Native Landscaping in a Changing World
Saturday, November 16, 2024
8:15am – 8:45am – Registration, Coffee and Exhibitor Tables
8:45am – 9:00am – Welcome and Introduction
9:00am – 10:15am – Dr. Trent Ford; Landscape Management Challenges and Nature-Based Solutions in a Changing Climate. Climate change – present and future – creates significant environmental , economic and social challenges. Landscape management and nature-based solutions offer opportunities to both mitigate climate change and build climate resilience. In this presentation we’ll discuss the challenges imposed by climate change and the strategies for ensuring healthy and productive economies and ecosystems now and into the future.
10:15am – 10:45am – Complementary food, Book Sales and Exhibitor Tables
10:45am – 11:45am – Dr. Murphy Westwood; How Healthy Urban Forests Can Support Threatened Trees and Mitigate Climate Change. Urban areas can often feel disconnected and out of harmony with undisturbed forests in remote wilderness locations. But the trees growing in these two disparate settings are more connected than they may seem. Urban forests contribute significant benefits to support human health and biodiversity, and actions taken in our communities can improve the state of the nation’s trees and forest and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Understanding the current state of tree diversity within the United States is imperative to protecting those species, their habitats and the countless communities they support, as well as the ecosystem services they provide in natural areas and the built environment. Through a collaborative cross-sector partnership including botanical gardens, NGOs and government agencies, we created an updated checklist of native U.S. tree species and completed over 700 new or updated Union for Conservation of Nature Red List assessments and NatureServe Global Ranks to generate the first comprehensive assessment of the risk of extinction of 881 tree species native to the contiguous United States. The most serious threats facing trees today are relevant to both urban and wild settings: invasive pests and diseases, climate change and severe weather and loss of natural habitat. Fortunately, there are actions we can take to enhance our urban forests that have a positive impact on trees and ecosystems across the country and can contribute to safeguarding the 11-16% of U.S. tree species that are threatened with extinction.
11:45am-12:00pm – Short Break
12:00pm – 1:00pm – Eileen Davis, Environmental Educator; Landscaping for a Changing Climate. When faced with the realities of a changing climate it’s easy to become discouraged, feeling that you don’t have the power to make a difference. We have learned what we plant and how we plant it can make a huge difference. Discover nature-based solutions for the home gardener that lessen the impacts of our changing climate. We’ll discuss how native plants sequester carbon, how rain gardens and rain barrels can help lessen the impact of stormwater runoff and how the way we maintain our landscapes can build healthy soils that hold more carbon and support wildlife.