2 Program Locations (Massachusetts & New Jersey)
Each program will be tailored to its respective eco-region
Each Day 1 will contain classroom instruction
Each Day 2 will be held in the field. Registration will be limited
(Attendees will register for Days 1 & 2 individually)
CEUs available - 6 class hours per day
APLD, ISA, LA CES, NOFA - See here for details & instructions
Student discounts available! Scroll down below the session descriptions for details.
*Note: Due to circumstances beyond our control, The Morton Arboretum program on Oct. 2-3, 2023 has been postponed. If you’d like to join us in Illinois stay tuned for a new program date!
New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, Boylston, MA
Photo by NEBG at Tower Hill
Restoration to Garden: Plants and Wildlife New England-Style
New England Botanic Garden (NEBG) at Tower Hill in Boylston, MA
Day 1
(classroom instruction)
Thursday, September 28th, 2023 | 9:00 - 4:30 PM ET
The Plant Communities and Ecological Processes of Southern New England (1+¾ hrs)
Ted Elliman
Understanding the patterns and processes that affect spontaneous plant assemblages is the foundation of ecology-based design. In this presentation, one of New England’s premier botanists will provide an analysis of the key forest, meadow, and wetland communities of southern New England. He will discuss their physical environments, spatial structures, plant compositions, and basic wildlife habitat associations. He will also examine the ecological processes that affect these communities, including successional dynamics, disturbance, and how warming temperatures and pests may influence future vegetative patterns in New England.
Interactive Landscape Design: Plants, Wildlife, and People (1+¾ hrs)
Larry Weaner
Landscape designers and restoration ecologists both manipulate environments to influence vegetation, yet cross communication is all too rare. In this presentation Larry Weaner will show how the compositions, patterns, and processes of New England’s plant communities can be incorporated into the designed landscape. He will demonstrate how an understanding of specific ecological concepts like disturbance, competition, conservatism, ecotype, senescence, and succession can lead to specific protocols that enhance the habitat value and experiential quality of landscapes designed to interact with people.
Ecological Horticulture: Growing With the Landscape (1+¾ hrs)
Uli Lorimer
Uli Lorimer has practiced horticulture at some of America's most esteemed public gardens including The National Arboretum, Wave Hill, The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and currently The Native Plant Trust in Framingham, MA. This wide ranging experience has taught him how garden stewardship can be significantly enhanced when ecological principles and processes are also applied. He will discuss the potentials of this approach, as well as the limitations of cultivating wild plants in a fine garden setting. He also will explore some of the long-term considerations that arise once design projects are set in motion including "editing" spontaneous growth, altering the original design intent due to site-specific changes and pressures, and the never-ending ecological progression of plants.
Comparing Notes: A Wrap-up Conversation (45 min)
Ted Elliman, Uli Lorimer, & Larry Weaner
Our presenters and session attendees will participate in a freewheeling discussion on the real-world hurdles of plant community design, and anything else “landscape” that’s on their minds.
Day 2
(in the field)
Friday, September 29th, 2023 | 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM ET
(Registration will be limited)
Field and Forest: Observation, Analysis, and Action (6 hrs)
Ted Elliman, Uli Lorimer, Mark Richardson, & Larry Weaner
Walk 1 will visit and analyze several woodland habitats where we will discuss how their varied environmental conditions and disturbance histories have affected their current vegetative composition. These will include a rocky, upland forest where Oaks comprise most of the canopy; while witch hazel, Canada mayflower, Pennsylvania sedge, mountain laurel, and a host of native herbs dominate the understory. Little to no invasive species are present here. We’ll also visit an adjacent lowland forest where invasive species abound, but with occasional novel species like rattlesnake plantain and large whorled pogonia. We’ll wrap up the walk by visiting a beaver pond where a living forest has been replaced with a sunny wetland community.
