We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mike Meldon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mike below.

Mike, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Doug Gilbert and myself, Mike Meldon met via a phone call. Doug is a wildlife ecologist and had recently moved to my town, Loveland, Ohio. He was interested in meeting up with like-minded people that were concerned about environmental issues and the local ecology. After searching the internet, he stumbled across a YouTube video of me speaking to our city council about ‘building green’ and making our town a green example to the communities around us.

We spoke briefly on phone and I mentioned to him that I was a now member of Loveland’s Tree and Environment Committee and that we could especially use his expertise and drive. He applied and was accepted onto the committee during the next set of appointments.

It wasn’t long on the committee that we learned that we worked really well together. He had the technical knowledge on nature and ecology- while I had the management, organizational, and marketing skills to drive our committees initiatives with the help of other committee members.

We worked on several meaningful projects for our city- with a special focus on restoring the biodiversity loss that most greenspaces are experiencing. We determined that the best way to move forward and bring back life to our natural environments was to remove the nonnative invasive species that plagues our parks and forests and replace them with native species to heal the areas.

We formed a strategy and the city was very supportive with our efforts to fight the biodiversity crisis. We realized however. that we would only be healing a small portion of the land in our town if our focus was only through the city committee on public lands. We needed to focus on private property in order to make a real impact since most of the land in our region is owned by private landowners or private businesses.

This was also around the time that I asked Doug to take my kids and I on a nature walk. I’m a school teacher and I have the perk of spending my summers with my kids as we look for different adventures to fill our days. Doug was happy to oblige and that walk changed everything. Doug’s explanations of the life all around us and of the threat posed by nonnatives was so well done an informational that I realized that this is what private citizens need to hear- they need to walk with Doug!

Doug had come into town thinking along the same lines- it just took me some time to catch up. We decided that we would create an educational based environmental nonprofit with the focus of ‘reconnecting people and nature’ and the intent of them eventually wanting to make beneficial changes in their own yards through the removal of nonnative species and the planting of natives.

Love Our Land was formed in 2020. It was a slow start due to the pandemic, but once we got our official nonprofit status in February of 2022, we were off and running. We adjusted our approach sever times since we started, but the mission has always pretty much remained the same- “We seek to reconnect people and nature and in doing so, empower citizens with the skills and knowledge necessary to address the biodiversity crisis in their own neighborhoods and yards.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Love our Land’s goal of reaching people is done in many different ways. First and foremost, we engage the public through nature walks and events. Our nature walks have included wildflower walks, bird walks, winter tree identification, mushroom hikes, and much more. Our family friendly events have included owl prowls, full moon hikes, and firefly outings. In our first year, we help over 25 of these walks and events- all FREE.

We realized soon enough that in order to be able to bring all of this to the public we would have to start to charge a minimal fee- and we found out quickly that most people are more than happy to pay it to attend. We also offer Love Our Land memberships where members get into all of these free.

We also offer are a native seed and nature book Library that is located in downtown loveland. People can leave or take seeds that are native to the area. They can also leave or take a book that is nature based. This library is right along a popular bike trail and gets a lot of attention.

Since education is our primary mission, we offer at least on in-person class a month and we have created a online school also where we will add classes as we progress through the year. Classes we have offered include: Mushrooms 101, Winter Tree ID, ‘How to Love Your Land: Biodiversity 101’, and ‘How to create a Biodiversity Island in your yard’.

We are also starting a community garden this summer and also a native plant nursery. Members also receive a free 15 minute consultation on their own yard. Needless to say- we are doing all we can to spread the word and make a difference.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

One of our first focuses as a nonprofit was volunteer activities. We were all about getting out into nature and doing the physical work with fellow citizens. We realized quickly that this focus took away from the educational aspect of the nonprofit. It also had other issues such as liability questions and people getting worn out after doing vigorous work week after week. We shifted back to our primary goal- letting people understand the crisis and working their own lands and property as they see fit. We still do volunteer days- just that is not our primary focus any longer.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Doug and I started this with practically nothing. We both work other full-time jobs and have families- to put much of our own money toward this would have been detrimental to our families (and our wives would not have it!). So we put forth a very small amount to get the ball rolling and immediately went out into the community for help. We are so lucky that we live in a town that is community focused. The businesses and people want to help each other out- Loveland truly is a special place. But, as a new organization, without people knowing who you are or understanding what you do…it was slow moving for the first year as an official nonprofit. Here we are in our second year and things are definitely better- but still not where we need to be if we want to keep this going for years to come. We are optimistic though. Our community is starting to get to know us and see all of the work that we are doing for it- I believe that everything is going to work out and our overall community support will continue to grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.loveourland.org
• Instagram: @_loveourland_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LoveOurLandOhio/