… restoring biodiversity, one yard at a time
with Renowned entomologist Dr. Doug Tallamy of the University of Delaware
About this Event
"In the past, we have asked one thing of our gardens: that they be pretty. Now they have to support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators and manage water.”
— Doug Tallamy
Native plants are a powerful tool to help fight pollution, floods, record-breaking heat waves, sea-level rise, and mass extinction of species. Native plants have evolved to sustain the diversity of animals we need to maintain our ecosystems. Only native plants can support the insects that provide an essential food source for the hundreds of species of birds, bats, lizards, bears, foxes and other creatures that depend on them. These insect and animal species and native plants are interdependent and they are critical to our survival.
By saving wildlife with native plants, we also battle climate change. Our native grasses have deep roots that make them drought resistant, reduce soil erosion and flooding, filter pollutants from ground water and increase rainwater infiltration. These plants remove tons of carbon from the atmosphere and pump it into the soil, out of harm’s way. Nothing sequesters carbon and manages watersheds as well as native forests. Naturally dense native plant communities can also buffer severe storms. Roots and shoots absorb energy from wind and water, lessening storm strength and damage.
Join us to learn more about how you can help restore biodiversity and ecosystem functioning by planting native plants. For more information on Dr. Tallamy’s work, visit Homegrown National Park.
PLEASE REGISTER SOON AS WE EXPECT THIS EVENT TO BE OVERSUBSCRIBED.
Bio -- Doug Tallamy is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored eighty research articles and has taught Insect Taxonomy, Behavioral Ecology, Humans and Nature, and other courses for thirty-two years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities.
His book, Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard, was published by Timber Press in 2007 and was awarded the 2008 silver medal by the Garden Writer’s Association. Tallamy was awarded the Garden Club of America Margaret Douglas Medal for Conservation and the Tom Dodd Jr. Award of Excellence in 2013."
. . . it is tempting to garden only for beauty, without regard to the many ecological roles our landscapes must perform. All too often, such narrow gardening goals result in a landscape so low in ecological function that it drains the vitality from the surrounding ecosystem.”
― Douglas W. Tallamy, Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard