During its Grow Native! Professional Member Conference on November 8 in Columbia, Missouri, the Grow Native! program awarded the 2023 Grow Native! Ambassador Award to Christine Favilla, Three Rivers Project Coordinator for the Piasa Palisades chapter of the Sierra Club in Alton, Illinois.
“The Grow Native! program annually recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the advancement, use, and promotion of native plants and native plant landscaping,” said Grow Native! Committee Chair Ronda Burnett. “This recognition is in the form of the Grow Native! Ambassador Award.”
Christine is a deserving recipient of this award for the work she does at her day job, and her many volunteer efforts involving native landscaping.
Recently Christine organized a juried public art competition to install a native pollinator sculpture at the LaVista Park prairie restoration in Godfrey, Illinois. The project culminated in the installation of the sculpture in the Spring of 2023.
Christine also leads an effort with Alton Main Street to convert the Downtown Alton Streetscape from Knockout roses and boxwoods to an oasis filled with native plants and trees.
She also heads up the stewardship of several native gardens in the Alton Godfrey area and recently completed a native tree planting in Alton in partnership with Trees Forever, in which more 150 native trees and other woody plants were installed in Alton Parks and streetscapes. Additionally, Christine is coordinating the volunteer-led maintenance program to care for the tree plantings.
Thank you and congratulations to Christine, a tireless ambassador for native landscaping!
