Your friendly neighborhood squid scientist is on a mission to boost Philly’s native plant population.
Sarah McAnulty is the executive director of Skype a Scientist, an educational non-profit that connects people with practical science information they can use. The group is driving a guerrilla marketing effort to get people out and gardening, and in turn helping native species.
“Here in Philadelphia, we have really altered where we live over the last 300 years,” McAnulty said. “What we want to do is help support animals that live in our city with us. Because even though these cities sometimes feel like places for people, it’s not exclusively for people.”
You may know McAnulty for her work with The Squid Facts Hotline, a textline that tells people fun tidbits about squids. For example, did you know that vampire squid can live 3,000 feet below sea level? She markets the service by driving the “Squidmobile,” a Toyota RAV4 decorated with squid-themed art and the hotline’s number — 1-833-SCI-TEXT.
Now, she’s focusing her efforts on an outside-the-box approach to boost plant biodiversity in Philly with three different community driven tactics: artistic street posters, decorative pint glasses and “seed bombs” distributed by cyclists.
“I’ve been working in science communication for a long time, and I’ve been playing with different ways to get people to care over probably two decades at this point,” McAnulty said. “I’ve found that the more fun people are having when they’re learning, the more they’re going to connect.”
Tactic 1: The Posters
Have you noticed a collection of bright, colorful posters hanging in your neighborhood with a fun floral illustration and little packets of mixed seeds clipped to the bottom? They come from the Skype a Scientist team. Each one includes a simple message, “plant native plants,” along with a QR code that leads to instructions.
It’s the second year in a row the crew has put up the signs. This year’s round started going up in January and will continue into spring. While it might feel early in the season to start planting, these seeds actually thrive when sown in the winter, ensuring they’re ready to sprout by spring.
“I wanted the poster colors to be really strong and exciting, so that they could draw somebody’s attention if they were walking across the street,” said Meg Lemieur, the artist behind the poster design. “I wanted them to be like, ‘Oh, what’s that beautiful thing?’ and want to cross the street and come look at what was going on.”
Philly is not just home to birds fans, but also, you know… actual birds, like the Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay and Red-tailed Hawk. American snapping turtles and bullfrogs live in our waterways. Butterflies, moths, bumble bees and fireflies share our airspace and use native plants as homes.
Planting seeds is an easy and inexpensive way to boost Philly’s biodiversity and help our local species. The packets include purple coneflower, black eyed Susan, swamp milkweed, bee balm, blue vervain and New York Ironweed.
“A lot of the work that I do focuses on supporting nature in all sorts of ways, especially in the city,” said Lemieur, who also hosts a nature journaling club that goes around to different parks in the city.
She created three different posters for the project — each highlighting a different flower.
“Fortunately, I have a small urban garden in my backyard, and so I grow all of those plants in my backyard already,” she said. “I was pretty familiar with them, so I was able to gather that reference. And then I used regular drawing pencils to draw them out.”
McAnulty hosted multiple native plant prep parties to pack up all these seeds.
“We have 11 volunteers across the city, who each got 450 packets of seeds, and over the next month and a half-ish, will be constantly restocking the clips on the posters,” McAnulty explained.
Want to find a poster near you? The Skype a Scientist team created a map with locations, so you can go forth and plant.
“It’s a perfect time for these plants to be sprinkled,” Lemieur said. “We are all excited to get back to warmer weather, and these plants and these posters are just a reminder that all snow melts and we will have spring again.”
Tactic 2: The Pint Glasses
The posters are phase one in the grassroots effort to get Philadelphians out and gardening. In addition to Philly’s streets, the Skype a Scientist initiative is headed to our bars.
“We hired three artists to illustrate pro-native plant messaging that we’re going to be printing on pint glasses that will get hosted in bars around the city,” McAnulty said. “While people are drinking a beer, they can read a little bit about native plants.”
Various spots from Fishtown to South Philly are participating, including favorites like Tattooed Mom and American Sardine Bar. Once again, McAnulty worked with local artists to create visually-stimulating designs that get people curious — including Marian Bailey, Han Fran, and Eric McLaughlin (also known as the street artist The 666 Cat).
