Home Ground Habitats is part of a vibrant network of organizations, educators, and environmental advocates working to restore healthy ecosystems in Marin County and throughout the region. Through collaborations with conservation groups, watershed organizations, schools, and community leaders, these partnerships help expand the reach of habitat gardening and ecological restoration.
By sharing plants, knowledge, volunteers, and resources, broader community is helping create landscapes that support wildlife, conserve water, and reconnect people with the natural world.
Our Community Partners
Marin Monarch Working Group
The Marin Monarch Working Group is a volunteer-driven organization founded in 2019 to reverse the steep decline of western monarch butterflies in Marin County, where populations have dropped by about 99% since the 1980s. The group brings together gardeners, educators, biologists, and local residents to support monarch recovery through education, community science, and habitat restoration.
They share science-based information through newsletters, meetings, and events while guiding residents on monarch-friendly gardening practices, such as planting native milkweed and nectar plants. The organization also connects volunteers with monitoring efforts and collaborates on habitat projects in both private gardens and public spaces. Residents can get involved by joining their mailing list, attending events, or volunteering.
Home Ground Habitats, together with the Marin Monarch Working Group, collaborated on projects including a new pollinator garden planted at Marin Humane.
Marin Resource Conservation District (MRCD)
The Marin Resource Conservation District works with local landowners and communities to protect natural resources and improve watershed health throughout Marin County.
Through programs focused on riparian restoration and creek stewardship, MRCD helps homeowners understand how native vegetation supports healthy stream ecosystems.
One collaborative effort involved developing plant propagation classes that teach homeowners how to grow native plants for their own restoration projects. By learning small-scale nursery techniques, participants can grow plants suited to local conditions while supporting the restoration of native habitats along streams and waterways.
Home Ground Habitats continues to support these efforts by offering propagation classes and providing plants that help restore native landscapes.
Marin Median Project
The Marin Median Project works to improve public landscapes throughout the city of Novato by introducing environmentally responsible planting practices and increasing the use of California native plants.
Community volunteers have transformed several traffic islands and roadside landscapes into habitat-friendly spaces using drought-tolerant native plants. These plantings help create small but meaningful habitat corridors that connect larger natural areas and provide food and shelter for pollinators and birds.
Home Ground Habitats has supported these projects by donating and growing native plants used in these community plantings, helping expand habitat gardening into shared public spaces.
Sonoma—Marin Saving Water Partnership
The Sonoma—Marin Saving Water Partnership promotes water conservation and sustainable landscaping throughout the region.
Each spring the partnership hosts a garden tour featuring water-wise landscapes that demonstrate practical ways to conserve water while supporting beautiful and functional gardens.
Home Ground Habitats founder Charlotte Torgovitsky has opened her Novato habitat garden for this tour since 2014. Visitors can explore a mature habitat garden in full bloom while learning about native plants, composting systems, and ecological gardening practices.
The garden tours help inspire visitors to adopt water-wise landscaping techniques and create habitat-friendly gardens of their own.
www.savingwaterpartnership.org
Our Water Our World
Our Water Our World is an award-winning partnership between water pollution prevention agencies and local garden centers and hardware stores. Launched in 1999, the program promotes less-toxic, eco-friendly pest control solutions to protect water quality in creeks, bays, and the ocean. It helps homeowners and gardeners manage common pests while keeping children, pets, and the environment safer.
The organization provides practical fact sheets on topics like ants, aphids, rats, mosquitoes, and weeds, along with guidance on integrated pest management (IPM) techniques. Participating stores display special shelf tags to help customers easily find less-toxic products. The program also offers employee training and in-store support from knowledgeable IPM Advocates.
By reducing the use of harmful pesticides that run off into local waterways, Our Water Our World supports healthier aquatic ecosystems across the Bay Area and beyond. Gardeners and residents can visit the website for resources or shop at over 200 participating stores.
West Marin Monarch Sanctuary
The West Marin Monarch Sanctuary is a habitat restoration project founded by Ole Schell in partnership with the Xerces Society. Located in Bolinas, California, it focuses on restoring critical habitat to help prevent the extinction of western monarch butterflies, whose populations have declined dramatically—by about 99% in coastal California—due to habitat loss and climate pressures.
The sanctuary is planting thousands of native nectar and pollinator plants to support monarchs during breeding and migration. With a distinguished board including Alice Waters, David Hochschild, and other conservation leaders, the project emphasizes on-the-ground restoration efforts in West Marin while inspiring broader community action for pollinators.
Residents and supporters can get involved through donations, volunteering, or learning more about creating monarch-friendly habitats in their own gardens. The initiative offers a hands-on approach to conservation in one of Marin’s most beautiful rural areas.
Home Ground Habitats has donated plants to help sustain this coastal monarch sanctuary.
Wild Care
WildCare is Marin County’s leading wildlife hospital, nature education center, and advocacy organization, operating since 1974. Based in San Rafael, it rescues, treats, and rehabilitates thousands of injured and orphaned wild animals each year while teaching people how to coexist peacefully with local wildlife.
