
In Partnership with the Place: Site-Specific Native Design, New England-Style
September 24 @ 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
$279
Light breakfast, lunch, and refreshments are included in the registration fee.
Check-in & breakfast begin at 8:30 AM ET.
Course Presentations
What’s Hiding in the Landscape? Uncovering a Site’s True Potential (indoor lecture)
Steve Conaway & Robert Graham
In this presentation Steve and Robert will discuss the essential work of site assessment in uncovering the plant community traits, ecological processes, and past human activities that inform New England’s widely varied landscapes. Through historic land use records, observations on the ground, and regional resources they will show how to effectively reveal the potential diversity and ecological character of a site. With insights from the past and analysis of the present, designers can more successfully enhance botanical diversity while curating inspirational spaces that elicit a true “sense of place.”
Guiding and Enhancing Vegetative Potential: Assessment into Design (indoor lecture)
Larry Weaner
How does the deep site analysis described in the previous presentation translate into an ecological restoration, a garden design, or a blend of the two? How does spontaneous recruitment of wild plants and the self proliferation of planted ones fit into a designed planting plan? Through case studies of New England projects on a variety of scales, Larry will illustrate how ecological characteristics and processes like disturbance, competition, conservatism, plant colonization, senescence, and ecological succession can combine the existing vegetative inclinations of a site with the practical and artistic visions of the designer and client.
Forest Walk (outdoor walk)
Steve Conaway and Mark Richardson
We will visit and compare two woodland habitats where we will discuss how their varied environmental conditions and disturbance histories have affected their current vegetative compositions. These will include an upland, Oak-dominated forest where a host of native herbs dominate the understory, with little to no invasive species presence; and an adjacent lowland forest where invasive species abound, but with occasional novel species like rattlesnake plantain and large whorled pogonia.
Field Walk (outdoor walk)
Robert Graham and Larry Weaner
We will visit multiple meadows with varying compositions and histories, including a native meadow that was planted in 2021; an older meadow dominated by pasture grasses and many of the broadleaf forbes that commonly associate with them; and a wet meadow containing a large population of native forbs and shrubs, managed by period mowing. Finally, we’ll visit an invasive plant-dominated vernal pool and discuss aggressive vs. gradual approaches to a native plant transition.
Registration Information
AOLCPs will receive a 10% discount on this course and it will count towards an AOLCP’s CEU requirement. Please email OLC Program Director Jennifer Shaffer for the discount code, which you will apply when you register. On the registration page, be sure to click the “Have a coupon?” link (beneath the price total) to apply the discount code.