Walk 2 will contain visits to multiple meadows with varying compositions and histories. We will start at an establishing native meadow that was planted in 2021. Here we’ll find warm season grasses and short-lived species like black-eyed Susan and partridge pea. Directly adjacent is an older meadow dominated by cool season pasture grasses and many of the broadleaf forbes that commonly associate with them. The walk will continue past a wet meadow managed by periodic mowing, with a large population of native forbs and shrubs. Finally, we’ll visit a vernal pool overrun by various invasive species. The overarching goal for Walks 1 and 2 is learning to recognize the conditions that determine the absence or abundance of native or exotic species; and use that understanding to more effectively enhance the landscapes we plant and manage.
Instructor Bios
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Ted Elliman is one of the most respected botanists in New England. He worked for 12 years as a botanist for Native Plant Trust (formerly the New England Wild Flower Society), where he continues to teach botany and ecology classes. Previously, he worked as a contract ecologist for the National Park Service and other federal and state environmental agencies. He is the author of Wildflowers of New England (Timber Press, 2016), and with Lauren Brown co-author of Grasses, Sedges, Rushes: An Identification Guide (Yale University Press, 2020). Now semi-retired, he continues to teach botany and ecology classes for Native Plant Trust and other conservation organizations and botanical gardens in New England.
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UIi Lorimer is the Director of Horticulture for Native Plant Trust. He oversees the facilities and operations at Garden in the Woods and at Nasami Farm. Uli brings 20 years of experience working with native plants in public gardens with previous positions at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Wave Hill Garden, and the US National Arboretum. He is a tireless advocate for the use of native plants in designed spaces through his public speaking, writing, lectures, and media appearances. Uli is the author of The Northeast Native Plant Primer: 235 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden (Timber Press, 2022). Uli feels most grounded with his hands in the soil.
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Mark Richardson is Director of Horticulture for New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston, MA. He leads a team of horticulture staff and oversees a living plant collection that spans 16 distinct garden spaces, two conservatories, and over 100 acres of surrounding woodlands and wetlands. Thanks to his leadership, New England Botanic Garden became the first botanic garden in the nation to earn Green Zone certification from the American Green Zone Alliance. Previously, Mark served as Botanic Garden Director for Native Plant Trust, where he oversaw Garden in the Woods and Nasami Farm native plant nursery. He is co-author of Native Plants for New England Gardens (Globe Pequot, 2018).
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Larry Weaner, FAPLD, founded Larry Weaner Landscape Associates in 1982 and New Directions in the American Landscape in 1990. His nationally recognized work combines horticulture, landscape design, and ecological restoration, and spans more than twenty U.S. states and the U.K. He has been profiled in national publications. His book, Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change (Timber Press, 2016) received an American Horticultural Society (AHS) Book Award in 2017. In 2021 he received the AHS “Landscape Design Award” and the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) “Award of Distinction.”
Restoration to Garden: Plants and Wildlife in the Atlantic Coastal Plain
Cape May Point Science Center in Cape May Point, NJ
Day 1
(classroom instruction at Cape May Point Science Center, Cape May Point, NJ)
Tuesday, October 10th, 2023 | 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM ET
The Plant Communities and Ecological Processes of The Atlantic Coastal Plain (1+¾ hrs)
Daniela Shebitz
Understanding the patterns and processes that affect spontaneous plant communities is the foundation of ecology-based design. In this presentation, ecologist and ethnobotanist Daniela Shebitz will provide an analysis of the key forest, meadow, and wetland communities of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. She will discuss their physical environments and plant compositions, as well as the ecological processes that affect them, including successional dynamics and disturbance. She will place particular emphasis on an often neglected, yet crucial aspect of ecological analysis; how historic human activity has influenced, and continues to influence, today’s wild plant assemblages.
