Native Plant Trust

Anyone who deals with stormwater will want to take our upcoming Zoom class, Our Future with Water: Managing Stormwater for Professionals. Instructor Trevor Smith shares his nearly two decades of practical experience working with and installing stormwater management systems as he reacquaints you with simple methods to capture and reuse stormwater and slow stormwater runoff. Smith will discuss rain harvesting, permeable pavements, green roofs, bioswales and rain gardens, and tree planting. (CEU MCLP: 1) Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eC8msDXM Photo: Stormwater stream with gabion baskets, Bob Nichols, courtesy USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service #nativeplanttrust #landscapeprofessionals #stormwaterclass @bsla @aslaprofessionalpracticenetworks #stormwaterzoomclass #CEUstormwater

Please join us on Saturday, November 16 (3:30 PM-5:00 PM) at the Boston Public Library to honor the work of Dr. John Daigle for his efforts to protect brown ash (Fraxinus nigra) from the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect. Dr. Daigle—a tribal member of the Penobscot Indian Nation and professor of Forest Recreation Management and a program leader for the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism program at the University of Maine—will accept Native Plant Trust’s 2024 Regional Impact Award and deliver a talk about his work. In Wabanaki culture, brown (aka black) ash appears in the creation story and provides an important basket-making material. Dr. Daigle and his research team collaborate with Wabanaki tribal partners, the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, Brown Ash Task Force, private landowners, and others to manage and protect brown ash from destruction by the emerald ash borer. This project exemplifies Daigle's ongoing efforts to facilitate conversations among individuals who bring unique ways of knowing to a common ecological question. This event is free and open to the pubic, but please register so we can track attendance: https://lnkd.in/ezZ74iTV Photos: Brown ash (Fraxinus nigra) fruits, © Donna Kausen; Dr. John Daigle, courtesy John Daigle

This week, as leaders from around the globe gather for COP16—the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity—we keep plant biodiversity at the forefront of our work. We continue to refine our priorities and actions to protect plants, using tools like the interactive climate map of our Conserving Plant Diversity in New England report to home in on areas most vulnerable to rapid climatic change. Meanwhile, Native Plant Trust has been invited to participate in Biodiversity for the Commonwealth by the Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game as part of Governor Healy’s Executive Order No. 618. The order directs the department to develop nation-leading biodiversity conservation goals for the decades ahead. It is heartening to see Massachusetts incorporate approaches to conserving biodiversity from across the environmental sector. Our work throughout New England plant monitoring, seed banking, and restoring habitat addresses these same challenges.—Director of Conservation Michael Piantedosi Photo: Senior Research Botanist Arthur Haines leads a field trip with Native Plant Trust Plant Conservation Volunteers, who assist professional botanist in monitoring rare plant populations throughout New England. © Native Plant Trust #nativeplanttrust #newengland #nativeplants #newenglandnativeplants #COP16 #biodiversity #plantdiversity #conserveplants #conservebiodiversity

Members of the heath family, aka Ericaceae, are some of the most fascinating and diverse flowering plants in our region. In our online class, The Ericaceae of New England: Diversity, Ecology, and Phylogeny, you will meet the broad assortment of species in New England—a subset of the more than 4,100 found across the globe. You'll learn some of the traits and relationships that contribute to the ecological success of the Ericaceae, as well as the phylogenetic evolutionary relationship among some of the species in this group. On Thursday, November 14, 6-7 PM, via Zoom. Hold your place here: https://lnkd.in/ehqz5cC7 Photo: Ericaceae family member highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) fall foliage, Pennie Logemann © Native Plant Trust #nativeplanttrust #nativeplants #newengland #newenglandnativeplants #botany #botanyclass #onlineclassericaceae

Sharing glimpses of this year's Night of Illumination (Thursday, October 24). This annual fall event, open exclusively to members, features the nocturnal transformation of Garden in the Woods with 1,000 luminaria and other enchanting displays lighting up the dramatic woodland terrain. If you are not a member yet, join now to take in this enchanted evening next year: https://lnkd.in/d2ajkc3F Photos: Night of Illumination, Garden in the Woods, Framingham, MA

