This weekend the public is invited to view the Silver Plains Project — an initiative aimed at reverting land and lawns to native tallgrass Prairie species.

Robert G. Mears is a visual artist and a naturalist from Silver Plains who's been replanting his five-acre property with plant species like big blue stem, foxtail barley, and wheatgrass.

"We have about 85 per cent native (plant species)," he says, "we're still having troubles with a couple of exotics like Kentucky bluegrass and quack grass... The area in front of the house is roughly 80 feet by 90 feet, and it's almost exclusively native."

When he and his wife began the project about 10 years ago, Mears says they wanted to promote the idea of replanting to native plant species and why it's doable and good.

"There's a number of reasons that make it good," he says, "it provides habitat, particularly for pollinators, which are important, and it provides habitat for grassland birds, which are in decline."

Mears hopes visitors will be inspired to do the same thing. Visitors are invited to experience the Silver Plains Project form 10 - 6 on Saturday and Sunday. The yard is located at #7049 on Provincial Road 205, one kilometer west of Highway 75.

More information can be found at silverplains.ca.