Light breakfast & lunch are included both days.

Landscape at Hand Scale (1 hour 15 min.)
Mathieu Gontier & François Vadepied

From studio to site, from observation to realization, and from planting to maintaining, Mathieu and François will emphasize the gardener attitude that is part and parcel of their projects. Moving from plants to materials, they will discuss where the sensible line falls between emission-heavy construction and a material-reuse approach. Overall they will demonstrate how we can change our engagement with landscape, program, transformation, and maintenance to help create tomorrow’s cities that give hope for a resilient future.

Floristic Assessment of Natural Landscapes (1 hour 15 min.)
Gerould Wilhelm, Ph.D.

Gerould Wilhelm is one of North America’s most accomplished botanists. He invented the landscape assessment tool, Floristic Quality Assessment, which provides landscape practitioners with an objective-oriented decision tree that can inform potential habitat modifications, future management adjustments, and an ability to monitor those impacts. Initially presented in the 1970s, this tool has since been developed for most regions in North America and several in Europe. Attendees will discover the fundamental ecological realities that govern our culture’s relationship with landscapes around us, and discover that an analysis of existing plant arrays in specific landscape contexts can guide a rational plan for landscape restoration and stewardship.

Remnant Prairies and Grassland Restoration in the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont (1 hour 10 min.)
Bert Harris, Ph.D.

Harris will begin by covering the Clifton Institute’s recent research which found that remnant Piedmont prairies are the most diverse plant communities in Virginia; even more diverse than Midwestern tallgrass prairies. He’ll then talk about the Institute’s 100-acre grassland restoration experiment that is testing eight different methods (e.g. fire, tilling, planting, herbicide) 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 for meadow plantings and roadside revegetation projects.

Informed Plant Selection for Pollinator and Songbird Conservation: Woodland-Meadow-Garden (1 hour 10 min.)
Desiree Narango, Ph.D.

The choice of plant species in landscaping and restoration plays a vital role in creating habitats where pollinators and other wildlife can thrive. In this talk, Dr. Desiree L. Narango will share insights from her research, past and present, exploring which plant species and traits are most effective in supporting pollinating insects and songbirds. In addition, information will include little-discussed but highly relevant aspects of habitat creation including multi-trophic plant-wildlife interactions, and habitat relationships of wildlife with specialized life histories. Finally, she will connect theory and application by revealing practical decision-support tools for making ecologically sound plant choices.

Shrouded in Light: Plantings Inspired by Wild Shrublands (1 hour 10 min.)
Michael Guidi & Kevin Philip Williams

Shrub-dominated plant communities exist all around us. Unlike meadows and woodlands however, they are rarely included in designed landscapes as a distinct community type. Beyond their inherent beauty these ecosystems provide crucial wildlife habitat, resilience in the face of a changing climate, and visual legibility for visitors through their distinct distribution patterns. Join the authors of Shrouded in Light: Naturalistic Planting Inspired by Wild Shrublands (Filbert Press US 2024) as they explore the ecological significance, design strategies, and practical planting approaches to this crucial - yet often neglected - ecosystem component.

Speakers

NDAL gratefully acknowledges Pleasant Run Nursery for its sponsorship of our speaker fees.

Ross Altheimer, PLA, ASLA, FAAR co-founded TEN x TEN in 2015 where he is building and collaborating with a team of the most curious and joyful humans who are committed to transforming communities and institutions through transdisciplinary practice. As a landscape architect, his work explores the art, complexity, and temporality of place and culture. He believes that transformative design emerges from deep ways of knowing, storytelling, and the authenticity of people and places. He takes play seriously and has been known to draw landscapes while running marathons, and studies the bees that nap in his native gardens at home.

Matt Dallos, Ph.D. is a designer and environmental historian. He is the founder of Thicket Workshop, a design firm that creates plant-focused landscapes in the Northeast. Matt’s essays have been published in Places and Chinese Landscape Architecture. Matt received an MS in landscape architecture from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in environmental history from Cornell University.

Paul Fragua is a fire keeper, runner, translator, and interpreter. He is keeping the fires of Tribal sovereignty and self-determination burning through his life’s work in MIG’s Native Nation Building Studio; as well as giving voice to the voiceless and bringing visibility to the invisible. He has over 40 years of Native community outreach, community planning and development experience. He is a professional registered architect (inactive) and a Citizen of the Pueblo of Jemez.

Mathieu Gontier is a landscape architect and co-founder of Wagon Landscaping. He has an initial training in the Arts and Russian language. With this background he graduated as a landscape architect in 2007, exploring relationships between art and landscape. He employs the use of drawing as a tool for reflection and projects. He is a teacher at the Versailles School of Landscape where he teaches landscape and is responsible for studies of Marseille. He is co-responsible for the development of the agency and project management.

Michael Guidi is an ecologist and horticulture researcher in the horticulture department of Denver Botanic Gardens. He is passionate about naturalistic plantings that embody the flexibility and resiliency of wild systems. His work draws inspiration from liminal urban spaces and wild areas alike. Preferring common and weedy plants to the rare and precious, Michael is a proponent of dynamic, self-sustaining gardens and green infrastructure as alternatives to static high-maintenance landscaping. His research links ecological theory with horticultural techniques and designs to broaden the definition of gardens and gardening. Prior to joining Denver Botanic Gardens, Michael worked as a field biologist. He holds an MS degree in Ecology from the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at Colorado State University and a BS degree in Biology from Ithaca College.