Designing Wildlife Habitat: Behind the Scenes (1+¾ hrs)
Pat Sutton
From the perspective of a life-long naturalist intimate with the workings of the natural world, Pat will showcase the most important native trees, shrubs, vines, wildflowers, and even weeds, to birds and pollinators. Beyond simply naming species, she will discuss their specific faunal relationships, the layered spatial patterns that particularly enhance their habitat value for birds, and the landscape practices that accommodate the life cycle needs of butterflies, moths, bees, wasps and other pollinators. In concert with Doug Tallamy’s Homegrown National Park movement, Pat will illustrate how to foster a natural refuge everywhere - no matter how small or urban - to enrich the experiences of both people and wildlife.
Interactive Landscape Design: Plants, Wildlife, and People (1+¾ hrs)
Larry Weaner
Landscape designers and restoration ecologists both manipulate environments to influence vegetation, yet cross communication is all too rare. In this presentation Larry Weaner will show how the compositions, patterns, and processes of Coastal Plain plant communities can be incorporated into the designed landscape. He will demonstrate how an understanding of specific ecological concepts like disturbance, competition, conservatism, ecotype, senescence, and succession can lead to specific protocols that enhance the habitat value and experiential quality of landscapes designed to interact with people.
Comparing Notes: A Wrap-up Conversation (45 min.)
Larry Weaner, Daniela Shebitz, Pat Sutton
Here our presenters and session participants will participate in a freewheeling discussion on their real world experiences and lingering questions regarding ecology-based landscape practice in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and anything else ‘landscape’ that is on their minds.
Day 2
(in the field - 6 hrs)
Wednesday, October 11th, 2023 | 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM ET
(Registration will be limited)
Brett Ewald, David La Puma, Chris Miller, Bob Mullock, Larry Weaner
(Site 1 - full group) The Cape May State Park Hawkwatch Platform is one of the most highly regarded bird observation sites in the Eastern U.S. From the vast wetland vista that the platform provides, Ornithologists Brett Ewald and David La Puma will point out the bird species that are present, interpret the behaviors they are displaying, and explain the specific habitat requirements that the marsh is providing.
(Site 2 - split group) Here we will be introduced to three restoration sites on Cape May Point. First, Bob Mullock, president and founder of The Cape May Point Science Center, will guide us through dune restorations that are some of the most beautiful, tall, and protective on the East Coast. He will then introduce us to Lake Lily, where restoration efforts rescued the lake from siltation; and climate change-induced temperature rise, salinity, and algae blooms. Finally, Director of New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory, Brett Ewald, will host us at the observatory’s habitat restoration site. Completed in 2017 and managed exclusively by volunteers, this 1.5-acre site exemplifies what residences can do to enhance habitat at a small scale.
(Full group, indoors) Conservation Agronomist Chris Miller will give a presentation that provides guidance for plant selection, planting techniques, and stabilization protocols for dunes, tidal shorelines, streambanks, and heavily disturbed lands. Chris is manager of the USDA-NRCS Cape May Plant Materials Center, whose mission is to seek out, assemble, test, and provide the commercial landscape industry with superior performing plants for restoration; and develop innovative, science-based technologies to improve planting and seeding success.
(Site 3 - split group) We will visit and investigate Cape May Point State Park, one of the crown jewel natural areas of the region. The park contains 244 acres of freshwater meadows, ponds, forests, dunes, and beach. Ornithologist David La Puma will point out signs of bird use, the effects of invasive species, and the habitat enhancement that has been achieved in restored sections. Landscape Designer Larry Weaner will discuss how the native plant assemblages that are found here, and the restoration techniques that have been employed here, can be translated to the designed landscape.
Instructor Bios
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Brett Ewald is the Director of New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory. He has been studying ornithology and nature for over 40 years. His passion for birds and their conservation has led to his involvement in many research and educational projects. His ornithological specialization is in bird migration and distribution patterns.
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David La Puma, PhD, is a Vice President at Cellular Tracking Technologies, an environmental technology company located in Cape May, which makes transmitters used by researchers to study the movement of wildlife from bumble bees to grizzly bears. David received his PhD in Ecology from Rutgers University in 2010 and has over two decades of experience working in wildlife conservation including five years as Director of New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory.
