Spring Challenge 2024
April 10th – June 30th
Introduction
Since its foundation in 2008, TSN Spring Challenge has always been a call to do more together. Each year, we challenge our stewards and our communities to spend a little longer caring for their local lands and waters, knowing from experience that action inspires action. Our role is to collect, calculate, and celebrate all this combined impact, inspiring our wide-reaching audience with the power of stewardship at scale and hopefully making field season as fun as possible along the way. Qualifying categories of stewardship activities include:
Planting, Cleanup, Pulling, Monitoring, Burning, Education / Advocacy, and Other
2024 Program Results
With enthusiasm and passion, you made TSN Spring Challenge 2024 the best season this flagship program has seen in ages. The reporting was early and consistent, the images and stories you shared were top notch, and the work you all did in the field was truly awesome to behold. Even if the final numbers had come in less than spectacular, we’d still have been delighted.
But of course, the numbers ARE spectacular! Over 58,000 hours of stewardship (+16% from 2023) from over 13,000 participants equaling darn near $2 million of work-hour value poured into local ecosystems?! We challenged you to “do more together” and friends, you delivered.
An investment
in the future
In celebration of this year’s impactful program, a TSN donor generously offered to match up to $10,000 of new donations received before the end of July, 2024. Thanks to you, we raised $11,225! Your support helps to make sure TSN Spring Challenge continues in 2025 and beyond, so if you donated then or choose to donate now, please know that you have our sincere and unending gratitude.
#TSNspring Honors
Whether you report one hour or ten thousand hours, we’re all on the same team and none of us can win alone when it comes to stewardship. That said, we’re always excited to make a big deal about the groups that take our “do more” challenge to heart and end up “doing the most.” In case you are looking for a little peer inspiration, here are your reporting standouts from TSN Spring Challenge 2024:
The Community Cup WINNER
Huron Arbor Cluster
The Root Cup WINNER
Huron Arbor Cluster
The Partner Cup WINNER
Milwaukee Riverkeeper
The Teacher Cup WINNER
ECO Center, LLC
The Inspiration Cup WINNER
Lake St. Clair CISMA
NEW | A special award for a group that reported prolifically and shared so many wonderful images!
The Solo Cup WINNER
Sheelah D. of Dundas, Ontario
Awarded to the unaffiliated individual or family reporting the most total stewardship hours
“My passion for rectifying my baby boom generation’s carbon footprint is evident in my yard that now, after 8 years, is all genetically local native species with some 600+ plants, shrubs and trees, similar to what this land was like pre-settlement.”
Measuring Across Categories
The single unit of stewardship effort for TSN Spring Challenge, whatever the category, is stewardship hours. If you spend 8 hours caring for your garden, removing trash from a local park, or volunteering for a TSN Member Community, that’s 8 hours into the program. If you and three friends do the same work in one quarter of the time, that’s (4 people x 2 hours =) 8 total hours also. Easy, right? But here’s the catch: we can only celebrate you if we know what you did and we only know what you did if you report it!
Who Can Participate?
This program warmly welcomes all caretakers of nature in all geographies and ecosystems. Whether you’re doing a little or a lot, we’re excited to have you here. Volunteers are a huge part of this effort each year, but professional stewards, you’re invited too! As long as the time you’re reporting is spent doing a qualifying activity, it absolutely counts.
Then and Now
What was once the Garlic Mustard Challenge and then the Spring Invasive Species Challenge bloomed anew as the TSN Spring Challenge in 2022, adding more ways to help so everyone can get outside and get involved during this vital season. While the program has grown in scope to include activities beyond its invasive species tradition, groups focused on that form of stewardship remain warmly welcomed and strongly encouraged to participate. What certainly hasn’t changed is the importance of this program, which since its first iteration in 2008 has celebrated over 405,000 hours from more than 52,000 people to create nearly $12 million in workhour value while removing over 2.4 million pounds of invasive plant species from local ecosystems.
In many ways, the spirit of TSN Spring Challenge is the spirit that formed The Stewardship Network itself. There is power in realizing that you are not alone in this work and there is power in showing the world just how much we can accomplish when we join forces. Some participants tell us that this effort helps with their own data management and some leverage the big group number to boost their own outreach efforts. Some have told us they’ve seen great benefits from being featured on TSN’s wide-reaching social channels and some say it just feels good to be part of it all. Whatever sparks your action, we love it and we thank you for your support!
Image courtesy of Milwaukee Riverkeeper (TSN Spring Challenge 2023)
Boosts are Back!
We know how tempting it is to delay reporting and how much more inspirational it is for your peers if you don’t. To that end, TSN Spring Challenge Boosts are back after a successful debut in 2023 to make timely reporting an extremely compelling choice! Each Tuesday during this program, our staff will draw a random name from amongst all the people who submitted a report by 11:59pm Monday night. If the name drawn is an independent steward with no stated organizational affiliation, that person gets to choose any of the remaining tokens of appreciation we’ve procured for this effort. If the name drawn has claimed any group affiliation, they get their pick and the organization does, too!
To clarify, any number of reports in a single week still equals one name in our drawing and the number of hours per report does not impact your chances, so while it pays to report early and often, you can feel very free to combine each week’s reports into one entry at your discretion.
Boosts from TSN and Donors
Rolling over to 2025
$50 gift card courtesy of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses (1 still available)!
Epson EX7325 Projector with Gator carrying case (lightly used – 3 still available)!
Boot & Shoe Brushes from NAISMA!
Framed, historic photo of Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, or Detroit (3 available)!
Free shipping on your next TSN Gloves for Good request!
Paperback physical edition of “Water for Any Farm”, donated by the author, Mark Shepard!
Great coffee table book!
“Beauty and the Beast: California Wildflowers and Climate Change” by Rob Badger & Nita Winter
Boosts Claimed in 2024
The perks of reporting early and often!
$50 gift card courtesy of Cabela’s!
Outdoor Camp Blanket courtesy of REI Co-op!
$50 gift card courtesy of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses (1 claimed)!
Epson EX7325 Projector with Gator carrying case (lightly used – 2 claimed)!
Flash 18 Print Pack courtesy of REI Co-op!
2024 Park Pass and goodie bag courtesy of Huron-Clinton Metroparks!
Outsunny 10′ x 10′ pop up canopy!
Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations
(Complete 5-volume book set)!
Spread the Word
Of course, the more people who join us in this effort, the more powerful it becomes. If you’d like to support us by inviting more of nature’s caretakers into the fold, we’d certainly appreciate it! Digitally, you can share this webpage, tag your social posts with #TSNspring, or follow along with our TSN Facebook page for updates and engage away! Due to popular demand, we’ve also prepared flyers that you’re very welcome to print out and post wherever makes sense in your community.
