NDAL receives 1st Regional Impact Award from the New England Wildflower Society

In fall 2016, the New England Wildflower Society (NEWFS) recognized NDAL with its first Regional Impact Award, which recognizes “exceptional leadership and achievement in native plant conservation, horticulture, or education with a regional significance.”

“For nearly three decades,” said Debbi Edelstein, executive director of NEWFS, “NDAL has shared a vision of landscapes in harmony with the natural world that has inspired innovative landscape design and horticulture in our region and across the country.  NDAL’s symposium and workshops have educated hundreds of professionals about the essential role that native plants can and should play in the designed environment.”

The award was a significant honor from a venerable organization, NEWFS, which has been instrumental in conserving native plants in the wild and promoting the use of native plants in designed landscapes.

In his remarks at the award ceremony, Larry Weaner noted:

Creating ecological landscapes is not a bitter pill that must be swallowed for moral or environmental reasons.  Through my work and through the NDAL conference series, I’ve learned to treasure the subtle, sometimes unanticipated beauty of designed landscapes and gardens that interact with local ecology.  These places of course offer all kinds of benefits – from habitat to lower maintenance to reduced inputs – but it’s really the experience of observing and responding to these places as they evolve over time that proves most profound.  To me, this engagement and dynamism offers a kind of fulfillment that a static conventional garden can never offer.