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Chris Miller is a Conservation Agronomist and has served as Manager of the USDA-NRCS Cape May Plant Materials Center since 2009. Prior to this position, he served for 18 years as an NRCS Field Plant Materials Specialist for the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. In 2019, he served as an NRCS Liaison to both the Northeast and Southeast USDA Climate Hubs, studying strategies for agricultural producers to mitigate and adapt to saltwater inundation and intrusion on agricultural and forest lands.
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Bob Mullock is the President and Founder of the Cape May Point Science Center. Bob helped to preserve the historic building from demolition back in 2021 and was instrumental in creating the educational research center; he was also heavily involved in the dune and other restorations at Cape May Point. He is also the founder of The Harriet Tubman Museum in Cape May and is the owner of Cape May National Golf Course, The Chalfonte Hotel, and the Dormer House. Bob is passionate about conserving Cape May’s rich natural and cultural histories.
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Daniela Shebitz, PhD, is a restoration ecologist and ethnobotanist currently serving as Chair and Professor for the Department of Environmental and Sustainability Sciences at Kean University in Union, NJ. She conducts research with her students in sites ranging from Costa Rica and China to the New Jersey Pine Barrens where she studies the effects of land management on plant diversity, with a specific focus on culturally significant plants. Daniela earned her PhD in Ecosystem Science from The University of Washington, Seattle and her B.S. and M.S. from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
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Pat Sutton is a passionate wildlife habitat gardener and advocate for butterflies, moths, bees (all pollinators), birds, dragonflies, frogs, toads, and other critters. Pat has studied and taught about wildlife-friendly and native plant gardening for over 40 years. Sutton’s own half-acre wildlife habitat is a “teaching garden” that has been featured in many programs, workshops, garden tours, and books. Pat lives near Cape May, New Jersey, the world renowned migratory crossroads that is famous for its hawk, owl, songbird, shorebird, dragonfly, and Monarch migration.
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Larry Weaner, FAPLD, founded Larry Weaner Landscape Associates in 1982 and New Directions in the American Landscape in 1990. His nationally recognized work combines horticulture, landscape design, and ecological restoration, and spans more than twenty U.S. states and the U.K. He has been profiled in national publications. His book, Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change (Timber Press, 2016) received an American Horticultural Society (AHS) Book Award in 2017. In 2021 he received the AHS “Landscape Design Award” and the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) “Award of Distinction.”
“You have made a great contribution to the field through your conferences.”
– Leslie Sauer, Andropogon Associates, Philadelphia, PA
Photo by Max Touhey
What past in-person NDAL program attendees are saying:
“Always good to be out in the field ‘seeing’ the landscape through an ecologically technical lens and hear the successes and lessons learned from practical experience.”
“That was so valuable! The specifics were awesome, like traits of individual plants & design ideas (combinations & plants that tolerate each other in space & time). Specifics on species’ seed germination were wonderful!”
“This program really spoke to me. It addressed many issues I come across and inspired me to continue my work in this way.”
“Excellent as always! ”
Registration & NDAL Programs Portal
When registering on the NDAL Events Portal you will be asked to either sign into your existing account or create one. This account will give you exclusive access to the course materials (CEU details, etc). These materials will be available until three (3) months after the live event dates.
To register multiple staff members at once, please email info@ndal.org with their full names, email addresses, and session title(s). We can then register them and send an online invoice for payment.
Students please email verification of student status (ie. course schedule, student ID) to info@ndal.org for student discount code.
Registration will be refunded only if notification is received before five (10) working days prior to the live event date less a $10 processing fee.
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Thank you to our Institutional Ally!
Questions? Please contact:
Sara Weaner Cooper
Executive Director
New Directions in the American Landscape
sweaner@ndal.org
510-518-0430
Photo by Mark Weaner