Author Doug Tallamy To Speak on Creating Living Landscapes June 30
Americans’ long love affair with lawns and exotic landscape plants has created massive unintended consequences—including decimating native flora and fauna and damaging the ecosystems that sustain us all. But we have a powerful—and urgent—opportunity to change that, says renowned author and scientist Doug Tallamy, who will speak about “Creating Living Landscapes” on Thursday, June 30, at 7:00 p.m. at Emlen Hall.
In short, restoring biodiversity begins at home.
Tallamy is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, and the author of Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants. He will discuss how to save local biodiversity by increasing the use of productive native plants in our neighborhoods, private properties, and business landscapes. Tallamy also will dispel misconceptions that native plants are unattractive and pest-ridden and suggest ways to make yards and gardens showpieces without losing their ecological function in the local ecosystem.
Native plants are essential to sustaining biodiversity not just for their own sake, but because they host a vast array and supply of native insects—crucial food for birds and other wildlife. Tallamy notes that about 96 percent of land birds depend on insects and spiders to feed their young.
The author of more than 80 research papers and recipient of awards including the Garden Club of America Margaret Douglas Medal for Conservation and the Tom Dodd, Jr. Award of Excellence,
Tallamy aims to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities.
Choosing native plants that provide habitat and food for birds and pollinators are among the topics Tallamy discusses in Bringing Nature Home, which is an eloquent call to action and an inspiring and practical guide. The book was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers’ Association.
“We can each make a measurable difference almost immediately by planting a native nearby,” Tallamy writes. “As gardeners and stewards of our land, we have never been so empowered—and the ecological stakes have never been so high.”
Five local organizations are sponsoring Tallamy’s talk: Blue Hill Heritage Trust, Downeast Audubon, Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust, Island Heritage Trust, and Wild Seed Project.
Copies of Bringing Nature Home will be available for sale.
Suggested donation: $10 at the door.
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