Today we’d like to introduce you to Ella George.
Hi Ella, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I started volunteering with the Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative (OPHI) in 2022. At that time, I was at Stark State College earning my Associate of Science. I remember calling Marci Lininger, the state director and creator of the OPHI, that February and asking for ideas on a college project my honor’s society chapter wanted to do. We wanted to ask our college to replace their ornamental plants with native ones. That’s when she asked about how much land they owned and said that she had grant funding available if we wanted to create our own pollinator habitat instead. That was just the most exciting thing in the world in my eyes. We ended up talking about monarchs and other pollinators for over an hour.
I put well over 30 hours into that project, just on the administrative side. Marci walked me through the project proposal, the many drafts and re-writes, sat in on meetings and demonstrated how to pick the best area. After that, she guided me on how to create and maintain the habitat, which I had to relay to everyone working on the project. I also put many months of physical labor into that pollinator habitat, seeding and reseeding, pulling out invasives; it was a lot. It took over a year of tender loving care to get it started.
After that, I just never stopped. Marci asked me if I wanted to volunteer, so I jumped on the chance to get involved. Completing my own project was, of course, helpful because now I knew how the process went. She then started training me to run our yearly Milkweed Pod Collection, how to direct resources, give presentations, and run tabled events. As I gained more knowledge and confidence, she was able to find grant funding to pay me as an employee. I’m now the new State Coordinator and the first paid employee that we’ve had.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I wouldn’t say it has always been smooth. In fact, I think it would be very difficult to find someone in a job they love without some kind of struggle to get there. For me personally, most things have been a learning curve. There is no handbook detailing all of the little things you need to know.
How can we reach homeowners? How do you write a grant? Where can I get signs? How can we bring in funding? Can we create a sustainability contract? What learning activities can I make for kids? How do you run social media accounts?
There’s so much to do all the time, but that part of learning and growing is what I like so much about my job and what we do. If I was truly alone, I don’t think we’d be experiencing the same amount of public engagement or progress.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am the State Coordinator for the Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative, so under that title, I am responsible for our day-to-day operations and programming. Much of what we do involves the creation of new wildlife habitat. Specifically, I assist private landowners in incorporating conservation areas on their properties. It’s similar to the technical assistance provided by the state when you enter into a Conservation Reserve Program. This is for people or businesses who do not qualify but still want to create native habitat. I also run our yearly milkweed pod collection with the Soil and Water Conservation Districts, which supports these new habitats.
Much of my focus is on community outreach and education. I give presentations at schools, libraries, and community centers about the importance of pollinators, and how we can help. I also organize tabling events, where we provide educational material to the public. I like to keep these simple and family oriented, so the kids have something to connect to and learn from.
I am extremely proud of the work we do in general. From helping communities create habitat corridors to teaching a child something new about the world we live in, it’s all-important and valuable. At the end of the day, if I can drive by a greenspace and say, “I helped build that,” that gives it meaning.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
What makes me truly happy is hearing how excited other people get when we tell them we can help. What you’ll find is that there are a considerable amount of people who want to create native habitat but don’t qualify for any government assistance to do so. When I am able to sit someone down and let them know we can help, that their project is fundable and doable, seeing them light up just makes my day. At some point they’ll experience the same amount of joy I did when they watch their plants grow and catalog all the visiting butterflies and bees. It just feels good to give back to people and the planet.
Pricing:
- All of our services are free to the public, but it costs us $210 to plant one acre of new habitat.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ohiopollinator.org/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ohiopollinator/
Image Credits
Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative
Ruth Yu
Tri-Rivers Career Center
Wild Ones Youngstown Area Chapter
Akron Library
