Native Plant Festival

Keynote Speaker @ 1:30 pm:

Doug Tallamy will speak on his book “Nature’s Best Hope”:  

“Recent headlines about global insect declines and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at sustaining the plants and animals that sustain us. To create landscapes that enhance local ecosystems rather than degrade them, we must add the native plant communities that sustain food webs, sequester carbon, maintain diverse native bee communities, and manage our watersheds. If we do this in half of the area now in lawn, we can create Homegrown National Park, a 20-million-acre network of viable habitats that will provide vital corridors connecting the few natural areas that remain. This approach to conservation empowers everyone to play a significant role in the future of the natural world. “ – Doug Tallamy

Doug Tallamy’s speech is sponsored by the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program through a grant from NOAA.

Speaker @ 11:00 am

Shereen Hughes of Wetland Watch and Chesapeake Conservation Landscaping Council

“Stormwater Management, Protecting the Chesapeake Bay”

Speaker @ 12:00 pm

Bill Shanabruch of Reedy Creek Environmental

“Invasives”