Join us for a virtual lecture with Doug Tallamy!

Homegrown National Park

Our parks, preserves, and remaining wildlands – no matter how grand in scale – are too small and separated from one another to sustain the native trees, plants, insects and animals on which our ecosystems depend. We can fix this problem by practicing conservation outside of wildlands, where we live, work, shop, and farm. Thus, the concept for Homegrown National park: a national challenge to create diverse ecosystems in our yards, communities, and surrounding lands by reducing lawn, planting native, and removing invasives. The initial goal of HNP is to create a national movement to restore 20 million acres with natives, an area representing ½ of what is now in lawn. We are at a critical point where we are losing so many native plant and animal species that our natural life support is in jeopardy. However, if many people make small changes, we can restore healthy ecological networks and weather the changes ahead.

Doug Tallamy is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 111 research publications and has taught insect-related courses for 42 years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. His book Bringing Nature Home, published by Timber Press in 2007, was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers’ Association. Among his awards are the Garden Club of America Margaret Douglas Medal for Conservation and the Tom Dodd, Jr. Award of Excellence, the 2018 AHS B. Y. Morrison Communication Award, and the 2019 Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award.

Learn more about Doug’s work, and Homegrown National Parks, here.

This event is co-sponsored by the Avon Library and CT Horticultural Society. 

Please register; Zoom links will be sent out the day before the event.

This event will be recorded and made available to those who register for two weeks after the event.

This event is free to attend.