Big news, my friends! After a lifetime of mediocre-to-lousy experiences as an employee I am now the boss of me in a professional capacity! As some of you know this isn’t actually my first time starting my own business, but I intend for it to be the last (non-profits are another story). The first version of Wild Niche was a one-man-ecological-restoration army in western Washington state. That was a great couple of years that afforded me some very satisfying relationships with pieces of land and the people that held them. But, being in my late forties at the time my body was not happy about the cutting, digging and hauling in the summer sun and winter rain. This was after five (actually pretty good) years of feeling too old for this sh*t doing ecological restoration for Seattle contractor, Applied Ecology. I’m glad to have been in the trenches fighting the good fight for Mother Earth all those years, and my service will not stop until my life does. But the Spirit of the Forest has promoted me to the rank of General. What I mean to say is that I will now be directing my considerable knowledge and talents towards consulting, design, and ecological-science communication. If you aren’t new to this newsletter/blog then you are already familiar with my work in that last category. I very much intend on continuing this effort (and getting back to a more regular schedule), but today it’s my new consulting and design service that I am here to promote. Through Wild Niche I will practice ecological forestry and native-plant-focused landscape design for landowners who wish to do effective conservation work on their properties. Whether you want butterflies and native bees in your yard or nesting wood warblers and other migratory birds in your woods it’s the plant life that will bring them there. That plant life is awesome and beautiful in it’s own right, and also often in need of conservation. For these reason I intend for my signature service to be floristic surveys. You can’t take care of what you have if you don’t know what (who) you have. If you want to be the best possible steward of your piece of Earth let me introduce you to the plants that live there.

I’m keeping this post short, but would love it if you also took a peek at my new consulting page here: https://gerald-lisi.squarespace.com/new-page-1?p There will be more there soon, but I think it’s a good start. Thanks to my Chief Marketing Officer, Martha Marin, for the awesome logo. And thank YOU for your time and attention. I would love to read any and all thoughts you have about Wild Niche, in the comments below if you’re reading on my website or in an email reply if you’re reading this in your inbox. If you’re not reading this in your inbox please subscribe by entering your email address at the bottom of this page: https://www.geraldlisi.net/ Please be sure to confirm your subscription by replying to the confirmation email my website sends you. Thanks so much!

P.S. Below are some photos in keeping with the tradition of this newsletter, and in the spirit of the mission of Wild Niche! Speaking of which my last post, ‘Bird Party at the Pagoda (Dogwood)’, was highly relevant to this. If you missed it please take a look here: https://gerald-lisi.squarespace.com/blog/2025/11/2/bird-party-at-the-pagoda-dogwood?p

Wild Niche is live in Vermont!

Bird Party at the Pagoda (Dogwood)