Andrea Berry addresses the audience Thursday afternoon during the Great Falls Forum at the Lewiston Public Library. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

LEWISTON — Fighting the negative impacts of climate change can be as simple as planting native plants, Wild Seed Project Executive Director Andrea Berry told attendees at the Great Falls Forum on Thursday.

“I want to be really clear: native plants are not going to stop our changing climate,” Berry said. “But what they can do is to help us take action to make sure that the effects of our changing climate can be mitigated.”

Wild Seed Project is a nonprofit organization based in North Yarmouth focused on repopulating landscapes with native plants in an effort to expand wildlife habitat, support biodiversity and build climate resilience. Unlike plants which have been introduced to Maine, native plants have evolved to support other native species over millions of years, she said.

The success of native species and health of the environment, she argued, is inextricably linked to native plants.

“If we take plants that are from some other faraway place that weren’t evolved here and we put them in the ground, they may do really well,” she said. “They may do really, really well like we see with a number of invasive plants that are coming and taking over landscapes. But what they aren’t doing is working in relationship with the animals with the fungus with bacteria with the insects and the amphibians that are here.”

Andrea Berry addresses the audience Thursday afternoon during the Great Falls Forum at the Lewiston Public Library. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

The Monarch butterfly is a great example, she said. Not only does the adult butterfly rely on native milkweed for food, but the plants are crucial for reproduction. Monarch butterflies specifically lay their eggs on the plants, and after hatching, the caterpillars eat only milkweed leaves.

“Native plants are going to help us to build up all the different elements of the life cycle, not just the part where we’re providing nectar and pollen, but all the different places for creatures to live,” she said.

They’re especially important for supporting pollinator populations, which may not interact with introduced plants, she said. Pollinators are critical in supporting robust ecosystems and growing food.

Berry challenged attendees to revise their idea of a “beautiful” garden. Before she started with Wild Seed Project, Berry said her garden looked like many others, with a Japanese red maple tree, lilac bushes, bearded irises, “pristine leaves and petals,” with a neat, grass lawn to match.

But in the last year, she chose to let unneeded sections of her lawn grown out and planted native trees and flowers.

Andrea Berry speaks about native plants Thursday afternoon during the Great Falls Forum at the Lewiston Public Library. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

“Native plants don’t have to just be in a massive meadow or in an untended forest, that we can actually put native plants into our manicured gardens, into our landscaping, into the places where we are actually engaging and building landscapes ourselves,” she said.

Slowly, she’s seen her garden come to life with movement and sounds not present before.

“If we put native plants in places, creatures will come,” she said. “They will find it, they’ll tell their friends and it will be a whole different kind of experience.”

Whether people care most about birds, food sovereignty, the environment or climate action, native plants are key to all of it, she said.