The leader of a local movement that promotes cultivation of native greenery has volunteered to replant rain gardens in two Logan Township parks — an offer that found favor with the township supervisors.

Jordan “Sesame Wild” Replogle, president of the Pennsylvania Ridge and Valley Chapter of the national Wild Ones organization, wants to do the plantings at Greenwood Park and in Leopold Park, which is near his home — potentially with help from state grants, he told the supervisors.

Both rain gardens were originally stocked with appropriate vegetation by the contractors that constructed them, but need maintenance, according to township Planning Director Cassandra Schmick.

Restocking the rain gardens with native plants is in keeping with the primary ethic of the Wild Ones organization and is a corrective to the nationwide planting, in recent times, of non-native species, which “native insects do not recognize and cannot utilize, disrupting the balance in our ecosystems that has been harmonizing for thousands of years,” states a flyer for Ecotopian Earthcare, a business founded by Replogle that specializes in creating “edible, medicinal and ecological landscapes.”

The collapse of insect populations is illustrated by the absence of bug splatter on auto windshields in modern times, in comparison to the plentitude of insect corpses on summer windshields a few generations ago, according to Replogle.

Insects supported by native plants provide food for birds, while the plants themselves provide food for birds directly with their seeds, nectar, berries and nuts — while also providing nectar for pollination and avian shelter, according to the Audubon Society.

Native plants are evolutionarily adapted to thrive in local soils and weather; have deep roots that capture stormwater and reduce erosion; and don’t need to be fertilized or watered once established, according to the Wild Ones flyer.

Native plants are a key component of a healthy ecosystem, according to the Society.

Replogle’s company creates not only rain gardens, but also pollinator gardens and living willow fences, while designing food forests and converting sterile modern lawns to meadows through a state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant program.

Replogle would like to help develop parks in the area, including a space behind Logan Valley Mall; is working with a local school district on a native plant garden; hopes to establish agro ecology and agro forestry in a local vo-tech; hopes to plant more food forests like one his group created on Browning Avenue in Llyswen on ground cleared by the city years ago in a flood hazard mitigation project; and intends to support greenway trails in the region, he told the supervisors.

“I’m all for it,” supervisors Chairman Jim Patterson said. “Hats off to you.”

“That guy is a blessing for this area,” said Supervisor Joe Metzgar after the meeting.

“If I can pursue my passion in my hometown, it would make me happy,” said Replogle, an Altoona Area High School graduate.

For his group’s proposed work on the rain gardens, Replogle will need to extend his own business liability insurance to cover the township, such that the township’s insurance wouldn’t be liable if an injury occurs.