GNPS Native Plant Symposium 2024 program: The focus of our 29th Native Plant Symposium is DIY Native Habitats – Building Your Stewardship Toolkit. Our suite of talks will focus on getting the right plants into your garden to support your local ecosystem. This includes guidance on how to research them, how to identify what you already have, understanding your plant community, and considerations for local habitat restoration.
Our speakers will help you build a toolkit of purposeful choices and tools that help you at home, in designed landscapes, and when restoring habitat in the wild. Researching appropriate native plants and choosing to incorporate a major of native plants in our properties and projects makes a difference to the other inhabitants of our ecosystems: birds, butterflies, and bees.
Specialist butterflies, moths, and bees need native plants. Native plants are the first trophic layer to convert sunlight into food for insects, helping to ensure that those insects thrive. Bird populations rely on abundant insect life to sustain their populations. Our purposeful selection of plants makes a difference to these creatures.
On Day 2, we will also take some time to highlight the activities of our chapters. Our chapters are the boots on the ground folks that bring activities closer to and more regionally meaningful for our members.
Registration will close at the following times/dates to give staff a chance to upload participants to the Zoom meeting.
- 8:00 AM Saturday, February 24 – Last chance to register for Saturday event
- 1:00 PM Sunday, February 25 – Last chance to register for Sunday event
Saturday Feb 24 9:00 am – 12 pm
- Alan Weakley – Changes in Floras and Floras: New Floristic Tools for Information, Appreciation, and Conservation
- Ellen Honeycutt – How to Get the Right Plants
- Eamonn Leonard – Native Restoration Considerations
Sunday Feb 25 2:00 – 4:30 pm
- Leslie Edwards– Gardening Guided by Natural Communities
- GNPS Chapter Highlights– What Worked Well and Where We’re Going in 2024
Our GNPS 2024 Symposium event will be virtual again this year. To make the event more manageable, it will be spread across two days and each session will be recorded for future playback. GNPS is partnering with Birds Georgia to present this program. The cost for GNPS and Birds Georgia members is $12 per day (or $20 total if you register for both days); the cost for non-members is $15 per day (or $25 if you register for both days). You can register here, but note that registration is being handled by Birds Georgia. When you get to the registration site, dismiss the pop-up asking you to login in if you are not also a Birds Georgia member.
Speaker Bios
Alan Weakley
Alan Weakley is a plant taxonomist, community ecologist, and conservationist specializing in the Southeastern United States. He holds a B.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. from Duke University. He has worked as botanist and ecologist for the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, and as regional and chief ecologist for The Nature Conservancy and NatureServe, and currently serves as Director of the UNC-CH Herbarium, a department of the N.C. Botanical Garden, and teaches as adjunct faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill and at the Highlands Biological Station. In the course of his career, he has worked cooperatively with most federal and state land-managing agencies in the southeastern United States.
Alan is author of the Flora of the Southeastern United States and its app version, FloraQuest, and co-author (with Chris Ludwig and Johnny Townsend) of the Flora of Virginia and the Flora of Virginia App, which have received awards including the Thomas Jefferson Award for Conservation. He is also co-author (with Laura Cotterman and Damon Waitt) of Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast. Working with a team of botanists and data scientists across the southeastern United States, Alan is leading a project to complete an enhanced version of the Flora of the Southeastern United States and also develop a series of apps, FloraQuest, covering the 25 state region.
Leslie Edwards
Dr. Leslie Edwards has a PhD in biogeography from the University of Georgia and is retired from the faculty of Georgia State University. She is the lead author of The Natural Communities of Georgia, and has served as president of the Georgia Botanical Society as well as on the boards of other environmentally-oriented non-profits. Leslie has taught numerous certificate classes for naturalist and native courses, and has given numerous presentations on natural communities and native plants. She is passionate about conserving Georgia’s landscapes and native plant communities, and enjoys gardening with native plants.
Eamonn Leonard
Eamonn is currently a Wildlife Biologist, for Georgia Department of Natural Resources. He has worked for the J.W. Jones Ecological Research Center at Ichauway and for the USGS in Idaho. Received a MS in Plant ecology (2007) from Utah State University. Eamonn has worked on habitat mapping projects, invasive species management, land conservation, habitat restoration with a focus on ground cover restoration, rare species conservation, and supervises staff that manage Ceylon WMA and Altama WMA. Eamonn sits on the Conservation Task force for Cannons Point on Saint Simons Island aiding in the invasive species management plan, is treasurer for the Georgia Invasive Species Council. Eamonn has also helped facilitate the creation of the Coastal Georgia Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area and acts as the lead coordinator for this group.
Ellen Honeycutt
Ellen is the current Chair of the State Board of the Georgia Native Plant Society. She has gardened with and appreciated native plants for over 23 years as a member. Helping others to see the beauty, versatility, and ecological importance of Georgia’s native plants—whether it be in the wild or in the garden—is both a passion and a compulsion—just ask her kids! She uses her personal blog, Using Georgia Native Plants, to share seasonal ideas and pictures about native plants in her area.