BUILDING A LAND ETHIC WITH NATIVE LANDSCAPING

The Lake to Prairie Wild Ones presents the 2015 Native Landscaping Conference on November 14, 2015. Bringing educators together at this conference will provide a wealth of information for people new to the native plant idea and the practiced native gardener.

We know a co-dependent relationship exists between the plant and the animal world – one cannot live without the other. The circle of life is only possible when our ecosystem is healthy. A tree will not bear fruit without the help from pollinators, a butterfly will not take flight without host plants for larvae and a nesting songbird will not have food for her young without an abundance of nearby larvae and insects dependent on specific native plants.

Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Wilderness Act of 1964 into law saying “If future generations are to remember us with gratitude, rather than contempt, we must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.

Plants are the earth’s lifeblood. Through native landscaping, we can build a healthier environment and support the web of life in our own backyards to help restore habitat for the next generation.

Aldo Leopold wrote in his book A Sand County Almanac, “The Land Ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants and animals, or collectively: the land”

BUILDING A LAND ETHIC WITH NATIVE LANDSCAPING

Saturday, November 14th 2015 - College of Lake County - Building C

8:00 am – Doors Open, Registration, Coffee, Exhibitor Showroom, Book Store, Raffle

8:45 am – Welcome

9:00 am – 10:15 am - Keynote Speaker: Steve Swenson – Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic: The Product of Perspective

10:30 am – 11:45 pm – Speaker: Benjamin Vogt – The Ethics of 21st Century Gardening

11:45 am – 12:45pm – Buffet Lunch, Exhibitor Showroom, Book Store and Raffle

12:45 pm– 2:00 pm – Speaker: Heather Holm – Attracting Bees & Beneficial Insects with Native Plants

2:00 pm – 2:15 pm – Jean Foley – Native Pollinator Monitoring at Somme Prairie Nature Preserve

2:15 pm– 2:30 pm – Dessert Tray, Exhibitor Showroom, Organic Farmer’s Market, Raffle Drawing at 2:25 pm

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm– Concurrent education sessions, you may choose one:

Ken Klick – Key Invasives to Know and Control

Corrine Daniels – Lessons Learned – Get the Biggest Eco-Bang for Your Buck

Ticket Price Wild One Members $35.00 Non Members $40.00 Both Include Lunch

Students with I.D. Receive Discounted Ticket Price of $20.00

Tickets Available Online 9/5/15 at: www.laketoprairie.wildones.org

Presentations

Keynote Speaker: Steve Swenson - Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic: The Product of Perspective. Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac is one of the most celebrated books on conservation. This masterpiece beautifully captures the richness and complexity of nature, but most importantly, our relationship to it - the land ethic. In the forward Leopold wrote, “When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect” Powerfully, the essay “Thinking Like a Mountain” humbly bares how Leopold’s own land ethic evolved with perspective. Today, the Aldo Leopold Foundation, established by Aldo and Estella’s five children, fosters the land ethic through the legacy of Aldo Leopold. Steve will share Aldo Leopold’s life story, writings and the foundation’s initiatives designed to broaden perspectives and grow the land ethic.

Speaker: Benjamin Vogt - The Ethics of 21st Century Gardening In a time of climate change, habitat loss and extinction, how we landscape public and private gardens reflects our cultural and personal values. Will we leave a legacy of resilient biodiversity to future generations, helping as many plant and animal species adapt as possible, or will we continue to privilege our immediate desires in the natural world, choosing exotic plants that are pretty to us but have no evolutionary history with local wildlife. Gardening selflessly for all life is the first step toward being empowered and an agent of positive change. As we deal both psychologically and physically with shifting climates and vanishing species, gardening with native plants will help us work through the five stages of environmental grief that make us feel overwhelmed, angry, saddened, but then ultimately liberated to care for our homes in profoundly deep ways. We can have gardens that are both gorgeous to us and to wildlife above and below the soil line - all it takes is a little bit of knowledge, humility and passion, to rethink pretty.

Speaker: Heather Holm - Attracting Bees and Beneficial Insects with Native Plants Most insects have a positive impact in our landscapes. Native plants can be selected to attract specific bees and beneficial insects including predatory and parasitic wasps, beetles, flies, true bugs and lacewings. Learn about the predator-prey relationships of these flower-visiting beneficial insects and how they help keep problem insect populations in balance. The life cycles, diversity and nesting habitat of native bees will also be covered along with examples of native plants for different site conditions.

