MACON, Ga. — It is important to protect the environment, and one Central Georgia group wants to provide ways you can do that in your own backyard.
The Fringed Campion Chapter of the Georgia Native Plant Society has been getting together for a little over a year in Macon.
"We just like to get together and have field trips, and have plants sales and spread the word about how important native plants are in our local ecosystem," chapter president Carol Bokros said.
Bokros has spent much of her life in nature and on camping trips with her family. She says native plants have become a passion for her in the past five years especially.
She's planted an entire garden of native species in her front yard and is dedicated to continuing.
"We are part of this vast web of life and we depend on each other and right now there's a lot of news articles about pollinators decreasing in their numbers and we've lost a quarter of the birds over the last 30 years or so," she said.
Bokros says having native plants in your yard helps the many bugs and insects, not just pollinators, that rely on native plants to survive.
"A lot of people love pollinators, but all the insects are actually very important because they're food for other creatures, animals and birds," she said.
Bokros says planting natives helps support the life cycle of bugs and animals that need these plants and they are easy to care for if planted in the right spot.
If you're interested in starting to plant native greenery, she has suggestions on where to start.
"There's so many good ones but you can't go wrong with beauty berry, because even though it's a deciduous shrub, meaning it looses it's leaves in the winter, it's beautiful in the spring and summer and the berries are just like purple, magenta and dramatic. The birds love to come and eat them so that's an easy one," Bokros said.
She says this plant does best in areas partially in shade but also have access to full sun. She also suggests the native azalea.
If you would like to learn more about native plants and how to get involved, you can followed the Fringed Campion chapter of the Georgia Native Plant Society's Facebook page.
On Saturday Oct. 29, they will be hosting a plant identification workshop with an optional field trip to Lake Laurel Station afterwards.
The workshop will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Georgia College and State University.
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