Currently Bill is the Director of Horticulture/Plant Curator for one of North America's newest and most exciting public gardens, The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine. Previously he was the Director of Horticultural Research for the New England Wild Flower Society in Massachusetts. A well known author and recognized authority on North American native plants, Cullina lectures on a variety of subjects to garden and professional groups and writes for popular and technical journals. His books include, Wildflowers, Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines, Understanding Orchids, Native Ferns, Mosses, and Grasses, and most recently, Understanding Perennials, published in 2009. He and his wife, Melissa live with their three young children on Southport Island along the central Maine Coast. Visit his website www.williamcullina.com for writings, photography and updated lecture information.

Lecture: Why You Can’t Buy a Forest in a Can: Managing and Restoring Diversity in our Woodlands and Gardens. Eastern North America is blessed with some remarkable forests; forests that have suffered from 400 years of logging, plowing, pollution, and invasive pests. As our human population grows, so does pressure on our remaining forested lands, and we as individuals, communities, and nations need to act now to curb their continuing degradation, for the sake of the trees and all that depend on them, including ourselves. It would be nice to think that you could just scatter a handful of seeds around in a degraded forest and come back a few years later to find the understory teeming with wildflowers, birds, and insects. Of course, nothing is that simple, but in this talk Bill Cullina will look at what makes our eastern forests special and what we can do in our own backyards and communities to restore the diversity our woodlands.

Gordon Hayward is a nationally recognized garden designer, writer and lecturer based in southern Vermont. He wrote for Horticulture Magazine for 25 years and lectured with the magazine on nine multi-city lecture tours across America. He was a contributing editor at Fine Gardening Magazine for six years and is now a contributing editor at the newly revamped Organic Gardening Magazine. He is the author of ten books on garden design, two of which have won national awards. Hayward and his wife Mary have been developing a 1 1/2 acre garden around their 220 year old farmhouse in southern Vermont for the past twenty-six years as well as a garden outside their cottage in the Cotswold Hills of England where Mary is from. They have lead 16 tours for garden clubs to southern England. His website is www.haywardgardens.com.

Lecture: The Uses of Stone in the Garden. Stone furnishes the framework, the structure, and the sense of permanence that transforms gardens. Whether in the form of retaining or free-standing walls, terraces or walkways, as bold standing stones or as boulders at the edge of a small stream, stone lends a garden focus, providing the perfect foil to plants. In this slide illustrated lecture that grows out of his book STONE IN THE GARDEN, garden designer Gordon Hayward will talk about the many creative as well as practical roles stones can play to give a garden a feeling of timelessness, structure, and solidity. He will cover both the aesthetics of stone as well as the practical concerns about the proper way to lay and set stone in the garden. Some of the topics he will address include stone underfoot, standing stones, walls, stone garden ornaments and their placement as well as the interaction of stone and water. His book, which Verlyn Klinkenborg in The New York Times called "the best book on stonework to come along in many years," will be available for signing after the lecture.

Bill McShea is a wildlife ecologist who has worked at Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) for 25 years, primarily on wildlife management and conservation. His education background is a B.S. from Bucknell University (1977), a M.S. from University of New Hampshire (1981) and a Ph.D. from State University of New York (1985). He has over 90 peer-reviewed articles on wildlife ecology, in addition to many articles for public or professional education. Dr. McShea has co-edited 3 volumes, one on deer management, one on oak ecosystem management, and a recent volume on Asian forest ecology and management. He is currently involved in teacher and professional training by offering short courses in forest biodiversity, large mammal survey techniques, and wildlife management. Dr. McShea has conducted professional training for wildlife managers in Burma, China, Brazil, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and currently serves as an adjunct with several universities (University of Pennsylvania, George Mason University, Utah State University, Peking University (China), Kasetsart University (Thailand), and Virginia Tech University). He has taught courses at the University of Pennsylvania, George Mason University, St. Lawrence University, Cornell University, and SUNY Binghamton. Dr. McShea is a member of IUCN Species Specialist Groups for deer (co-chairperson) and bears.

 

Dr. McShea’s research involves forest and wildlife ecology and issues in the eastern US and in developing countries. The local research has included focus on the ecological impacts and disease transmission of white-tailed deer, forest ecology of migratory birds, acorn production in oak forests, American chestnut restoration, invasive plant species and small mammal ecology. There are 2 current projects that involve citizen scientists to assist with large mammal surveys along the Appalachian Trail using trip cameras and butterfly surveys in the Northern Virginia region. Current projects in developing countries include a black bear distribution and conservation in China, large mammal surveys in Sichuan Province (China) and Thailand, deer surveys in Burma and Cambodia, and deer reintroductions in Thailand. This overseas work fits with the National Zoo’s mission to celebrate biodiversity and its efforts to highlight Asian species. Bill is interested in providing knowledge that helps solve human/animal conflicts, builds capacity in developing countries and conserves biodiversity.

Lecture: Deer as Critical Architects of the Natural World and What To Do About It. The ecology and abundance of deer is such that they have a significant impact on plant and animal communities in the eastern US. Understanding their ecology will help in managing their impact. McShea will also review management options both at landowner and landscape scale.

Catherine Zimmerman, author of Urban & Suburban Meadows and an organically accredited, sustainable landscape designer, will present meadowscaping as a lawn alternative. In her lecture Meadowscaping in Urban & Suburban Spaces, she will give a step-by-step primer on reducing lawn size and organically installing a beautiful meadow or prairie in your own yard. No space is too small!

Catherine is an award winning filmmaker and sustainable landscape designer based in the Washington, D.C. area. She is currently putting the finishing touches on a companion video to her book on meadowscaping. She contributes monthly to a team blog: Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens (http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com).

The book, blog, video and Catherine’s Meadow Project are her efforts to help people rethink their pesticide ridden, monoculture lawns and return their land to beautiful, natural habitats for native plants and wildlife. Catherine’s book will be for sale at the conference and Catherine will be available for book signing. Learn more about Catherine at www.themeadowproject.com.

Lecture: From Lawn to Meadowscape. Catherine Zimmerman presents a convincing argument to shrink lawn, reduce water usage, eliminate pesticides and bring back native habitat. Catherine will introduce you to meadowscaping and show you how to create a beautiful, thriving, low-cost and low-maintenance meadow habitat.