, so we continue to be grateful to the schools with whom we are currently partnering with like Carrboro Elementary School, Frank Porter Graham Elementary School and Mi Escuelita, and look forward to new schools partnering with us in the future,” O’Connor said when asked about their experience of working with schools. 

The idea for the project started when O’Connor moved to North Carolina to be closer to family, and the Lands and Waters’ founder, a nonprofit in Virginia, suggested they continue the work in Carrboro. 

She said that LWS has had many successes on ecosystems across North Carolina, with one being the students they work with having the opportunity to collect, raise and release monarch caterpillars from the milkweed they plant. 

“This past fall, 115 pre-K through 5th grade students participated in the monarch program, sending 76 butterflies into the world to continue their annual migration south to Mexico,” O’Connor said.

Carolina Vix, an instructional technology facilitator at Frank Porter Graham Bilingue, said that their school has collaborated with LWS for over a year, and that they have been very helpful and willing to work with the students.

“We tie the experience with the science curriculum in third grade and fourth grade and a little bit in second grade, too,” Vix said when discussing the impact of this partnership on the student’s learning.

In terms of interactions with the students, Vix said LWS works hard to engage in the learning environment, such as bringing monarch butterflies into the classrooms, coming in everyday to feed them and allowing the students to learn first-hand about the natural ecosystem.

“The [students] were very happy and they learned a lot. It was completely tied to what they were doing,” Vix said. 

Vix said that they plan to work in the future with LWS to give students the opportunity to learn more about native plants and ecosystems and to grow more spaces. 

Rachel Nelms, the owner and operator of native plant nursery Rachel’s Native Plants, said that their work spans beyond North Carolina, as they grow plants native to the south eastern regions like Virginia, Florida and Alabama.

At Rachel’s Native Plants, Nelms said they allow people to come in during retail hours and shop all of the plants they host and that they have several display gardens throughout Orange and Chatham counties. 

“We try to encourage folks to find the beauty in a tree that has a lovely shape or interesting bark color and find interest in the tan of a grass,” Nelms said in reference to how they help people pick their plants. 

When asked about how Lands and Waters South contributes to the overall health of ecosystems, O’Connor said education is central to their strategy.

“LWS hopes to educate people in the ways in which they can re-establish functioning ecosystems in the places they live, work and play whether that be on a small patio or on acres of public land,” she said.  

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