Woolly Bear Natives grew from our love of the insect, bird, reptile, and many other forms of wildlife that planting native brought to our garden and back into our lives. We grew to appreciate our local ecology and our place in it, and touched our connection to nature and the broader world through learning about native plants and their ecological importance. Part of the joy of native gardening for us and, we think, many others is it's rootlessness in organic belonging and nature. These are quintessential and fundamentally human connections to the world and the earth in which we live as neighbors and stewards of nature. We feel then that the use of generative artificial intelligence is antithetical to native plants, local ecology, and the joy of native gardening: 

• No images on this site are generated by A.I. All images on this site are genuine photographs of real plant specimens. They are either our own taken from our nursery or in the field, or are sourced from other photographers observations in the wild. The latter are credited where necessary or appropriate. Our logo was designed by a local Richmond artist.
• No text on this site is generated by A.I.. Published plant and growing information are informed by our personal experience growing these plants, are from authoritative sources, or in the case of some germination information from standard or accepted conventions. 
• We do not use A.I. to inform any plant species recommendations for the landscapers we work with nor for gardeners seeking advice. Any information we provide about the plants we sell is based on our own technical knowledge of them which we have developed over years of growing them in our own gardens and in the nursery.

Generative artificial intelligence MAY be sparingly used on this site: 

• To develop customized functionalities and website behavior through HTML or CSS. These scripts control things like contextual fulfillment options or what information is displayed between plants, seeds, and other materials. WBN does not and never will sell or collect personal information about visitors to this site. 
• Other technical, "back-end" development projects that would simply be beyond our experience or ability otherwise.