GARDENING FOR WILDLIFE: How To Attract Pollinators And Songbirds To Your Neighborhood
Friday, March 6, 7pm, Woolman Hill Conference Center, 107 Keets Rd, Deerfield
GREENFIELD, MA – Dr. Desiree L. Narango, research scientist, is returning to the Greenfield area to talk about her latest research on what it takes to attract more pollinators and songbirds to your yards and our communities. She will give a free talk called Gardening for Wildlife: How To Attract Pollinators And Songbirds To Your Neighborhood on Friday, March 6, at 7pm, at the Woolman Hill Conference Center at 107 Keets Rd in Deerfield. Refreshments will be served.
Dr. Narango is fascinated with the ways that plants and animals interact with each other, their environment, and with humans, and what enables birds and insects to thrive, especially in landscapes we have altered such as urban yards, forests and farmland.
"“The decline of pollinators and birds has been all over the news,” said Dr. Narango. “My research in urban and suburban areas provides evidence that small changes in our landscaping styles can create habitat that supports pollinators and songbirds, and bring nature closer to us for our enjoyment”
“In the well-attended talk she gave last fall, Dr. Narango told fascinating stories about chickadees. Among other things. we learned that if we choose native plants so that over 70% of our yards are ‘native,’ they can thrive,” said Nancy Hazard, member of Greening Greenfield’s Planting for Pollinators campaign, who is hosting the event along with Woolman Hill. “We look forward to more stories and tips on what we can do to build what Doug Tallamy calls a ‘Homegrown National Park.”
Doug Tallamy, Dr. Narango’s thesis professor and author of Bringing Nature Home, released a new book last month called Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard. In this inspiring book, Dr. Tallamy makes the case that if we plant natives in our communities, we would build millions of acres of habitat that would be larger than all our national parks combined! This would make E. O. Wilson’s vision possible—that half of our Earth be dedicated to the critters we share the planet with.
Dr. Narango grew up in Baltimore City, MD, where her only interactions with the natural world were in her backyard watching squirrels, catching earthworms, and climbing dogwood trees. After receiving a B.S. degree in Environmental Biology, she spent 5 years as a traveling field ecologist studying wildlife from the deserts of Arizona to the rainforests of Ecuador. During her travels she became aware of how urban development has drastically reduced the quality of habitat for wildlife in our cities and towns and was motivated to change that.
Dr. Narango's talk will kick off a weekend retreat at Woolman Hill in Deerfield, on how to design native habitats for pollinators, people, and the planet. To find out more about the weekend retreat and how to register, go to Greening Greenfield’s or Woolman Hill’s web sites.