Site Selection: Lot 5. 1300-1306 Montgomery Street
Concept & Team Summary:
The city of St. Louis is located on the Mississippi flyway and the Monarch butterfly migration path. It is well known that the numbers of birds and insects using these routes are shrinking because of habitat loss, invasive species and climate stress. Our team proposes to create a Native Species Living Lab at 1300-1306 Montgomery Street that builds on Douglas Tallamy’s seminal research. This Living Lab will demonstrate how modest, but sustained, changes can transform a neglected urban lot into a biologically rich and diverse environment. Such a transformation has the potential to affect the aesthetic, educational and healthful life of neighbors and visitors. If replicated in contiguous vacant lots, this concept could result in a visionary new habitat corridor that links existing parks, nature reserves and Confluence Greenway sites across urban St. Louis. About the Team: The Tower Grove South Neighbor Partners are a group of community conscious TGS residents. We bring various types of expertise to the project, established connections to large networks (urban farmers, community activists, master gardeners, educators), and longstanding partnerships with local institutions. Through these networks, we have access to resources that can enlarge our capacity such as volunteers, specialists, in-kind donors and advisors.