Events Calendar

Join us for Margaret Rasmussen from Gainesville, Georgia's Redbud Project, a model for green space preservation, to hear how paying attention to what is around you can lead conservation advocacy in directions which connect nature within our community to all aspects of health and wellness: Biodiversity, Indigenous American Cultural Heritage, Spirituality, and Physical Health. 

Who would have envisioned discovery of native plants tucked away in the Appalachian foothills of Georgia would lead to revival of the Cherokee’s heritage of regard for nature in the environmentally imperiled community? When a small group of concerned citizens formed the Redbud Project to promote awareness of the area’s unique natural habitats, they partnered with City of Gainesville  to develop leisure recreation in nature in exchange for opportunity to model environmental conservation and education. 
Volunteers developed and funded development of 32 acres of eco friendly trails intertwined through woodlands, wetlands and prairie; established a native plant conservatory for Homegrown National Park landscaping; and developed a community ecology center for conservation education. Discovery of a 300-year-old white oak, memorial marker tree to tribal elite who inhabited a village  on site in the early 1800’s, led to awareness of Cherokee heritage embedded in present day community and strengthened Redbud Project cause to conserve and preserve the unique natural habitats of Gainesville/Hall County, Georgia.
Margaret Rasmussen
Founding Executive Director
The Redbud Project: Model for Green Space Preservation

Margaret Byrd Rasmussen: I have studied wild flowers in all seven states and several countries where I resided In my long career as free lance writer, author, journalist, photographer, academic public relations and marketing, mother (my favorite). My first hook on native plants was on the Appalachian Trail  near Hollins, Virginia where I discovered valleys of trillium, lady slipper orchids and fields of wild asparagus.  But when I moved to the foothills of Georgia, I discovered plants I had never heard of in the incredibly biodiverse ecosystems of the Gainesville Ridges.  More than a passion to identify new native species trees, shrubs and forbs, native plants have become a panic to preserve these unique ecosystems of green space that are being bulldozed acre by acre in a matter of hours.  Only with sharing the panic...and passion if you will... with my fellow volunteers is there any hope for preservation of the ecological carrying capacity that sustains life on planet Earth.

Founding Executive Director (2009) The Redbud Project: Model for Green Space Preservation

National Garden Club Environmental Consultant

Georgia Master Naturalist

State Botanical Garden of Georgia Native Plant Certificate

MA American History University of Rochester

MLIS University at Buffalo

MA History and Education Alfred University

BA Journalism University of South Carolina