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elisnativeplants.bsky.social
Eli's Native Plants
@elisnativeplants.bsky.social
1.5K followers 2.9K following 1.1K posts
I believe the diversity of life is sacred. The diversity of human cultures too. I'm a gardener #NativePlants, vegan, computationalist, and a seed distributor.

Trying to stop the 6th global extinction event by reconnecting humans with their ecosystems.
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elisnativeplants.bsky.social
Walking in Assabet River National Wildlife refuge is a treat in any seaon. I always see birds. I didn't hear the Redwinged Blackbirds announce their return, I was lucky enough to watch some chatty Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) get a nightcap.
#ecoregion59 #wildlife #bluebirds #wetlands #nature #winter
elisnativeplants.bsky.social Eli's Native Plants @elisnativeplants.bsky.social · 2h
Would you walk on a MA swamp? I do, with snowshoes. Here's a little part of Assabet National Wildlife Refuge.
The edges are Red Maple and Grey Birch with White Pines. Often there's more shrub than this, but the water gets deep quickly here. Woolgrass (Scirpus cyperinus) is a staple monocot, but there's more Cattail (genus Typha) by far nowadays. Marshy meadows connect to oxbow lakes. Beavers compound the complexity. This seems like newer wetland to me; somewhere drought-tolerant White Pine (Pinus strobus) were suddenly out standing in the marsh, then soon dead. Bluebirds getting a drink at sunset, from one of the few open-water areas left in this wetland.
February 17, 2026 at 11:23 PM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
A Turkey trail Tuesday to you. May you see something bright and beautiful, like these Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in a snowy trail at sunset. Or, rather, a snow-surrounded, snow-free trail. One that was good for scratching and pecking in the grasses on the snowy edge.
Tom Turkey Posse, leading the return to the trail, after my arrival scared the Rafter up into the woods. Tom himself, getting a peck at the freshest, sunniest grass, showing his colors. The Rafter (flock of Turkeys) in the woods behind, and emerging along the snow-free trail, examining and pecking at the edges.
February 17, 2026 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Eli's Native Plants
genusbarpod.bsky.social
This is a story of #community and #resistance from #Minnesota.

The guests (@lindablackelk.bsky.social) are heroes of my heroes. None better to talk herbalism and community.

Right,
@samthayer.bsky.social (Sam Thayer)
@foragerchef.bsky.social (Alan Bergo)
@blackforager.bsky.social (Alexis Nicole)?
Herbs to Melt Ice and Build Community | Featuring Linda & Luke Black Elk - Herbal Radio | iHeart
<p data-olk-copy-source='MessageBody'>This week on Herbal Radio, Jiling is joined by <strong>Luke and Linda Black Elk</strong>. Luke and Linda are food sovereignty activists and teachers of traditiona...
www.iheart.com
February 17, 2026 at 9:18 PM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
I'm attending Kat for Illinois's event, “Phone Bank for Kat!” - sign up now to join me!

AIPAC had grown their funding by a factor of 20x: from $5 million to $100 million. Corporate PACs are pouring in the funding too.

If we want to fight back, to get the word out, we have to do it or fund it.
Phone Bank for Kat! · Kat for Illinois
Join us virtually on Zoom as we phone bank for Kat! Each phone bank will be held via Zoom and begin with a comprehensive training. Once you sign up, you will be sent the Zoom link via Mobilize. Let...
www.mobilize.us
February 17, 2026 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by Eli's Native Plants
katmabu.bsky.social
ONE MONTH UNTIL ELECTION DAY!!! DOOR KNOCK, PHONEBANK, AND TEXT BANK FOR US!!!

discord.gg/katforillinois
Join the Kat for Illinois Discord Server!
Welcome to the Kat for Illinois Discord server! This is where campaign staff and volunteers can coordinate the most accessible campaign in America. Seeing this elsewhere and want to join? Come on in: ...
discord.gg
February 17, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Eli's Native Plants
pinkzombierose.bsky.social
Leaders: The problem is complex and multi-layered The problem: Lobbyists Politicians Voters
February 17, 2026 at 5:37 AM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
What you would have done in Germany in the late 30s is what you're doing here today.

If you're taking bigger actions, did you miss the little ones that have a profound impact when we do them en masse? #BOYCOTT!
#boycottICE #boycottAmazon #boycottATT #boycottGoogle
rbreich.bsky.social Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 11h
What’s one way we can rein in ICE?

We can start by boycotting ICE’s corporate collaborators that are profiting from the agency’s cruelty.

Watch.
February 17, 2026 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Eli's Native Plants
genusbarpod.bsky.social
Our third episode is out! Genus Sambucus: Elder/Elderberry. Elder is a gateway to foraging, to permaculture, to herbalism, to the Fey. Please step through!

www.iheart.com/podcast/269-...