Bert Harris, Ph.D. is a Co-Director of the Clifton Institute, a nature center and research station on 900 acres in rural northern Virginia. At the Institute, Harris directs a program of ecological research that has the goal of providing actionable recommendations to landowners. He is also a passionate land manager and native-plant gardener, and he works with his team and local landowners to restore native plant and animal communities. He holds a B.S. in Ecology and Biodiversity from Sewanee: The University of the South and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Sam Hoadley is the Manager of Horticultural Research at Mt. Cuba Center where he evaluates native plant species, old and new cultivars, and hybrids in the Trial Garden. When Sam is not in the gardens he can be found working as a liaison with the mid-Atlantic horticultural and nursery community to help promote the use of beautiful and ecologically valuable plants from Mt. Cuba’s evaluations. Sam grew up in East Granby Connecticut where his passion for plants and the natural world grew and led him to the pursuit of his degree in Sustainable Landscape Horticulture and at the University of Vermont.

José de Jesús Leal, PLA, ASLA, IA is a truth-teller and a landscape architect who considers laughter good medicine. His personal and professional journeys have always been spiritual - guided by the understanding that he is still a student with a deep passion for learning. As Director of MIG’s Native Nation Building Studio, his work focuses on the power of co-creation and inclusive community-based design and planning that is culturally sensitive. José uses landscape architecture to uncover, explore, and reflect hidden truths that can lead to healing, restoration, and a better path forward.

Desiree L. Narango, Ph.D. is a conservation biologist at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE) in White River Junction, VT. Desiree’s research focuses on biodiversity conservation and habitat restoration in the face of global change. She primarily studies plants, insects, and birds with a particular focus on multi-trophic interactions, habitat relationships of wildlife with specialized life histories, and mechanistic approaches to applied ecology. Before joining VCE, she was a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a postdoctoral fellow at City University of New York. She completed her Ph.D. in Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, an MS in Natural Resources from the Ohio State University, and a BS in Environmental Biology from SUNY: ESF.

Kevin Philip Williams is a naturalistic gardener who collaborates with active and passive materials to create dynamic and challenging worlds. His unique style combines bioregional plant palettes, a hardcore punk ethos, and post-human aesthetics to craft wild and captivating spaces. Kevin's extensive work with Denver Botanic Gardens has led to the creation of celebrated public gardens throughout the city. Kevin was a Gardener on The High Line in Manhattan and studied as a Horticulture Intern at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. He holds an MS degree in Public Horticulture from the Longwood Graduate Program at the University of Delaware and a BA degree in The History and Philosophy of Science from Bard College.

Maura Rockcastle, PLA, ASLA is a landscape architect, co-founder, and principal of TEN x TEN. With a background in printmaking and sculpture, Maura balances a rigorous approach to leadership and design innovation with a conceptual sensibility rooted in process. Maura’s professional experience is focused on cultural, institutional, and complex public realm projects. Her work has received national awards for design excellence, preservation, and innovation. In 2015 she co-founded TEN x TEN to build a practice committed to horizontal co-authorship, radical transparency, and curiosity. 

Kathleen V. Salisbury, MS, MEd is the Director of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, where she is also an adjunct instructor teaching woody plant identification and landscape management. Kathy has worked toward natural disaster recovery after an EF2 tornado catastrophically damaged the Ambler Arboretum in 2021. Kathy has been fascinated and delighted by the natural world around her ever since she was young, exploring the pine barrens of her southern NJ home. Never losing that passion, Kathy earned a BS in Ornamental Horticulture and Environmental Design from Delaware Valley University and an MS in Public Horticulture Management from the University of Delaware where she was a Longwood Fellow. After more than two decades in various horticultural and educational roles from adjunct professor to zoo horticulturist, Kathy is an award-winning educator and public horticulture leader. 

François Vadepied is a landscape architect and co-founder of Wagon Landscaping. He received his initial diploma in geophysics and cartography at the National Institute of Geography. In 2003, after fifteen years in the digital cartography field, he decided to radically change his work. He graduated as a landscape architect in 2007. In 2018, he became State Landscape Architect Consultant in the Meurthe-et-Moselle Department. He teaches at the National School of Landscape of Versailles and at Esaj, in Paris. He is co-responsible for the development of the agency and project management.

Gerould Wilhelm, Ph.D. is a botanist and co-author of Flora of the Chicago Region: A Floristic and Ecological Synthesis (Indiana Academy of Science 2017) with Laura Rericha. The book details the plants and plant communities of the 22-county Chicago Region along with their attendant animal and fungal associates. His doctoral degree included a compilation of the vascular flora of the western Florida panhandle and extreme southwestern Alabama. Currently researching the 54-county southern Lake Michigan region lichen flora, he invented the landscape assessment tool, Floristic Quality Assessment. Its first iterations presented in the 1970s, this tool has been developed since then for most regions and states in North America and several in Europe.