About

About The Sparrow Underground

My name is Allison Houghton, and I've spent the last few years immersing myself in the incredible work of people around the world who are working to regenerate earth's landscapes around the globe. I've worked as a farmer, a writer, a teacher, an engineer, a mother, an ecologist, and as a bug and plant enthusiast. I've been inspired, captivated and moved to tears by the many people around the globe who are making deserts bloom again, coaxing rivers back to life, bringing back ancient forests, and seeing fish and birds species (some of which were nearly extinct!) return. I informally started to refer to the people doing this work as "Sparrows" for the birds you might hardly notice in a landscape, but are everywhere. Some of them are single individuals. Some are working together as entire communities or "flock."

And Sparrows are everywhere. Once you know what to look for, you start seeing signs of them everywhere all around us. They are likely in your neighborhood or next door to where you live. They might be the kids that pick up trash in the neighborhood each week. Or it could be the person sitting next to you on a bus who mobilized a massive community-based clean-up that lead to sea turtles returning for the first time in 20 years to a beach in Mumbai. Or the woman next door who you hadn't realized was the one who single-handedly is responsible for planting every mature tree you see on the block where you live. Or the man (and the family that supported him) who seeded an entire forest one tree at a time on a barren sandbank along the Brahmaputra River in India. The entire community of men and women who reforested the Loess Plateau in China. They are everywhere. 

Yet I don't often hear their stories in the news or being talked about on the street. 

So, I think it's time. 

I think it's time to realize we aren't alone, but one of many. To realize the unbelievable amount of work being done quietly yet persistently all around us. An entire flock. In every ecosystem. In every part of the globe. And there is so much good work that must still be done. 

Sparrows are inspiring. They sing their hearts out to a rising sun. They have fun. They are passionate. They work in all types of landscapes around the world, and I want to invite you to join in. Find your role. Find community. Become a Sparrow right where you are. 

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