Grow Native! Workshop set for March 10

Mar 6, 2017 8:41 AM

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Native by Design: Purposeful Landscapes for Monarchs and Pollinators for Your Yard or Land

Keynote speaker Dr. Chip Taylor—founder and director of Monarch Watch—and five local speakers to present. Deadline for registration is March 2, 2017—register now at www.grownative.org.

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EDWARDSVILLE - This native landscaping workshop at the N.O. Nelson Campus of Lewis and Clark Community College in Edwardsville, Illinois, will provide information to home gardeners; landowners; landscape, land care and wildlife professionals; and other related professionals about how to use native plants to sustain monarchs and pollinators, songbirds and other important wildlife.

The workshop will be held Friday, March 10, from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. A breakfast buffet will be provided, and exhibitors will display information as well. Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be available for landscape architects and Illinois Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists.

During this workshop, participants will learn:

Best natives to plant to help sustain monarch butterfly populations
How to enroll in Illinois Department of Natural Resources private lands programs to help create wildlife habitat
About native pollinator diversity and how to create backyard pollinator havens that also support songbirds
About a demonstration project in Granite City, Illinois to transform a vacant lot into a pollinator paradise

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Keynote speaker:
Dr. Orley R. “Chip” Taylor is founder and director of Monarch Watch and is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. Trained as an insect ecologist, Taylor has published papers on species assemblages, hybridization, reproductive biology, population dynamics, plant demographics, and pollination. Starting in 1974, Chip Taylor established research sites and directed students studying Neotropical African honey bees (killer bees) in French Guiana, Venezuela, and Mexico. In 1992, Taylor founded Monarch Watch, an outreach program based at the University of Kansas that is focused on education, research, and conservation relative to monarch butterflies.

Local presenters:

Phil Cox, Forester, Illinois Recreation Access Program, Palmyra, Illinois
Elisa Royce, Healthy Lands Healthy People, Godfrey, Illinois
Christopher Carl, Granite City Art and Design District
Mitch Leachman, Executive Director, St. Louis Audubon Society
Dr. Ed Spevak, Curator of Invertebrates, St. Louis Zoo

Cost of the workshop, including a breakfast buffet, is $35 per person and $20 per person for students with a valid student ID. To register, visit www.grownative.org > events on the homepage, or call (888) 843-6739 with questions.

Special presenting sponsors of the workshop are platinum sponsor Roeslein Alternative Energy and contributing sponsor SCI Engineering. This workshop is organized by the Grow Native! Southern Illinois Event Committee, which includes representatives from Lewis and Clark Community College, McKendree University, The i5 Group, Sierra Club, Wild Ones, National Great Rivers Research and Education Center, SCI Engineering, Madison County Planning and Development, Healthy Lands Healthy People and the University of Illinois Extension.

Grow Native! is a 17-year-old native plant marketing and education program serving the lower Midwest. Grow Native! is administratively housed by the nonprofit Missouri Prairie Foundation. For more information about this workshop, the Grow Native! program, or the Missouri Prairie Foundation, call (888) 843-6739 or send a message to grownative@moprairie.org.

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