Ei Connections: Save our Seabirds | Lifelines

Elemental Impact (Ei) plays a valuable industry role by introducing organizations and individuals who share synergies for powerful relationships and action. The Ei Connections page details empowering introductions along with their long-lasting impact.

Pam & Aaron enjoy their
intro meeting*

Save our Seabirds | Lifelines Introduction
In May 2022, Ei Founder & CEO Holly Elmore introduced colleagues and friends Save our Seabirds (SOS) CEO Aaron Virgin and Lifelines Founder Pam Callender.

SOS is an Ei Strategic Ally, and Aaron is an Ei Advisory Council member as well as a Regenerative Working Group Executive Team member. Additionally, Ei Founder & CEO Holly Elmore and Aaron are both Lambda Alpha International (land-economics honorary) and Rotary Club of Sarasota Bay members. Thus, there are ample opportunities for Ei Connections.

SOS mission: committed to the rescue and rehabilitation of sick and injured birds with the goal of releasing them back to their natural habitats. A lifelong sanctuary and specialized medical care are provided for those birds that cannot be released. SOS uses their stories to educate the public about avian conservation. The SOS facility is located on a three-acre tract of City of Sarasota-owned bayfront property on City Island.

Via staff and volunteers, SOS responds to 5,000 bird-rescue calls annually. The Avian Hospital is staffed with a full-time, on-site veterinarian who treats 1200-1400 injured birds per year. If they are not candidates for release, the birds have a permanent home in a natural-habitat setting within the Wild Bird Learning Center; approximately, 120 birds live in the Wild Bird Learning Center. 

Pam & Aaron during the stormwater-
demonstration garden installation*

Lifelines: an Eco Art project that designs and builds a contiguous line of native flora and fauna habitats through urban, suburban and rural neighborhoods. Eco Art is work that utilizes both the science of ecology and creative processes of art making to identify solutions to environmental concerns. Pam designed and installed the Ei Native-Plant Landscape Pilot in Holly's front yard.

With its commitment to native flora and fauna, Lifeline projects create habit and food sources for urban wildlife, including feathered friends. Aaron understands the importance of incorporating native plants wherever practical within the SOS grounds and bird enclosures.

Funded by a Longboat Key Garden Club grant, Aaron contracted with Pam to design the transformation of an unsightly drainage ditch into a stormwater-demonstration garden. Native plants were selected for coastal properties and bird habitat. On February 28, 2023, Pam oversaw the installation of 360 plants (54 species) by volunteers and Aaron himself!

Aaron shares his appreciation of the Ei Connection via the following quote:

"We at SOS are very appreciative of the introduction to Pam Callender by Holly to help facilitate our stormwater-demonstration garden. By utilizing the rainwater from the adjacent parking lot, we have transformed a neglected area next to our entrance into a unique natural habitat beckoning birds, butterflies, other insects, and the public!  While our primary goal is to mitigate polluted stormwater from entering Sarasota Bay, we are excited that visitors to SOS will see what they can do on their own property to counter runoff and increase wildlife habitat." 

The Holly Elmore Images (HEI) album, Save our Seabirds | Lifelines Connection, documents images of the drainage-ditch transformation into a stormwater-demonstration garden.

Rewilding Urban Landscapes
The Regeneration in ACTION Magazine articles, From Organic Certification to Regenerative Agriculture to Rewilding Landscapes: an evolution towards soil integrity and SOIL & WATER: the foundation of life, published to explain and substantiate the importance of Ei’s rewilding-urban-landscapes work within the Nature Prevails focus area. 

Within the referenced articles, the Insect Apocalypse is introduced along with contributions to the demise of bug populations. A primary contributor to the apocalypse is the prolific use of nonnative plants in landscapes and other maintained grounds. 

A monarch butterfly feasts on a 
native blossom in Holly's backyard*

Insects are integral to the natural ecosystem foundation and essential to supporting the Earth’s life web. At the base of the prey hierarchy, insects are food for fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. In addition to recycling soil-system nutrients, insects play an essential role in the decomposition portion of nature’s circular-life cycle.

Insects and plants evolved together and often developed symbiotic relationships. Thus, nonnative plants frequently do not serve as habitat or a food source for insects. Including native plants in landscaped areas supports the insect population that in turn serves as food for the local and migrating birds.

Holly's front and backyards serve as Ei Rewilding Urban Landscapes Pilots, with a focus on urban-wildlife habitat and food as well as a local human-food source. The HEI Rewilding Urban Landscapes-album folder documents two active pilots: the Native-Plant Landscape Pilot and the Backyard Permaculture-Oriented Pilot.

Kudos to Save our Seabirds for taking initial steps in rewilding their exterior grounds. Future projects may include incorporating native plants within the Wild Bird Learning Center. Stay tuned for progress over the upcoming months and years.

* all photos courtesy of Holly Elmore Images.

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About Elemental Impact:

Elemental Impact (Ei) is a 501(c)3 non-profit founded in 2010 as the home to the Zero Waste Zones, the forerunner in the nation for the commercial collection of food waste for compost. In June 2017, Ei announced the Era of Recycling Refinement was Mission Accomplished and entered the Era of Regeneration. Current focus areas include Nature Prevails, Soil Health | Regenerative Agriculture, and Water Use | Toxicity.

The Regeneration in ACTION Magazine articles, From Organic Certification to Regenerative Agriculture to Rewilding Landscapes: an evolution towards soil integrity and SOIL & WATER: the foundation of life, published to explain and substantiate the importance of Ei’s rewilding urban landscapes work within the Nature Prevails focus area.

The Holly Elmore Images Rewilding Urban Landscapes-album folder documents two active pilots: the Native-Plant Landscape Pilot and the Backyard Permaculture-Oriented Pilot.

MISSION:

To work with industry leaders to create best regenerative operating practices where the entire value-chain benefits, including corporate bottom lines, communities, and the environment. Through education and collaboration, establish best practices as standard practices.

Ei’s tagline – Regeneration in ACTION – is the foundation for Ei endeavors.

The following mantra is at the core of Ei work:

Ei is a creator, an incubator.

Ei determines what could be done that is not being done and gets it done.

Ei brings the possible out of impossible.

Ei identifies pioneers and creates heroes.

For additional information, contact Holly Elmore at 404-510-9336 | holly@elementalimpact.org