The organization runs a 24/7 wildlife hotline (415-456-7283) for advice and intake, provides hands-on care for hundreds of species, and offers public education programs, school visits, wildlife ambassador encounters, and popular nature-based camps for children. WildCare also advocates for stronger protections for wildlife and open spaces in the Bay Area.
Residents can get involved by volunteering at the hospital, donating (including to their new facility capital campaign), attending programs, or learning humane ways to live with wildlife in their own neighborhoods.
Home Ground Habitats is donating plants to support expansion of habitat for wildlife rehabilitation.
Museum of the American Indian
The Museum of the American Indian, located in Novato on the site of a historic Coast Miwok village, is dedicated to uplifting and making visible the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. Through authentic educational programs, rotating exhibits of Native arts and artifacts, cultural events, and workshops, it shares the rich history, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and living traditions of Indigenous communities with Marin and the greater Bay Area.
The museum offers public tours, school field trips, nature-based playgroups, summer camps, and hands-on classes in areas like native plants, cordage making, and traditional skills. It serves as a gathering place for lectures, performances, and community celebrations that honor both historical and contemporary Native voices.
Visitors and residents can support the museum through memberships, donations, or by attending events and programs. It provides free admission for Native Americans and military personnel.
Home Ground Habitats is donating plants to support development of ethnobotanical demonstration gardens.
California Bluebird Recovery Program
The California Bluebird Recovery Program (CBRP) is a statewide volunteer organization founded in 1994 dedicated to the conservation of Western Bluebirds and other native cavity-nesting birds. Through the installation and monitoring of thousands of nestboxes across California, the program has helped fledge over 470,000 young birds while countering the loss of natural nesting habitat due to development.
CBRP provides training, resources, and guidance for individuals and groups to establish and maintain their own nestbox trails. The organization collects and shares detailed monitoring data each season and publishes an informative newsletter with results, best practices, and conservation updates.
Residents in Marin and across California can get involved by becoming a nestbox monitor, attending training sessions, or supporting the program through donations. CBRP offers practical ways for bird enthusiasts, gardeners, and community groups to make a direct impact on local bird populations.
Happy Bat Solutions
Happy Bat Solutions is a Sonoma County-based company specializing in humane bat and owl conservation services. They provide expert consultations, professional installation of bat houses and owl boxes, maintenance, repairs, relocations, and humane bat exclusion from homes and structures.
Their work promotes natural pest control, as bats consume large quantities of mosquitoes, moths, and agricultural pests each night. Services are designed to help homeowners, farms, and vineyards coexist peacefully with beneficial wildlife while supporting threatened bat species and local ecosystems.
Residents in Sonoma and nearby areas can contact them for property consultations, custom wildlife housing plans, or to purchase and install bat houses. The company emphasizes education and practical solutions for creating bat-friendly habitats.
North Marin Water District
North Marin Water District (NMWD) is an independent special district formed in 1948 that provides drinking water and related services to the greater Novato area and parts of West Marin, including Point Reyes. The District sources water primarily from Stafford Lake and manages a comprehensive system serving approximately 61,000 residents across 76 square miles.
NMWD strongly emphasizes water conservation with programs and resources for both indoor and outdoor use, helping residential and commercial customers reduce consumption through education, rebates, and practical guidance. They also maintain Stafford Lake and Dam, update long-term water system master plans, and pursue regional projects such as atmospheric river capture for water supply reliability.
Residents can access services through their website for account management, conservation tips, low-income assistance programs, and updates on initiatives like eco-friendly garden tours and strategic planning. NMWD supports sustainable water management and community education throughout northern Marin County.
Charlie Kennard
Charlie Kennard of San Anselmo is a long-time basket weaver and student of California Indian and other traditional basketry techniques of the world. He has taught for the Point Reyes Field Institute, East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Fibershed, the Laguna Center and in schools and at teacher trainings. Tule boats made in his workshops can be seen at the Bay Model in Sausalito, Lake County Museum, and another is in the collection of the Oakland Museum. You can also visit a basketry plant garden Charlie has created at the Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross. Charlie is active in wildlife habitat restoration in Marin, managing several projects for Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed.
Marin Chapter — California Native Plant Society
The Marin Chapter of the California Native Plant Society promotes the appreciation, conservation, and restoration of California’s native flora.
Home Ground Habitats founder Charlotte Torgovitsky served on the Marin CNPS Board for more than a decade, including as Chapter President from 2014—2016. During this time, she helped lead numerous initiatives, including the Gardening with Natives program, native plant sales, and the School Garden Program.
Charlotte also collaborated with fellow CNPS members on several community projects, including the installation of the Native Plant Pollinator Garden at the Bay Model in Sausalito. The garden is tailored to support local pollinators, including hummingbirds, songbirds, and butterflies. The pollinator habitats were designed to stay 4' tall or lower, to maintain views of the Bay.
Additionally, Charlotte collaborated with CNPS Marin on the California Native Hedgerow Project at the College of Marin’s Indian Valley campus and has provided support for chapter plant sales and educational materials.