Wildflower Walk with Newcomb
Trip Leader — Liz McDowell, MNPS
Like a refresher on how to use Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide? Grab your book and hand-lens, then join us on a moderate walk to look for flowering plants along the trail to “key-out”. Please bring your own field guide, hand-lens, water bottle, & tick spray. Meet at Parking Lot #5 near the trailhead kiosk.
In case of rain this activity will be cancelled.
The public is welcome to attend.
No registration.
Tree Detective Hike
Trip Leaders — Christine Campe-Price, Friends of New Germany State Park & Liz McDowell, MNPS
Look for 11 native trees that have been marked with species tags during this challenging 5 mile hike. Learn the various clues that will help you identify these species in the future. Please bring your own water bottle, lunch or snack, & tick spray. Meet at the native plant garden near the dam.
Weed or Wildflower?
Activity Leaders – Christine Campe-Price & Liz McDowell, Friends of New Germany State Park
Want to help preserve our regional biodiversity? Then bring your work gloves, kneeling pads, favorite weeding tools, & some elbow grease to remove unwanted plants from the native plant garden. As you work, you’ll learn how to identify common weeds and why protecting native plants is so critical for wildlife. Meet at the native plant garden near the lake dam. Please bring your own water bottle, insect spray, & sunscreen.
Speaker: Karin Burghardt, Assistant Professor, Dep't of Entomology, UMD-College Park; Research Associate, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Humans actively manage and alter the majority of earth's habitats. By examining how human management practices alter the support of biodiversity in these spaces, Dr Burghardt's laboratory research program helps determine best practices for how humans can share space with a variety of flora and fauna. In this presentation, Dr. Burghardt outlines ways that decisions within an individual's own scope of management (gardens, parks, and other green spaces) alter plant/animal interactions, particularly the successful completion of insect life cycles. She suggests tweaks to native plant selection, yard care, and pest management practices to retain biodiversity and function in the spaces we inhabit.
Trained as a community ecologist, Dr Burghardt specializes in understanding plant-insect interactions in human-modified landscapes ranging from suburban yards to abandoned agricultural fields to managed forests. She received her MS and PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale University working with Oswald Schmitz on herbivore-induced defenses in goldenrod plants. She received her BS from the University of Delaware in 2007 working with Douglas Tallamy on the role of non-native plants in ecosystems. Find more information on her lab’s work on her website.
The program will be presented online through Zoom, in webinar format. You will not be able to share your own audio or video with other participants, but you will be able to submit questions in writing during the program.
Registration is required. After you register, you will receive a registration confirmation email with a link to the Zoom program. The program is free and open to the public. If you enjoy MNPS programs please consider clicking here to make a donation. And don't forget to renew your membership!
NEW TO ZOOM? If you have questions or need help with set-up, please send an email to Lynn Parsons (lynn.parsons@outlook.com) with the word ZOOM in the subject title and she will contact you to assist. Please don't wait until the last minute!
Our virtual conference will feature Dwayne Estes, Executive Director Southeastern Grasslands Initiative as our only speaker.
The Southeastern Grasslands Initiative: Charting a New Course for Conservation in the 21st Century
Grassland loss is the single greatest conservation issue currently facing eastern North American biodiversity. Southern grasslands are nearly extinct and the species that depend on them are fading fast. The Southeastern Grasslands Initiative (SGI) works across a 23-state region, including Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic. SGI seeks to integrate on-the-ground conservation, research, and outreach to create innovative solutions to eastern North America. This presentation will highlight how grasslands of Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic fit into the larger work of SGI nationally.
Bill Hilgartner and Jorge Montero will be giving us their presentations at a monthly program in the near future. These are on the last Tuesday of the month, so stay tuned. We are working on lists to provide registrants suggested locations for field trips in various regions of the state, so that they can explore on their own or form their own small groups.
Details on the Zoom webinar will be provided to everyone who registers.
Marney Bruce and Jil Swearingen, co-chairs
Look for these talk in coming months.
Tentative topic: "Native Grasses"
Speaker: Kevin Dodge, Director of the Natural Resources & Wildlife Technology Program, Garrett College
Details to follow.
This free program will begin promptly at 7:00 pm; the public is welcome to attend.
Directions: From I-68 take exit 33 (Braddock Rd & Midlothian Rd exit). Follow Braddock Road approximately 1.3 miles to stop sign. Turn left onto Park Avenue. Drive a short distance and turn left, following signs for the Compton Parking Lot.
No registration is required.
Topic: "Making Central Appalachian Forests More Resilient"
Speaker: Pabodha Galgamuwe, Forest Science Project Manager, The Nature Conservancy
