Customer Spotlight: Nicholas Conde

An oncology program lead by profession and a land steward by vocation, PPN customer Nicholas Conde embodies curiosity and passion for native plants and biodiversity. Whether it’s stewarding forest preserves or creating award-winning micro prairies on a city sidewalk: Nick knows how to pull inspiration from vast landscapes and create biodiverse solutions for any project size.

Blossoming out of his lifelong love for plants, admiration of landscapes, and curiosity regarding native ecology Nick began volunteering with the Forest Preserves of Cook County’s  North Branch Restoration Project in 2020. Now, he stewards this portion of Miami Woods Forest Preserve under the mentorship and guidance of Kent Fuller (Miami Woods) and John & Jane Balaban (north branch project, multiple sites).  His favorite work days though, are the sessions he leads for  7th graders from Chicago City Day  School.

As the original site of the North Branch Restoration Project’s efforts, Miami Woods has been holding volunteer restoration days since the 1970’s. This preserve owes its current state of restored progress to the consistent effort of volunteers, and their passionate and knowledgeable leaders over the decades. The work days with the seventh graders from CCDS are also a longstanding relationship that Miami Woods maintains  thanks to CCDS  science teacher, Mac McFeely. The seventh graders come to Miami Woods twice during their school year. This past spring they removed garlic mustard and butterweed by hand, collected native seed, and participated in landscape reading. On this work day they are  seed collecting, processing, and dispersing into sections of the preserve that are overpopulated with Canadian Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) and areas along the north branch of the Chicago River that flows through the preserve. This stage of the restoration process  that the students are now contributing to was made possible by the years of buckthorn and honeysuckle removal that Kent and Jerry Fuller worked on with previous 7th grade classes from CCDS. 

These kids are engaged. Watching them collect and intently listen to Nick as he explains that we would be adding Canadian Wood Betony (Pedicularis canadensis) and Dodders (Cuscuta) as parasites to the seed mix we collected and cleaned, was beyond encouraging. They were focused and curious as Nick launched into an explanation of the field research that is being conducted on the effects of hemiparasitic ecology in Miami Woods. He plucks a  Canadian Wood Betony leaf and shares that when species like Canadian Wood Betony are present they tend to control the sections of prairie from being overrun by species like Canadian Goldenrod, which allows more biodiversity.       

As we walk back to process our seeds before dispersing them, we walk past an area of PPN grown  Eastern Wahoo (Eunonymus atropurpureus), Hazelnut (Corylus americana), Common Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor), enclosed in fence to protect from deer. 

Nick’s commitment to land stewardship does not stop with his affiliation with Miami Woods. With Nicholas Conde Designs, Nick takes his knowledge and experience from stewarding large forest preserves and creates stunning native landscapes that range from gardens, planters, and patches of city sidewalk in Chicago and Denver.  One of our favorite projects of his is the smallest: a small utility patch of earth, sandwiched between concrete on Lyndale Street, between Kedzie & Sacramento in Chicago. 

In 2021 with permission from the property owner, Nick preps the space with mulch, lays native seed, and installs a small rope fence. Fast forward to 2023, the micro-prairie wins the “Chicago Excellence in Gardening Award” after catching the judges eyes as they were on their way to judge one of Nick’s native landscapes across the street. 

Another Nicholas Conde Design project that showcases inviting biodiversity into small urban spaces is located at Necessary & Sufficient Coffee in Logan Square. Based on the knowledge he gathered while working on a small native raised garden project with Linne Elementary School, Nick thoughtfully selected perennial species from PPN, Prairie Coreopsis, Little Bluestem, Hairy Beardtounge to name a few, that in his experience have been able to endure the stress of living in planters. 

Nick’s latest journey in land stewarding is through the creation of a collective non-profit: New Habitat Collective. The collective’s general focus will be Nick’s specialty: bringing more native ecology and prairies into urban spaces. They are still in their early stages so be sure to give Nick a follow @nicholascondedesign to not only feast your eyes on his beautiful and biodiverse projects, but to stay updated on the innovative ways New Habitat Collective aims to serve its communities! 

If you are looking to get involved in volunteer work days with the Forest Preserves of Cook County be sure to check out their website!