Speaker: Jean Foley - Native Pollinator Monitoring at Somme Prairie Nature Preserve Jean will share her practicum research from the 2015 growing season tracking native bee species and which plants they are pollinating. She will share which native plants observed were attracting diverse pollinators, and how we can incorporate these critical insect habitat-providers into our own native plantings.

Ken Klick - Key Invasives to Know and Control - This session will review both the control strategies for key invasive weeds we are battling, and explore the new, “emerging” weeds that are up and coming concerns. Ken will share information about the Midwest Invasive Plant Network (MIPN) and the New Invaders Watch Program, as well as discuss the strategies being used locally by the District in their land management efforts. No matter whether a homeowner is battling buckthorn or a volunteer steward seeking to know more as a citizen scientist, this session will share both practical invasive control methods and information about emerging threats to target-before they become bigger weed problems.

Corrine Daniels – Lessons Learned – Get the Biggest Eco-Bang For Your Buck - This session is a discussion of lessons learned over 20 years of using natives in the restoration and landscape setting. Topics include what to pay for and what not to pay for, selecting the best seed and plant material for your dollar, considerations in the face of climate change and ensuring Neonicotinoids-free plants.

About Our Speakers

Steve Swenson has spent his career advancing the relationship between people and land. As an ecologist for the Aldo Leopold Foundation, he directs the Science and Stewardship Program at the Leopold Family shack and Farm, a National Historic Landmark. This work serves as the basis for partnership and communication with private landowners and resource professionals throughout the Midwest. On a regional level, Steve authored a series of landowner handbooks reaching over 30,000 landowners owning 6 million acres of land. These richly illustrated handbooks help further the reader’s journey in their relationship to land providing both perspective and practical information. Locally, Steve coordinates the Leopold-Pine Island Important Bird Area partnership, comprised of Federal, State and private lands. This 15,000 acre partnership offers a great example of science, communication and relationships delivering tangible conservation success.

Benjamin Vogt lives in Lincoln, Nebraska where he owns Monarch Gardens, a prairie garden consulting and design firm. For over three years he’s written a weekly column at Houzz.com, which focuses on native plants and sustainable, ecological garden design and practices. You can find his plant recommendations in Lawn Gone: Low Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard, as well as an in-depth interview in Pollinator Friendly Gardening: Gardening for Bees, Butterflies and Other Pollinators. His photography is on permanent display at a prairie refuge and the University of Nebraska and has appeared in Orion Magazine as well as Butterfly Gardening The Xerces Society Guide to Creating a Beautiful Landscape that Helps Butterflies. In addition, his essays and memoir excerpts are included in the anthologies Prairie Gold and The Tallgrass Prairie Reader. Benjamin’s personal garden has been profiled online at Garden Design, Fine Gardening and Apartment Therapy, he and his wife dream of restoring an acreage to prairie starting a boutique nursery, and hosting an artist residency program.

Heather Holm, author of Pollinators of Native Plants, is a landscape designer and consultant specializing in pollinator landscapes and native landscape restorations. For the past 20 years she has worked as a horticulturist and landscape designer in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions. She is a passionate advocate for the use of native plants to attract and support pollinators, beneficial insects and wildlife in residential and commercial landscapes, organic farms and restored landscapes. Heather is currently working with Karl Ford, University of Minnesota Extension, on a three-year study to determine the type of native bees that are present in cultivated blueberry farms in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and develop strategies to enhance existing/provide additional nesting sites within the farms. The study also includes developing customized forage plantings for the native bees identified.

Ken Klick has been a professional botanist and restoration ecologist in the Chicago region for over 35 years. He served as a field ecologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the National Park Service at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, providing plant monitoring and management during the 1980s. He then worked as an environmental consultant for Planning Resources, fine tuning his skills in environmental impact assessments, wetland mitigation and regional planning. Since 1995, Ken worked as the senior restoration ecologist for the Lake County Forest Preserve District, supervising large scale woodland, wetland and prairie restoration projects throughout the District’s 26,000 acres of open space.

Corrine Daniels, of Applied Ecological Services, has more than 20 years of hands-on experience with native seed and plants in both her professional and personal life. She enjoys sharing her passion for natives with people of various ages and stages. Plant pollinator interactions are important consideration in her work. In addition to Corrine’s nursery responsibilities, she is also DNR certified Endangered Resources Reviewer, which helps customers and partners comply with Wisconsin’s endangered species laws and helps conserve the rare plants, animals and habitats found in Wisconsin.