The Plant Communities and Ecological Processes of The Atlantic Coastal Plain (1+¾ hrs)
Daniela Shebitz
Understanding the patterns and processes that affect spontaneous plant communities is the foundation of ecology-based design. In this presentation, ecologist and ethnobotanist Daniela Shebitz will provide an analysis of the key forest, meadow, and wetland communities of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. She will discuss their physical environments and plant compositions, as well as the ecological processes that affect them, including successional dynamics and disturbance. She will place particular emphasis on an often neglected, yet crucial aspect of ecological analysis; how historic human activity has influenced, and continues to influence, today’s wild plant assemblages.
Designing Wildlife Habitat: Behind the Scenes (1+¾ hrs)
Pat Sutton
From the perspective of a life-long naturalist intimate with the workings of the natural world, Pat will showcase the most important native trees, shrubs, vines, wildflowers, and even weeds, to birds and pollinators. Beyond simply naming species, she will discuss their specific faunal relationships, the layered spatial patterns that particularly enhance their habitat value for birds, and the landscape practices that accommodate the life cycle needs of butterflies, moths, bees, wasps and other pollinators. In concert with Doug Tallamy’s Homegrown National Park movement, Pat will illustrate how to foster a natural refuge everywhere - no matter how small or urban - to enrich the experiences of both people and wildlife.
Interactive Landscape Design: Plants, Wildlife, and People (1+¾ hrs)
Larry Weaner
Landscape designers and restoration ecologists both manipulate environments to influence vegetation, yet cross communication is all too rare. In this presentation Larry Weaner will show how the compositions, patterns, and processes of Coastal Plain plant communities can be incorporated into the designed landscape. He will demonstrate how an understanding of specific ecological concepts like disturbance, competition, conservatism, ecotype, senescence, and succession can lead to specific protocols that enhance the habitat value and experiential quality of landscapes designed to interact with people.
Comparing Notes: A Wrap-up Conversation (45 min.)
Larry Weaner, Daniela Shebitz, Pat Sutton
Here our presenters and session participants will participate in a freewheeling discussion on their real world experiences and lingering questions regarding ecology-based landscape practice in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and anything else ‘landscape’ that is on their minds.
Date & Time: Tuesday, October 10th, 2023, 9 AM - 4:30 PM ET*
This is Day 1 of 2 days that will be held in Cape May Point, NJ. Day 1 is classroom instruction and Day 2 is field walks. Register individually by day.
Location: Cape May Point Science Center
101 Lehigh Ave, Cape May Point, NJ 08212
Fee: $245
Students please email [email protected] with verification of student status (ie. course schedule) for discount code.
Event Category: Professional
CEUs: APLD (6), CBLP (6) LA CES (6), ISA, NOFA (4)
See here for details & instructions.
*Time listed above includes instructional time & breaks. There will be 6 session hours.
Light breakfast, lunch, and drinks are included in the registration fee.
Check-in & breakfast begin at 8:30 AM ET.
This session will be held entirely indoors.
HOSTED BY
Cape May Point Science Center
We want to thank our Institutional Ally:
Daniela Shebitz, PhD, is a restoration ecologist and ethnobotanist currently serving as Chair and Professor for the Department of Environmental and Sustainability Sciences at Kean University in Union, NJ. She conducts research with her students in sites ranging from Costa Rica and China to the New Jersey Pine Barrens where she studies the effects of land management on plant diversity, with a specific focus on culturally significant plants. Daniela earned her PhD in Ecosystem Science from The University of Washington, Seattle and her B.S. and M.S. from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Pat Sutton is a passionate wildlife habitat gardener and advocate for butterflies, moths, bees (all pollinators), birds, dragonflies, frogs, toads, and other critters. Pat has studied and taught about wildlife-friendly and native plant gardening for over 40 years. Sutton’s own half-acre wildlife habitat is a “teaching garden” that has been featured in many programs, workshops, garden tours, and books. Pat lives near Cape May, New Jersey, the world renowned migratory crossroads that is famous for its hawk, owl, songbird, shorebird, dragonfly, and Monarch migration.
Larry Weaner, FAPLD, founded Larry Weaner Landscape Associates in 1982 and established NDAL in 1990. He is nationally recognized for combining expertise in horticulture, landscape design, and ecological restoration. His design and restoration work spans more than twenty U.S. states and the U.K., and has been profiled in numerous national publications. His book Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change (2016) received an American Horticultural Society Book Award in 2017, and in 2021 he received American Horticultural Society’s Landscape Design Award.
Photo by Kim Sokoloff
