Press Release
Contact: Mary Bandouveres
Publicity Chair, Springfield Garden Club spfldgardenclub@gmail.com Telephone: 413.222.2972
SPRINGFIELD GARDEN CLUB HOSTS EXPERT ON CONSERVATION
“Worried about the planet? Change starts in your back yard!”
SPRINGFIELD, MA — The Springfield Garden Club will host a program presented by entomologist and author Doug Tallamy on Wednesday, June 16 at 7 PM. The event will be virtual and will be accessible via Zoom.
“The Springfield Garden Club has been encouraging our members, our neighbors and our city officials
to “Go Native” but many have been taking it on faith without a full understanding of why it is so crucial. By appealing to the widest audience possible, we hope to raise the awareness of the public as well as help them to be part of the solution,” explained Club president Beate Bolen.
Tallamy’s program will focus on the information in his book “Nature’s Best Hope” but will also touch on related areas. 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. Tallamy will discuss simple steps that each of us can- and must- take to reverse declining biodiversity and will explain why we, ourselves, are nature’s best hope. The program will include a question-and-answer segment.
Doug Tallamy is the T. A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 104 research publications and has taught insect related courses for 40 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. 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.
The program is open to the public as well as club members via Zoom. Tickets for guests are $12.50 and are available at EventBrite.com.
For more information on this and other Springfield Garden Club events go to www.gcfm.org/springfieldgardenclub or visit them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SpringfieldMAGardenClub/
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Organized in 1917 and a member of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts since 1928, The Springfield Garden Club works to create interest in the art of gardening, stimulate the promotion of civic beauty through horticulture and conservation, and encourage the appreciation of the visual art of designing with plant material.
