By Megan Meyer
Join us this February for Color Penfield and Pittsford Green’s nature series hosted by the Penfield Public and Pittsford Community Libraries. Our speakers will inspire you with ways to create a healthy inviting yard while creating the biodiversity we need to support our birds, pollinators and small animals.
A growing body of research points to the beneficial effects that exposure to nature has on our health, reducing stress, and promoting healing. We could all benefit from a healthier environment as we deal with our current pandemic. Professor Doug Tallamy in his first book Bringing Nature Home and his most recent Nature’s Best Hope explains the important role native plants play to enhance ecosystem services that keep humans alive. “We humans have taken 95% of the natural world and made it unnatural. But does this matter? Are there consequences to using almost all of our land to meet human needs without considering the needs of other species?
Absolutely, both for biodiversity and for us….
Biodiversity losses are a clear sign that our own life-support systems are failing. The ecosystems that determine the earth’s ability to support us are run by the plants and animals around us. It is plants that generate oxygen and clean water, that create topsoil out of rock, and that buffer extreme weather events like droughts and floods…” (Gardening For Life Doug Tallamy).
Tallamy’s Homegrown National Park is a grass roots call-to-action to restore biodiversity to our yards and communities one backyard at a time.
These ideas and more will be explored in this four-part series at 7 pm. on Thursday evenings in February via Zoom. Register here for the Penfield Library Series. (Fully booked)
Or here for the Pittsford Community Library. (Slots still available as of 2/13/21)
2/4/21: The New American Garden
Master gardener Megan Meyer, Co-Lead of Color Penfield Green
Learn how to be good stewards of the land starting in your own backyard as it impacts our neighbors and the wildlife on which we depend.
2/11/21: Bird Friendly Backyards
Chris Lajewski, Center Director at Montezuma Audubon Center
Chris, a passionate birder and conservationist, will discuss how to protect our backyard birds by planting native vegetation, installing birdhouses and feeders, and eliminating pesticides from lawn care activities.
2/18/21: Creating a Landscape for Pollinators and other Insects
Janet Allen co-founder and president of Habitat Gardening in Central New York
Learn the important role of pollinators, the “little things that run the world” in your own yard and beyond – and why it matters.
2/25/21: First Frogs in Our Own Backyard
Margot Fass, A Frog House founder in Pittsford New York
Where frogs can survive, life can survive. Sustainable gardening principles that eliminate all toxins are applicable everywhere. Transform your property into a beautiful haven for wildlife and joy.