Biodiversity Matters Series: Nature’s Best Hope
The Biodiversity Matters series is co-sponsored by the Wild Ones Northern Rockies Chapter and the Sandpoint Library. The February 9th program will be a “watch party” for Dr. Doug Tallamy’s first lecture in Idaho as part of Boise State University’s “The Idea of Nature Public Lecture Series”.
Dr. Tallamy will discuss simple steps that each of us can—and must—take to reverse declining biodiversity; why we must change our adversarial relationship with nature to a collaborative one; and why we, ourselves, are nature’s best hope. Recent headlines about global insect declines and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at sustaining the plants and animals that sustain us. Such losses are not an option if we wish to continue our current standard of living on planet Earth. The good news is that none of this is inevitable. Choosing the right plants for our landscapes will not only address the biodiversity crisis but help fight our climate crisis as well.
Join us for the live streaming of Dr. Tallamy’s Boise University talk and connect in person with others locally who care about this topic.
Dr. Doug Tallamy, T.A. Baker Professor of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, University of Delaware. This acclaimed author and lecturer is one of the Lifetime Honorary Directors of the Wild Ones. Tallamy has authored 97 research publications including Bringing Nature Home, The Nature of Oaks and Nature’s Best Hope – A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Back Yard. Tallamy has calculated that if all private property owners in the US were just to halve the dimensions of their lawns, 20 million acres could be quickly restored to viable habitat, the equivalent of almost a quarter of the total US National Park system, which covers more than 84 million acres.
Wild Ones Northern Rockies (WONR) Chapter based in Sandpoint, Idaho is a co-sponsor of this event at the Library; its president is George Gehrig. WONR promotes environmentally friendly, sound landscaping to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration, and establishment of native plant communities across the United States. Wild Ones chapters are a space where like-minded people gather to support each other in learning about landscaping with native plants and to share with others in their communities and networks about why it’s important to reintroduce native plants into public and private gardens and how to go about doing it. Chapters are where change happens. We are excited to offer local residents the opportunity to expand their impact in the natural landscaping movement and help promote native plants! This local Chapter anticipates assisting with the installation and maintenance of pollinator plants in the Sandpoint Library’s Garden, along with organizing and delivering the Biodiversity Matters series.
