What Does Native Really Mean? The Man Behind the Maps
EXPERT BIO: Dr. John Kartesz (BONAP)
Dr. John Kartesz is a botanist and founder of the Biota of North America Program (BONAP) at the North Carolina Botanical Garden. He created the North American Plant Atlas–the definitive county-level distribution database covering all vascular plant species in North America–used as an international data standard by the USDA, Nature Conservancy, NatureServe, the National Audubon Society, and federal agencies. He holds a PhD in Botany from the University of Nevada, Reno and has authored or co-authored over 120 scientific papers and 13 books.
WEBINAR DESCRIPTION When you look up whether a plant is native to your county, chances are you’re looking at John Kartesz’s data–even if you don’t know it. Over the past five decades, Dr. Kartesz has personally documented and mapped the distributions of over 33,000 plant taxa across North America, building the dataset that underpins tools used by conservationists, nurseries, and native plant apps alike. In this webinar, John shares stories from decades of fieldwork and digs into the questions gardeners are actually wrestling with: What does “native” really mean? How is nativity determined at the county level? How local should your plant choices be? And what about that messy middle ground of non-native species that aren’t technically invasive? A rare chance to meet the person behind the data that shapes how we all think about native plants. Q&A to follow.
DETAILS: MAY 27 12:30PM ET
WEEK #4 May 28th ✅ Confirmed
ACTION: Add a keystone
Add one keystone native tree or shrub to your yard (even a container plant counts!) to create the food web birds and pollinators depend on.
HOST: Andrew Conboy (@andrew_the_arborist)
ISA-certified arborist, urban forester, and founder of the Community Canopy Project, an ecological restoration nonprofit in the Philadelphia area. Content creator with 190K followers educating about native plants, trees, and urban ecology.
Next challenge
JUNE 9 7:30PM EDT - Big & Small Spaces (Mhairi McFarlane, PhD) ✅ Confirmed
TITLE:“Native Plant Gardening — Big and Small Spaces and Why It Matters”
Co-hosted with Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Garden for Birds (@cornellbirds)
EXPERT BIO: Mhairi McFarlane, PhD (Cornell Lab)
Mhairi McFarlane, PhD is an Extension Associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where she specializes in habitat restoration, invasive plant management, native plant gardening, and conservation planning. She holds a PhD in Ecology from the University of Exeter and a B.Sc. in Ecology from the University of Stirling. Mhairi helps run the Cornell Lab’s Garden for Birds project, which guides people in creating bird-friendly native landscapes at home and in their communities. Before joining Cornell, she spent nearly 15 years with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, where she led habitat restoration work including on Pelee Island in Ontario.
WEBINAR DESCRIPTION: Mhairi will discuss tips for thinking about all types of habitat restoration from larger scale restoration to smaller scale gardening that benefits birds and biodiversity. We’ll connect the dots on how changes from a single pot up to 1000 acre field restoration can have an impact. Tips and tricks for succeeding at different levels of habitat changes will be shared along with Mhairi’s beautiful photography from her years of experience. Q&A to follow.
DETAILS: JUNE 9 7:30PM ET REGISTRATION LINK
