MNPS Chapter Meeting: "Preserving Biodiversity - How Pollinators Benefit from a Vibrant Heliophilic Native Plant Community", Baltimore

Speaker: Randy Pheobus, Native Grasslands Conservancy

Description: This presentation came about as a result of the photographic documentation of rambles through some of the rarest and most rapidly declining parts of our local and regional ecosystem. The heliophilic native plant communities and their dependent native fauna are rich in diversity and sustain many species valuable to our human community. The sun-loving native flora of the Maryland landscape also provide some of the greatest benefit to maintaining viable populations of pollinators. There is a remarkable symmetry between the two kingdoms of our Native Flora and Native Fauna and that elegant dynamic is subtly demonstrated in the photographic evidence provided in the presentation. The subject of resource management will also be briefly explored in the discussion of the health of the populations of Maryland's non-forest dwelling native species.

Location: Irvine Nature Center, 11201 Garrison Forest Rd., Ownings Mills, MD 21117.

Directions: From the Baltimore Beltway (I-695), take Exit 19 (I-795 North) to Exit 4 (Ownings Mills Boulevard). Stay in the right-hand lane of the exit - toward Rte. 140/Reisterstown Rd. Go 2.3 miles (4 stoplights); take a right at the 5th light onto Crondall Lane. Continue on Crondall Lane until it dead-ends in Garrison Forest Road. Turn right onto Garrison Forest Rd. The entrance to Irvine Nature Center is .3 miles on the left.

More information: Contact Ann Lundy, 410-366-9365, annlundy @ verizon.net.