SARAH F. JAYNE
NATURE'S ACTION GUIDE
How to Support Biodiversity and Your Local Ecosystem
FOREWORD BY DOUGLAS W. TALLAMY
SPEAKING topics
Supporting biodiversity:
15 critical actions to support your local ecosystem
Supporting biodiversity and our local ecosystems is something that everyone can do! In this fast-paced, practical workshop, we’ll explore 15 urgently needed actions to create healthy, functioning ecosystems in residential and community spaces. Learn how to reduce night light, protect your local wildlife, remove the invasive plants that reduce biodiversity, identify the ecologically beneficial plants in your ecoregion, attract pollinators, and encourage butterflies and birds to make your property home. Learn strategies for designing and caring for wildlife friendly spaces that fit within your neighborhood's standards. Join us to learn how to make short work of these urgently needed actions wherever you live!
Ideal audience: General audience, including non-gardeners who have an interest in doing what they can to help address the biodiversity crisis where they live and work. biodiversity and local ecosystems.
Balancing ecology and beauty! Creating a landscape that welcomes wildlife and people
Now more than ever our yards and community spaces need to support biodiversity. How can we ensure that our spaces are both ecologically rich and beautiful? We’ll look at which plants matter most when it comes to your local biodiversity; how to procure them for generous plantings; and how to place them to increase their appeal to wildlife and people, along with strategies to protect the wildlife our natural plantings attract. We’ll consider strategies to ensure that our landscapes gain community acceptance such that they become invitations for others to transform their landscapes. A cost-conscious, DIY approach makes taking action doable.
Ideal audience: People who are just starting to transition their spaces to more wildlife-friendly habitats and who are interested in supporting biodiversity and their local ecosystems where they live and work.
Let's plant an ecological landscape! Five approaches to getting started
Are you eager to add ecologically beneficial native plants to your landscape to support wildlife, but not sure where to begin? You are not alone. In a recent informal survey, respondents reported the lack of knowledge as a top obstacle. In this talk, we’ll look at five different step-by-step DIY approaches to getting started with ecological planting along with design tips when just starting out. We'll look at resources for selecting and procuring eco=beneficial plants along with tips for care and placement to enhance their wildlife value. We'll also explore actions needed to protect the wildlife that our gardens attract. Join us to learn how to make short work of the actions urgently needed to support biodiversity.
Ideal audience: People who are just starting to transition their spaces to more wildlife-friendly habitats and who are interested in supporting biodiversity and their local ecosystems where they live and work
Expanding the circle: Helping others to get started supporting biodiversity
Supporting biodiversity and our local ecosystems needs to be something everyone takes part in. There are the core members of the biodiversity movement: native plant enthusiasts, ecological landscaping and restoration professionals, environmental scientists, and so forth who are making invaluable contributions. But the urgency of the biodiversity crisis requires that we extend this circle way beyond its current circumference. How do we reach beyond the circle of garden, landscape, and outdoor enthusiasts? We’ll look at how to help others (and ourselves!) to make short work of 15 urgently needed actions to support biodiversity and abundance.
Ideal audience: General audience including non-gardeners and people who are just starting to transition their spaces to more wildlife-friendly habitats, along with teachers, ecological gardeners and environmental advocates who want tools for encouraging others to act to support biodiversity and local ecosystems. *This talk can be geared toward children or adults.
Providing sanctuary:
Caring for our landscapes with a protection-first mindset
Individually and collectively, people have begun to fill balconies, yards, and fields with eco-beneficial plants contributing to the goal of an interconnected park across our continent, a Homegrown National Park. Our individual park is our sanctuary and a sanctuary for the insects, birds, and other animals our plants attract. How can we maximize the beneficial impact of our park to ensure that we truly are providing refuge and safety for the wildlife our native plants attract? How do we increase its ability to provide ecological services that wildlife and people need for survival? Let’s explore resources and urgently needed actions that will help to support biodiversity in your own wildlife park.
Ideal audience: People transitioning their spaces to more wildlife-friendly habitats and gardeners of all levels who have planted ecologically beneficial plants or created wildlife habitats.
'Weather' or not! How to fortify your ecological landscape for the future
Many of the actions we take to create vibrant wildlife habitats that support biodiversity are the same actions that help a landscape to withstand weather events and climate shifts when they occur. Addressing climate change and restoring biodiversity are mutually beneficial actions. In this talk, we’ll look at how we can build resilience into our ecological plantings to help them weather the future.
Ideal audience: People transitioning their spaces to more wildlife-friendly habitats and gardeners of all levels who have planted ecologically beneficial plants or created wildlife habitats.
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​"There is a double movement humanity must make. The first one is to decarbonize and have a just energy transition. The other side of the coin is to restore nature and allow nature to take again its power over planet Earth so that we can really stabilize the climate." ~ Susana Muhamad, Environment Minister, Columbia
Designing your wildlife habitat: A hands-on workshop
Develop your vision for a wildlife habitat! In this interactive workshop, we’ll start with your site plan and work through the steps of designing a landscape that supports wildlife and pleases people. Along with a handout and DIY projects, you’ll come away with a plan and the know-how to implement it!
Ideal audience: People who are just starting to transition their spaces to more wildlife-friendly habitats and who are interested in supporting biodiversity and their local ecosystems where they live and work.
Nature’s Action Guide:
A la carte
In addition to the presentation topics above, you may wish to customize a topic for your group by selecting one or more action chapters from Nature’s Action Guide as the focus of the presentation. These will be woven together into a talk tailored to the demographics of your group.
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Ideal audience: Your group!