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Pollinator Symposium – Session 5

March 9, 2022 @ 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Inviting Biodiversity into Our Gardens will educate and inspire homeowners, horticulturists, botanists, naturalists, landscape architects and designers, educators, conservationists and anyone eager to learn about creating pollinator and wildlife habitats using native plants and trees to promote biodiversity, species richness and ecological resilience.

The free webinar series will feature five sessions intended to guide you from start to finish in creating gardens that benefit pollinators and other wildlife. Join us and explore the importance of restoring our increasingly fragmented and disappearing native habitats beginning in our own backyards—whether small or large.

Book Recommendations
We’ve collaborated with local bookstore, Loganberry Books, to set up an easy-to-use, one-stop bookshop to find and purchase all the titles. This includes pre-ordering our Session 1 presenter Uli Lorimer’s The Northeast Native Plant Primer: 235 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden, which is scheduled to ship on May 10.

SHOP LOGANBERRY BOOKS 


Session 5: The Little Things That Run the World
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
1:00 – 4:00 pm ET
FREE

The final session of our symposium will dive into insect interactions in our gardens. We’ll explore predator-prey relationships, the integral role of caterpillars in our ecosystems and the fascinating natural history of fireflies.

1:00pm ET
Attracting Native Bees and Beneficial Insects with Native Plants
Heather Holm, Author

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 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 the examples of native plants for different site conditions.

2:00pm ET
Caterpillars, Connections and Why Biodiversity Matters
Sam Jaffe, Founder and Executive Director, The Caterpillar Lab
Sloan Tomlinson, Parasitoid Wasp Specialist and Educator, The Caterpillar Lab

Learn how the caterpillars’ connection to their habitats allow whole ecosystems to flourish, fuel complex food webs, and drive evolution of both the plants they eat and their predators. One of our main missions at The Caterpillar Lab is to focus on the biodiversity of moths and butterflies, and equally the animals that rely on them as a food source. To achieve this mission, we raise myriad native moth and butterfly species to help educate the public about the important role these insects play in nature. We hope that everyone we encounter leaves with a deeper understanding and appreciation of how vital these organisms are to our world.

3:00pm ET
The Dazzling World of Fireflies
Nancy Stranahan, Director, Arc of Appalachia Preserve System

Every year in June, a world-significant event unfolds in Ohio’s undisturbed fields and forests—the dazzling and illuminating spectacle of fireflies. When a landscape can provide fireflies with exactly what they need—moist soil, dark nights, and undisturbed vegetation—the result is truly one of the greatest shows on earth. This is nature at her best—fireworks!!!—performed without a single sound. Not every place in the world is graced with fireflies, but the Eastern United States is rich in numbers and species. Even so, these numbers are declining and we, as gardeners and nature enthusiasts, can do something about this decline right in our own backyards. Learn about the significance of fireflies worldwide, some of the most common species to look for in Ohio, how to cultivate and nourish them, and their fascinating history.

 

 


Speaker Biographies:

Heather Holm
Author and Biologist, Bee & Pollinator Books by Heather Holm

Heather Holm is a biologist, pollinator conservationist, and award-winning author. In addition to assisting with native bee research projects, she informs and educates audiences nationwide through her writing and many presentations, about the fascinating world of native pollinators and beneficial insects, and the native plant communities that support them. Heather’s expertise includes the interactions between native pollinator and native plants. She is a National Honorary Director of Wild Ones and serves on the boards of several non-profits. Currently she is working on three projects with volunteers, restoring approximately ten acres of city-owned park land in her neighborhood for pollinators and people.

 

Sam Jaffe
Founder & Executive Director, The Caterpillar Lab

Sam Jaffe is a New England based naturalist, photographer, and educator who has been working with native insects since a very early age. Sam grew up in Eastern Massachusetts chasing birds, mucking through ponds, and turning over leaves. For the past seven years, he has been photographing caterpillars and organizing programs to promote these special creatures to the public. In 2013, he founded The Caterpillar Lab in Keene, NH and now travels across the country working with museums, nature centers, schools, and individual teachers, helping native insects find their place in our everyday lives. When he is not behind the camera or tending his zoo of caterpillars, you can invariably find Sam waist deep in vegetation.

 

Sloan Tomlinson
Parasitoid Wasp Specialist and Educator, The Caterpillar Lab

Sloan Tomlinson is an artist, naturalist and “autodidactic entomologist” with his two intertwined lifelong passions being art and insects. Sloan brings creativity and an unusual obsession with wasps to the lab; he loves nothing more than going into great detail about parasitoid wasp life cycles.

 

 

 

Nancy Stranahan
Director, Arc of Appalachia Preserve System

Nancy Stranahan is the Director of the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System and was one of the non-profit’s founders back in 1995. Since that time, Nancy and others, cultivated a vigorous citizen advocacy network (tree-roots as well as grassroots) that has succeeded in founding two dozen preserve regions across Appalachia Ohio, stretching from Holmes County to the Ohio River. The Arc of Appalachia stewards 8,000 acres of natural areas, over 50 miles of hiking trails, the Appalachian Forest Museum, and 8 overnight lodges. A few of the signature wildlife species protected inside the Arc include Henslow’s Sparrow, Cerulean Warbler, golden star lily, native bats, Chuck-will’s-widow, synchronous firefly, spadefoot toad, and timber rattlesnake. The Arc has also been instrumental in saving Native Indian ancient monument sites, including Spruce Hill Glenford Fort, Steel Works, Junction Earthworks, and, most recently, Tremper Mound. The Arc’s headquarters is located at the 3,000-acre Highlands Nature Sanctuary, its largest preserve region. Earlier in her career, Nancy served as Chief Naturalist for Ohio State Parks and later operated Benevolence Café and Bakery in the downtown Columbus city market, promoting healthy and intentional food choices. Nancy LOVES teaching, learning, networking and SAVING LAND!!


 

 

Advanced registration is required, a link for the virtual program will be sent upon registration.

 

Details

Date:
March 9, 2022
Time:
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Organizer

Renee Boronka
Phone
216-533-8761
Email
rboronka@wrlandconservancy.org
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