A visit to NYC Greenbelt Native Plant Nursery
February 6, 2020
The Ecotype Project visited the NYC Greenbelt Native Plant Nursery this week in Staten Island. This special nursery is also home to the Midatlantic Regional Seed Bank, an extraordinary collection of the seed of native plants growing from Virginia to New York. Nothing like this exists in the Northeast… yet…
These folks are the true heroes of the seed sovereignty movement – with dirt under their fingernails to prove it. Sefra Alexandra, CT NOFA’s Ecotype Project technical consultant, had a notebook full of questions answered and we left armed with knowledge and, perhaps most important, inspiration.
While currently we at The Ecotype Project are focused on developing a pipeline of plants that gird our agrarian ecosystem, our visit reminded us that the plants needed to restore habitat at scale on coastal ecosystems, for example, may prove equally vital. Seagrass to brace our coastal dunes for storm surges. The baby ferns (photo below) will provide erosion control to areas of damp shade damaged in forest. Farmers working to scale up local ecotype production for habitat restoration: a story we can all be proud of.
Recent Posts
CT NOFA Launches Equipment Share Program
CT NOFA is proud to announce the launch of our Equipment Share Program. In partnership with The Hickories in Ridgefield, Connecticut, this program aims to provide both commercial farmers and home gardeners free access to both specialized equipment and expertise in a shared environment. Equipment Share days at The Hickories will include free soil analysis, seed winnowing services, nut cleaning, compost tea brewing workshops, and much more.
Advocacy News: May 2026
The Good News: CT Senator Chris Murphy has introduced a bill (bipartisan and bicameral) to increase funding for Agricultural Management Assistance to $30 million and to expand the eligible uses for these funds to include “soil health improvements, composting, implementing organic farming, and food safety certification in addition to existing authorized uses such as water management structure and soil erosion control.” Let’s thank Senator Murphy for introducing this bill!
The Bad News: The Farm Bill passed the House of Representatives on April 30, despite 320 food, farm, and conservation organizations, including CT NOFA, voicing our opposition to a bill that does not fix SNAP, does not support new and beginning farmers, and does not adequately support conservation programs or organic agriculture. Now it goes to the Senate and we need to urge both of Connecticut’s Senators to reject this Farm Bill.