Native Plant Trust's six rare plant sanctuaries are home to diverse flora and natural communities. Rare natural communities, including calcareous (limestone-based) riverside seeps, rich fens, and northern hardwood-black ash-conifer swamps contain many rare plant species as well. This Zoom course focuses on the identification, ecology, management, and threats to the rare flora of these natural communities. On Wednesday, November 13, 6– 7:30 PM. Sign up here to get a deeper look at these extraordinary places: https://lnkd.in/eYB7HNEz Photo: Hobbs Fern Sanctuary, hardwood-black ash-conifer swamp, Erik Sechler © Native Plant Trust #nativeplanttrust #nativeplants #newenglandnativeplants #newengland #nativeplantsanctuaries #nativeplantsanctuarieszoomclass #botanyzoomclass

Native Plant Trust has been invited to participate in Biodiversity for the Commonwealth, part of Governor Healy's executive order that directs the Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game to develop nation-leading biodiversity-conservation goals for the decades ahead. It is heartening to see Massachusetts incorporate these approaches to conserving biodiversity from across the environmental sector as we work together to create the greatest long-term impact on protecting local biodiversity. Our work through the New England Plant Conservation Program incorporates rare plant monitoring, seed banking, and habitat restoration to meet these same challenges. —Michael Piantedosi, Director of Conservation Photo: Mixed northern hardwoods habitat, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Farnsworth © Native Plant Trust #nativeplanttrust #newengland #newenglandnativeplants #nativeplants #plants #biodiversity #MAbiodiversity

It was at the University of Maine Herbarium where our senior research botanist, Arthur Haines, got his start studying plants. Lacking a car, he could not drive to far-flung places to observe them in the field. His hours in the #herbarium honed his #taxonomy (classification) skills to an extraordinary degree, and Arthur went on to become a sought-after plant taxonomist, writing Flora Novae-Angliae, the definitive plant manual of this region, and laying down the foundation of our plant-ID website, Go Botany. Come visit Arthur's home herbarium at the University of Maine (Orono) on Saturday, November 2, to learn what herbaria are, why they exist, how they contribute to botany, and how they are maintained. Sign up here to hold your place: https://lnkd.in/dNhsyfqt Image: Large-flowered bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) specimen, 1903, now in Native Plant Trust herbarium

A invitation: On November 16, at the Boston Public Library, we will present Native Plant Trust's highest honor, the Regional Impact Award, to Dr. John Daigle, a champion of Maine's brown ash trees (Fraxinus nigra) and a tribal member of the Penobscot Indian Nation, professor of Forest Recreation Management, and a program leader for the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism program at the University of Maine. Dr. Daigle is building a community of response to emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that is threatening Maine's brown ash population and with it, Wabanaki culture, which includes basket making with brown ash. He will give a short talk about this work after receiving the award. Please join us! The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Please register and get details here: https://lnkd.in/ezZ74iTV. Photos: Black ash (Fraxinus nigra) leaf, © Donna Kausen; flower, © Marilylle Soveran; fruits © Donna Kausen

A invitation: On November 16, at the Boston Public Library, we will present Native Plant Trust's highest honor, the Regional Impact Award, to Dr. John Daigle, a champion of Maine's brown ash trees (Fraxinus nigra) and a tribal member of the Penobscot Indian Nation, professor of Forest Recreation Management, and a program leader for the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism program at the University of Maine. Dr. Daigle is building a community of response to emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that is threatening Maine's brown ash population and with it, Wabanaki culture, which includes basket making with brown ash. He will give a short talk about this work after receiving the award. Please join us! The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Please register and get details here: https://lnkd.in/ezZ74iTV. Photos: Black ash (Fraxinus nigra) leaf, © Donna Kausen; flower, © Marilylle Soveran; fruits, © Donna Kausen