Creating Healthy Yards with Native Plants & Backyard Beneficial Insects

 

Tuesday, May 21

Irondequoit Public Library in Room 114

7:00 PM

Free – no reservation required

 

 

Healthy Yards with Native Plants

with Megan Meyer

 

One way to support our declining pollinators and birds is choosing the right plants for our outdoor residential spaces. Restoring bird and pollinator habitat in our own yards also creates a healthier space for our families and offers opportunities to connect children to nature.

Megan Meyer is trained in plant propagation and landscape design and ran her own garden design and maintenance firm for many years. As a graduate of Cornell Climate Stewards and training in Cornell’s Master Gardener program, her environmental work now focuses on encouraging residents, towns and counties to create healthier outdoor spaces not only for ourselves but for other creatures we share this amazing planet with. She Co-leads Healthy Yards Monroe County, a campaign of Color Your Communities Green and has been very active in her own town of Penfield.

 

Backyard Beneficial Insects

with Kaitlin Stack Whitney

 

This presentation will cover some common beneficial insects that may be found in our region. Additionally, we will discuss what “beneficial insects means, how and why it’s different than “native” insects, the history of these ideas, and alternative frameworks for valuing life we live alongside. We will end with concrete ways to help conserve them beyond yards and without land ownership.

Dr. Kaitlin Stack Whitney is an environmental studies professor in the Science, Technology & Society department at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Before completing her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison focused on insect ecology, she worked in Washington DC for the US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Pesticide Programs and the US AID Farmer-to-Farmer program.

 

Sponsored by Color Irondequoit Green

Library programs are open to, and welcome, all community members. If you require accommodations please reach out to Irondequoit Public library at least one week prior: https://irondequoitlibrary.org/accessibility/

A front lawn full of blue and purple cornflowers.

A small leafy tree growing in a backyard

Yellow sunflower over cornflowers in a front yard.