Welcome to Wild Ones Fox Valley Area

Wild Ones Fox Valley Area Chapter / 920-572-9540 / PO Box 385, Appleton, WI 54912 / [email protected]

SPECIAL 25^TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

TOWARD HARMONY WITH NATURE CONFERENCE

with

Doug Tallamy – Keynote Speaker

Saturday, January 29, 2022 8am – 4:15pm

Oshkosh Convention Center, 2 N. Main St., Oshkosh, WI

Registration Is Now Open

Join us in person or virtually for an exciting all-day program of expert speakers, exhibitors and vendors. (Note: No walk-in registrations at the conference.)

Visit our conference website Toward Harmony with Nature for conference registration and more conference related details. (Chapter members and past conference attendees will receive a brochure in the mail early December).

IN PERSON REGISTRATION All attendees will be seated at round tables, with a small number of people per table to provide social distancing. All presentations will be given in one large room, with exhibitors and vendors placed around the perimeter. Attendees will choose a plated lunch to be served at the tables. Note: There will not be a lunch concession stand. Registration deadline January 12.

VIRTUAL REGISTRATION All speakers will be live streamed. To attend virtually, register on-line at TowardHarmonyWithNature.org and receive a link to attend the conference in real time. Registration deadline January 26.

Morning Presentations

Keynote Speaker (9-10:15am) – Douglas W. Tallamy

Nationally Renowned Native Plant Advocate & Environmental Speaker

“Nature’s Best Hope”

Today, with more than 83 percent of the United States privately owned, conservation must happen largely on private property, from the smallest city lot to the largest corporate landscape. Dr. Tallamy proposes that, if we adopt a new relationship with nature, we can save the natural world – and ourselves. He will suggest actions that will heal our damaged landscapes. He envisions a world in which landscaping will become synonymous with ecological restoration, enriching our lives with more pollination services, more carbon safely tucked away in the soil, more rainwater held on and within land, and more species of all kinds, increasing the stability and productivity of our ecosystems. This proactive approach to earth stewardship will become nature’s, and thus humanity’s, best hope.

Doug Tallamy is the T. A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 104 research publications and has taught insect related courses for 40 years. His book Bringing Nature Home was published by Timber Press in 2007 and was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers’ Association. The Living Landscape, co-authored with Rick Darke, was published in 2014; Nature’s Best Hope, a New York Times Best Seller, was released in February 2020, and his latest book The Nature of Oaks was released by Timber press in March 2021. He is an Honorary Director of Wild Ones.

General Session Speaker (10:45am-Noon) – Bob Lindmeier

Senior Chief Meteorologist, WKOW TV, Madison

“Solving the Climate Crisis”

Climate change enhanced extreme weather events are becoming more numerous and more intense. Bob will present the latest science in this thought-provoking discussion. Most importantly, he will discuss actions you can take to help mitigate climate change and help maintain the Wisconsin climate we know and love.

Afternoon Presentations

CONCURRENT SESSION I (1:15 – 2:30 P.M.) Choose one of the two speakers below.

“Companion Planting with Native Species”

Danielle Bell, owner, Native Roots

“The Beauty and Benefits of Rain Gardens”

Paul Skawinski, Lakes Outreach Specialist, UW Stevens Point

CONCURRENT SESSION II (3:00 – 4:15 P.M.) Choose one of the two speakers below.

“An Alternative to Boring Midwestern Bluegrass and Fescue Lawns”

Daniel Carter, Landowner Services Coordinator, The Prairie Enthusiasts

“Art and Artifice in the Native Garden”

Loris Damerow, Vice-President, Wild Ones National Board

After the conference, recordings of all speaker presentations will be available to both virtual and in-person conference attendees. A link to the videos will be sent with the conference evaluation.

COVID 19 GUIDELINES: As a Wild Ones Chapter we are expected and, thus all conference attendees, to follow the policies in place by the Oshkosh Convention Center, along with any city, county, state or federal mandates. We are required to ask all attendees to answer COVID-19 screening questions at in-person events, regardless of vaccination status.

Thank You to Our Sponsors:

We Energies Foundation

Bright Idea Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region

The 2021 plant sale is completed. Thank you for purchasing plants from us!

We plan to have a plant sale again in 2022!

2021 Native Plant, Tree, and Shrub Sale

2021 Program Schedule

Click here to view the 2021 Program Brochure, or click here to view the schedule insert from the Winter newsletter

2021 Winter Newsletter

The 2021 Winter Newsletter is now available here, archived newsletters can be viewed here

Keynote Address from Toward Harmony with Nature 2020 Conference Available Now

Stephen Packard

If you weren’t able to attend the Toward Harmony With Nature conference last January, or if you want to share the information with a friend, you can now watch the opening presentation by Stephen Packard on Wisconsin Public Television. In his presentation, “Reestablishing a Nourishing Relationship with Nature”, Stephen Packard shared lessons learned during his decades spent successfully restoring natural areas in the Midwest.

The program will air on Dec. 5, at 8:08 am, on The Wisconsin Channel as part of their University Place programming.

It is also available on demand from PBS Wisconsin.

Check out our help videos

Looking for materials from past annual conferences?

Go to the 24th Annual Conference Toward Harmony with Nature page

and click on the Speakers tab to find handout materials and websites for the concurrent session speakers at our annual conference, held earlier this year on January 25. On the homepage, two blogs and a TED talk can be found for Stephen Packard, who gave the keynote presentation. His presentation at the conference: “Re-establishing A Mutually Nourishing Relationship Between People” and “Nature” is available on YouTube.

Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes promotes environmentally sound landscaping practices to increase biodiversity through the preservation, restoration and establishment of native plant communities.Wild Ones is a not-for-profit environmental education and advocacy organization.

Please join the mapping project by answering the questions about your property. Photos would be great, but are not necessary. Specific species information is optional.

https://foxvalleyarea.wildones.org/contact-us/get-map/

Since our Chapter’s beginning in 1994, Wild Ones Fox Valley Area (WOFVA) continues to celebrate and promote the use of native plants in home and civic landscaping. We lead the natural landscaping movement in exploring, teaching, and changing the practice of gardening to include the use of native plants. Join us in helping to restore our natural world.

National Wild One headquarters is located at the WILD Center, in the heart of the Fox Valley.