Summary of Presentation:
What is an Ecoregion and Why does it matter when selecting native plants? Currently there is a growing demand for native seed and plant material for habitat restoration, landscaping and home gardening. The popularity of new resources by Doug Tallamy, Uli Lorimer, Jennifer Jewell and others have underscored the need for sourcing plants that will best support healthy ecosystems and the organisms that live in them.
Steve Young and Laura Lehtonen discussed how to determine our local ecoregions and why this is important information to have. They also discussed ethical seed collection and some of the latest initiatives of the Northeast Seed Network.
Steve Young was the State Botanist for the New York Natural Heritage Program and now consults through his company, Botany Visible. Laura Lehtonen is also a botanist as well as an environmental educator and Master Gardener.
