Create Thriving Habitat, Reverse Biodiversity Loss, and Help Mitigate Climate Change

This talk is about the current biodiversity crisis; the evolutionary history among native plants, insects, birds and fungi, and how these interdependent relationships among diverse species are necessary for their survival. Amy Meltzer will show how growing native plants and using ecological landscape practices can simultaneously reverse biodiversity loss, increase resilience in our landscapes, and slow climate change. Amy will also talk about what she has been learning in her two native plant gardens about how to choose plants for different conditions – dry, wet, sun, shade; and the challenge of choosing plants for the increasingly hot conditions of an urban garden.

Amy Meltzer has been an active member of Grow Native Massachusetts for many years and has contributed to citizen science research on pollinators and native plants. She is a member of the Elders Climate Action research team, where she developed a presentation on the intersection of climate change and biodiversity loss, and how both crises need to be addressed simultaneously. She is an avid native plant gardener who loves sharing plants, developing easy to use resources, and teaching about both the importance of growing native plants, and how to do it.