#podcast #plantpodcast #newpodcast #nativeplants #ecoregion59 #foraging #grownative #permaculture #herbalism
Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) cyme: an inflorescence that blooms from the center (terminal flower) out, otherwise like an umbel (umbrella-shaped inflorescence at the end of a stem). Flowers have 5 little white petals and 5 stamens with little yellow round balls of pollen on top Side and bottom views of Elderberry inflorescences. They begin with a flat top like an umbel, then the cyme blooms from the center, curling back at the edges. Elderberry Sawfly larva on Sambucas canadensis. Sawflies are welcome guests here. They nibble the foliage, and are found by finches as they work their way up the plants. I have yet to see them do any significant damage. They're just trying to live their lives, and cycling some of those plant sugars and proteins up into the food chain. Elderberry, 9-12' tall in a habitat behind a path crowded by Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).
February 16, 2026 at 3:09 AM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
#Assabet National Wildlife Refuge: I like to step off the trail when the snow is deep. With a floating step that never pierces the snowpack, no plants are harmed. Plus, walk on H2O!

I took hundreds of pictures of White Pines (Pinus strobus)!
#winter #adventures #nativePlants #wetland #ecoregion59
Multiple types of Human prints, stretching into the distance on a frozen pond, with white pines bordering the edges above Grey Birches, Red Maples, Cattails... Cross country ski tracks in the hardened snow shell on the pond. White Pines in the distance. A snowshoe trail and my shadow stretching away across the snowy pond toward White Pines on the shore Lowering sun over the lake
February 15, 2026 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Eli's Native Plants
genusbarpod.bsky.social
Time to get serious about leaving Google AWA Meta.

Proton.me for email

Ecosia as a search engine/browser
www.ecosia.org

They are no longer the leading edge of tech. They are now a surveillance and data company that works with a fascist regime.

#boycott #google #boycottFascism #boycottOligarchy
Proton: Privacy by default
Over 100 million people use Proton to stay private and secure online. Get a free Proton account and take back your privacy.
Proton.me
February 15, 2026 at 2:29 PM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
Beautiful. Love of the freedom our country has promised us our whole lives is going to continue uniting us.

This is how a good human being responds to evils committed by their government.
thetnholler.bsky.social The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 3d
“I’ve never protested before - but I just watched 4th & 5th grade kids run away from our own government.” 😕🇺🇸💔

(From @crindivisible.bsky.social )
February 15, 2026 at 1:22 AM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
These #grassroots #progressive #candidates / #reps are going up against hundreds of millions of dollars of #PAC money. Let's get serious about the primaries, and supporting them.

I made this list because I started looking them up here, and to my dismay many had <200 followers. Let's change that.
February 14, 2026 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Eli's Native Plants
therealjackhopkins.bsky.social
They were ready for chaos. What they got was discipline.
An update to my January piece: why ICE is reportedly drawing down in Minneapolis...and why the absence of violence may be the real story. Sometimes the headline isn’t what exploded.
It’s what didn’t.
www.jackhopkinsnow.com
February 13, 2026 at 9:40 AM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
Never, ever tip ActBlue when you donate. They may fund progressive candidates, but we need to be working toward another trusted platform, because they are complicit in fascism through the spread of corporate power, and genocide through AIPAC.

open.substack.com/pub/jweeds/p...
The ActBlue–AIPAC Pipeline: How Zionist Megadonors Hijacked the Democratic Machine
By J.
open.substack.com
February 11, 2026 at 2:48 AM
Reposted by Eli's Native Plants
altnps.bsky.social
Please call the Senate they will vote very soon on whether to allow dangerous sulfide-ore copper mining on the edges of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Tell them to vote NO on House Joint Resolution 140 (H.J. Res. 140).
February 10, 2026 at 12:28 PM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
This nonprofit is a great feed to #follow. They are getting anti-corruption measures around campaign-funding, and ranked-choice voting ON BALLOTS, state by state. My brightest hopes for the future rely on their success.

Short term, check @trackaipac.com before primaries.

#democracy #corruption
represent.us RepresentUs @represent.us · Dec 2
Help us keep the pressure on: represent.us/givecourage
February 10, 2026 at 4:59 PM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
As the US Federal Gvt rapidly expands their network of #ConcentrationCamps, we must think on our responses. Will we forever remember how we sat back, or how we pushed back?