“I used to work for a brewery, so I am kind of accustomed to making glassware and seeing it out in the world,” McLaughlin said. “I have seen my designs out in the world, but usually when you’re working in a brewery, they’re trying to cut costs, and so you have a limited amount of colors that you can use. There’s going to be some sales person that has some input on it… Sarah, once we locked in the message was just like, ’do whatever you want.’”
McLaughlin opted for an irreverent design filled with skulls, cute cartoon flowers, blue flames and The 666 Cat mascot. The side of the glass reads, “Please plant native plants! Or go to hell,” a message that McLaughlin said was “very on brand for me.”
“I wanted to do one that was a little more edgy — a little more, I guess, shaming people into doing the right thing,” he joked.
McLaughlin became friends with McAnulty around three years ago after coming across her Squid Facts stickers. Sometimes, he even drives the famous Squidmobile.
“Every time I get behind the wheel, the first day or two that I’m driving it around, I’m like, ‘Damn, everybody’s just checking me out and honking. What’s going on?’ And then I’m like, ‘Oh, they’re obviously responding to it.’ It literally says, ‘honk if you like squid.’ ”
McAnulty ordered 3,000 glasses to distribute, which arrived at her house last Friday. McLaughlin is hoping that the pint glasses get Philadelphians curious and excited about the city’s biodiversity. He said he also understands if anyone has the urge to take one home.
“I hope people around town see them, and hopefully want to just buy them or steal them,” he said.
That’s right. Apparently, theft is on the table.
“That’s always a pretty big honor when I hear people try to steal my stuff.”
What’s more, McAnulty has started a “stolen pint glass fund” to assuage any guilty consciences and help replace those that get taken.
Tactic 3: The Seed Bombs
The third and final Skype a Scientist approach to boosting Philly’s native plant life takes place on March 4.
Cyclists from the group Wednesday Night Rides will bike around the city and collectively throw 750 “seed bombs” on their route.
“They will be distributing seed bombs, which are basically compost and soil and clay, and then the native plant seeds themselves,” McAnulty said. “Seed bombs are really fun, because you can just chuck them into abandoned lots, and they’re going to be driving around the city and throwing those all over the place.”
Stefan Zajic, founder of Wednesday Night Rides, is excited to help out with the mission.
“Whether I’m commuting or riding recreationally, I feel a little bit more in connection with nature than I do otherwise,” he said. “You see animals. You see trees. You see plants, and anything that I think we can do to help boost that is a good thing.”
“I thought it seemed fun and neat and a way to move our attention away from the winter blues to springtime,” he added.
The cyclists won’t be throwing the seed bombs just anywhere, but will be aiming for vacant lots with open dirt “that could use a little bit of life in them.”
“Otherwise untended spaces that would be good targets for this sort of thing,” Zajic said.
The group typically has around 100 cyclists take part every other week, with the biggest group reaching around 250 people. Zajic said that anyone is welcome to come out, bike with the group and help spread native plants around the city.
“Joy and fun is inherently part of science”
While science can sometimes feel methodical and perhaps a bit systematic, McAnulty believes it’s quite the opposite.
“Science is everything,” she said. “It’s all of it, and joy and fun is inherently part of science.”
Part of her goal with the native seed planting project is to change perceptions and get people actively caring about the environment through a community-driven, fun approach. Skype a Scientist will also be hosting an Earth Day cabaret all about native plants. They’re calling it a “BiodiversiTEASE.”
“She’s a master class in community engagement and getting folks pumped about science and the world and everything,” Lemieur said.
“I’m hoping [this project] helps restore native habitat here, which will increase the insect population, which is really important,” she added. “We have an insect collapse happening here in the States and around the world. And so it’s so important for the health and longevity of humanity that we have insects around pollinating all of our plants.”
Last year, the Skype a Scientist team distributed 10,000 packets of native seeds. This year the squad hopes to match, if not exceed, that goal.
“They’re just beautiful,” Lemieur said. “These plants that Sarah has picked out all have beautiful flowers.”
Even if you don’t have a green thumb, McAnulty said that anyone can get involved.
“People have lived in the city for generations and don’t have any gardeners in their families,” McAnulty said. “It can seem really scary, but I think what a lot of people don’t know is, the path to a good garden is paved in dead plants. So just try it.”
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