2025 CONSERVATION FORUM
Return to the Wild: Restoring Piedmont Landscapes
Please Join Us
Saturday, January 25, 2025, 10 a.m.
Laurel Ridge Community College
4151 Weeks Drive, Warrenton VA
THIS EVENT IS FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Doors open 9:45 a.m.
The Warrenton Garden Club is pleased to host Dr. Bert Harris, Co-Director of the Clifton Institute and Andrea McGimsey, Executive Director of Sustainability Matters, for our annual Conservation Forum.
As we face ever-changing environmental challenges in our world, what is being done right now to combat the issues we face?
Bert Harris, Ph.D. is a Co-Director of the Clifton Institute, a nature center and research station on
900 acres in Warrenton. At the Institute, Harris directs a program of ecological research that has the
goal of providing actionable recommendations to landowners. He holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology from the University of Adelaide, Australia. He also completed a postdoctoral
fellowship at Princeton University and he’s an adjunct professor at American University.
Harris will begin by covering the Clifton Institute’s recent research that found that remnant Piedmont
prairies are the most diverse plant communities in Virginia. He’ll talk about the Institute’s 100-acre
grassland restoration experiment to convert non-native fields to native meadows. He’ll finish by
discussing the Virginia Native Seed Project that has the goal of making seeds with local genetics
available commercially.
Andrea McGimsey, a former member of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, has over twenty
years of nonprofit leadership experience with organizations dedicated to conservation, historic
preservation, and climate solutions. One of her proudest achievements was leading a grassroots
campaign to protect 200,000 acres of rural land in Loudoun County from development.
Sustainability Matters’ flagship initiative, ‘Making Trash Bloom’ reclaims “dead” land by planting native
pollinator and wildlife habitat at landfills. Through bringing conservation to the most unexpected place
of all – your local dump! Our program is currently underway in a cross-section of Virginia counties.
The excitement for this project is contagious, with landfills as far away as Cape Cod, MA and even
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida reaching out to learn how they can Make Trash Bloom in
their own neck of the woods!
2019 Conservation forum
Making Insects: A Guide to Restoring the
Little Things That Run the World
Sunday, October 13, 2019, 4:00 p.m.
The Warrenton Garden Club is pleased to host Dr. Doug Tallamy, professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, for our annual Conservation Forum.
A recent UN report predicts that as many as 1 million species will disappear from planet earth because of human activities. Many of these are insects and nearly all species at risk rely on insects. Insects have already declined 45% since 1974. The most alarming part of this statistic is that we don’t seem to care, despite the fact that a world without insects is a world without humans!
So how do we build beautiful landscapes that support the pollinators, herbivores, detritivores, predators and parasitoids that run the ecosystems we depend on?
Dr. Tallamy will remind us of the many essential roles insects play, and describe the simple changes we must make in our landscapes and our attitudes to keep insects on the ground, in the air and yes, on our plants.
Dr. Tallamy has authored 88 research publications and has taught Insect Taxonomy, Behavioral Ecology, Humans and Nature, Insect Ecology, and other courses for 36 years. His book Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers' Association. The Living Landscape, co-authored with Rick Darke, was published in 2014. Among his awards are The Garden Club of America Margaret Douglas Medal for Conservation and the Tom Dodd, Jr. Award of Excellence.
Visit The Open Book online or in Old Town Warrenton to purchase a copy of his books in advance. Copies will also be for sale at the event.
https://www.oldtownopenbook.com
Doors will open at 3:30 p.m. The talk will begin at 4 p.m. and be followed by Q&A and light refreshments in the lobby. The event is free and open to the public; however, reservations via eventbrite are appreciated.
https://warrentongardenclub-2019-conservation-forum.eventbrite.com
Rice Auditorium on the Highland School Campus
597 Broadview Avenue, Warrenton, Virginia 20186
2018 Conservation forum
A Nonpartisan Conversation on Climate Change
Flooding, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes...
Is this the new normal?
The Warrenton Garden Club, with support from Finley's Green Leap Forward and the Piedmont Environmental Council, hosted C-Change Conversations at our 2018 Annual Conservation Forum. Learn more about this past event.