Let's fight this at the local level, as well as through our #representatives in #Congress. From #TownMeetings to #Primaries.
cardonebrian.bsky.social Brian Cardone @cardonebrian.bsky.social · 12d
👀Now that ICE/DHS are planning to buy ‘mega’ warehouse detention centers across the US to house human beings you might want to listen to this gentleman’s history lesson that he delivered at a city council meeting in AZ. Congress needs to have hearings on this like yesterday.
February 7, 2026 at 2:22 PM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
Winter life in waiting (Cherry Birch seeds),
waiting underground (Common Milkweed),
bursting forth from the snow (Skunk Cabbage),
Breaking down and flowing back into the soil (Red and Scarlett Oak leaves, water)

#winter #nature #forest #meadow #nativeplants #ecoregion59 #ecoregion58
A cluster of Cherry Birch (Betula lenta) seeds, like flat, little, open cone scales. Snow, branches, shadows, pines in the background. Dried milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) seed pods, open on straight stalls, with wispy, wilted, dry grasses in a snowy meadow in the Helderberg Hilltowns of NY Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) shoots which had melted their way through the snow in the woods, by a stream. They are deep under the snow that followed, ready to grow when it melts. Red and Scarlett Oak (Quercus rubra and Q. coccinea) leaves lining a shallow woodland snowmelt stream in MA
February 7, 2026 at 6:19 AM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
There is almost a complete overlap between these 7 and the #traitorous7 in the house who voted to increase ICE funding. These are Jeffries fall-guys for when we're watching and the AIPAC Democrats want to save face. Check @trackaipac.com before voting in the primaries! And let's give these 7 Hell.
elisnativeplants.bsky.social Eli's Native Plants @elisnativeplants.bsky.social · Dec 17
Check out who voted yes to strip searching immigrant children (H.R. 4371). The pedophile party all voted yes, of course, but 7 Democrats joined them, including representatives from CA, ME, NC, NY, TX, and WA. Traitors.

#immigrantsrights #humanrights #pedophiles

www.govtrack.us/congress/vot...
H.R. 4371: To amend the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection … -- House Vote #340 -- Dec. 16, 2025
House Vote #340 in 2025, in the United States Congress.
www.govtrack.us
February 6, 2026 at 9:48 PM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
We do have some true blue representatives who will fight for us. Becca Balint is one. She speaks for her constituents, and doesn't take a cent from AIPAC.
balint.house.gov Representative Becca Balint @balint.house.gov · 14d
From January 6 to Alex Pretti, Republicans have continued to twist reality in service of one man and to the disservice of the rest of us and our democracy. We need to continue to speak the truth and call them out on it every. single. time.
February 4, 2026 at 5:34 PM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
I got this keffiyeh cap, and a baseball cap from West Bank Apparel. I will be wearing it every day I commute on the train as a symbol of #solidarity, to show that I support Palestinian independence, to call for an end to Israeli occupation and genocide.

#FreePalestine

www.npr.org/2023/12/06/1...
The keffiyeh cap on my head, on a quiet train ride home. I wear it on my commute into Boston, and around downtown. My warm keffiyeh cap on my head as I snowshoe up the cold windy hill at my grandparents' house, in the Helderberg Hilltowns West of Albany NY
February 3, 2026 at 4:07 AM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
I went to the White Pine Cathedral today, up on the hill over my grandparents' house. I missed mass: the Cardinals were gone and all of the White-tailed Deer had left their pews.

A spiritual experience doesn't require an organized religion, or mysticism. What is sacred to you?
#nature #pantheism
Snowshoe prints leading up the hill to where I'm standing for the photo, with deer tracks to the side. The view shows a recently mowed portion of a meadow, above my grandparents' house, with Cole Hill in the distance. A stand of White Pines (Pinus strobus) at the top of the hill, bordering the meadow. Dug out deer beds at the top of the hill, with many deer tracks going back and forth along the tree line. A bare Birch standing out starkly among the White Pines.
February 2, 2026 at 4:18 AM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
October Farm Riverfront, Concord MA: a winter hike, with river views, and wildlife. Dog friendly.

This is a great place for seeing Hemlocks, from seedlings to big stately trees. I hope we get a fierce cold snap, to kill the invasive Hemlocks Adelgids on them.

#Hemlocks #nativeplants #ecoregion59
A view of a frozen snowy oxbow marsh off the Concord River, from the trail. White Pines stand tall with Blueberries and Maple Leaf Viburnums appearing as small bare twigs standing at their feet. A happy young Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) in the snow Close up view under a hemlock branch, with a white fuzzy bump of a Woolly Hemlock Adelgid on the trig going horizontally across the center of the image. They don't look like much, but when they cover every leaf node, the tree will die. We need cold snaps, with 24 hours of -4°F or less to kill them. I pray fir could each year, but the Hemlock range will eventually be pushed north by this invasive species.
January 29, 2026 at 2:32 PM
elisnativeplants.bsky.social
After storms and high wind, I look for fallen pine limbs for making pine needle tea. I'm happy when I find a clump of Usnea attached to a fallen chunk of bark or a limb. This find will make a year supply of tincture.

unrulygardening.com/forage-use-u...
#foraging #herbalism
A fluffed up, stringy mass of Usnea, held between my thumb and rink finger The back of the Usnea is visible from this side-view, with it sitting on a fallen branch covered in a shield lichen. The strands are thicker where they were near the tree trunk, and thicken further as they approach the source. The clump was emanating from a single point on the bark.
January 10, 2026 at 11:17 PM