Success Stories

The cornerstone goal of SaveNature.Org is to nurture environmental literacy, creating a population of young people whose approach to their environment reflects responsibility, stewardship and commitment to preserve wildlife. Ultimately building a foundation to ensure people, especially youth, take responsibility for creating a positive change in their lives, community, and the world.

 
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Eco Kids

We are constantly inspired by the ideas and efforts of our nature-saving heroes. Send us your nature-saving stories and you may be the next hero featured!  

Eco Kid Spotlight #1

Anusha Vaish from New York has a fascination for insects and spends much of her free time learning and teaching others about them. She worked with multiple organizations and committees to spread awareness of the decline in insect populations. Anusha has spoken to the United Nations Summit, Youth Climate Action Summit, Botanic Garden, and Sarah Lawrence College, and those were just the tip of the iceberg! She even gave a radio interview for WBAI 99.5FM NYC as an environmental activist and made it in a news article. Furthermore, she organized the Little Critters Club for kids in her K-5 grade to plan Earth Day events.

 

Eco Kid Spotlight #2

Our friend Tristan from San Francisco, California turned his birthday into a “Save-The-Bugs” fundraising event, raising $300! His efforts helped SaveNature.Org as we adapted to working virtually at the beginning of the pandemic. Thanks Tristan!

A young brown-haired boy out in the field holding a small grasshopper

Eco Kid Spotlight #3

Noah Garrett, from Evansville, Indiana, raised his first caterpillar at 5 years old and asked to plant a pollinator garden at age 7. He now raises black swallowtails and monarchs every summer, as well as any other caterpillars he comes across. His pollinator garden has doubled in size and provides host plants to many native insect species. This year, he raised caterpillars in his fourth-grade classroom and assisted with the care of caterpillars in his brother’s first-grade classroom as well. He participated in fall monarch tagging for the third year in a row, catching and tagging six butterflies. He’s already looking forward to the next season of caterpillars!

A young redheaded boy holds a caterpillar on a leaf

Homestead School

Homestead School in 1996

The story of Homestead School is like no other. Every year since 1991, first and second-grade children at the Homestead School save one acre of rainforest. One year, they built 500 Bluebird nest boxes to help the local Bluebird populations that were in decline and sold the houses to raise $5,000 to purchase rainforest habitats in Costa Rica – truly the best local and global conservation project ever! To date, the students at the Homestead School have raised more than $128,000 to protect rainforests in Central and South America.

The Homestead School is the A student of conservation. The children and the community have been touched significantly by each year's projects with the knowledge they are protecting the environment.

 

Conservation Parking Meter

One blonde girl poses next to an adopt an acre parking meter. In the adjacent image, another blonder girl adds coins to the parking meter to Adopt an Acre.
A parking meter, decorated with an illustrated toucan, monkey, frog, butterflies, iguana, jaguar, snake, and flowers reads “Give Your change to a make a change.” Below explain the wildlife you save with your loose change.

Small change can make a big impact in the fight to save nature. Partnering with accredited zoos and aquariums, natural history museums, botanical gardens and nature centers across the United States, we’ve made it easy for you to help protect your favorite species by protecting their natural habitats. Find a Conservation Meter near you to donate your loose change for saving habitat. Can’t find a local Conservation Meter, just send us your change in your most creative way.

How They Work

Ordinary street parking meters have been modified to accept donations of small change to save habitat. Instead of a violation flag appearing when coins are inserted and the dial turned, a colorful hummingbird flies across the face of the Meter. An accompanying chart tells the donor that a $.25 cent contribution saves 90 square feet of tropical rainforest—one of several informative statistics. These meters have been placed in zoological institutions across the United States. Ask your local zoo where you can find a conservation parking meter!

 

Daniel & Winnie - Costa Rica Conservation

Photo by Dan Janzen.

In an effort to conserve fragile ecosystems in Costa Rica, ecologists Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs struck a deal with a local orange juice company in 1997. This company was allowed to dump discarded orange peels and pulp on an area of deforested land. In exchange, they gave a part of completely unspoiled forested land to the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste. A decade later, the barren wasteland was transformed into a lush forest filled with over 24 species of vegetation.

Read more here.

 

 Donors & Recognition

 

SaveNature.Org has been recognized by and received grants from:

 

David and Lucile Packard Foundation CISCO Foundation Dr. Suess Foundation VWR Ward's Scientific Foundation The Wilder Green Fund Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund Safeway-Von's Foundation Give Something Back Foundation Department of Children, Youth and their Families Nathan Cummings Foundation Thelma Doelger Trust for Animals Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund Henry Foundation JiJi Foundation CMP Community Foundation Cottonwood Foundation Liberty Hill Foundation Marin Community Foundation Rockefeller Brothers Fund Bristol-Myers-Squibb Microsoft Northern California Mitsubishi Corporation Birkenstock Limited Brands Parks California California States Parks Foundation Comcast NBCUniversal Avenue Greenlight Skikos Charitable Fund Lumpkin Family Foundation

SaveNature.Org has garnered much recognition receiving:

The World Wildlife Fund’s Conservation Award The National Environmental Awards Council Certificate of Environmental Achievement Congressional Recognition from the United States Congress Outstanding Contribution to Conservation from The Nature Conservancy

The program has been highlighted in:

View From the Bay Bug Squad India Parent Magazine Contra Costa Sun Marin Independent Journal Newsweek National Geographic Magazine Time The Los Angeles Times Scholastic News National Geo-Kid ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings Bay Area Backroads Evening Magazine Napa Valley Register and numerous news television programs

Additional contributors:

Cole Hardware Classic Escapes Hoogasian Flowers Suite Sleep Sergey Parinov Lyndon Firman Christian Ziegler American Association of Zoo Keepers ANAI Bahama National Trust Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund The Nature Conservancy Homestead School Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association Skikos Law Firm

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