Spicing Ecological Restoration with a Dash of Garden Design
Steven Handel, Ph.D., Hon. ASLA & Larry Weaner, FAPLD
Restoration ecologists are primarily concerned with advancing a strong biodiversity agenda. How their projects are perceived by visitors is generally not considered ecologically relevant. But restoration projects that elicit a positive public response are more likely to receive management resources, trigger project expansions, and even provide inspiration for restoration at other sites. Public “fear of nature” and dislike of a “wild” look are hurdles that can be overcome however, through plant arrangement, management protocols, path placements, and other moves that make “wildness” more legible to them. In this session Restoration Ecologist Steven Handel and Landscape Designer Larry Weaner will discuss how cross-pollination between these two disciplines can marry site ecology and visitor experience, to the benefit of both.
Tuesday, Nov. 19th, 2024 | 2:00 - 4:15 PM ET
Category: Professional
Fee: $65
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Student & Wild Ones member discounts
Group and Gift Orders
Student Scholarships
Registration open & recording viewable for 3 months after live date.
Instructor Bios:
Steven Handel, Ph.D., Hon. ASLA, is Distinguished Professor of Ecology Emeritus at Rutgers University, and former Visiting Professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He studies the restoration ecology of urban and degraded habitats and how this can mesh with landscape architecture design. He also was the Editor of the journal Ecological Restoration. He received The 2023 LaGasse Medal from the American Society of Landscape Architecture for achievements in natural resources and public landscapes, the 2024 Distinguished Fellow award from the Botanical Society of America and is a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America. He won the Theodore Sperry Award from the Society of Ecological Restoration for his ecological work on urban habitat restoration. He has received national Honor Awards from ASLA in Research, in Communications, and in Analysis and Planning.
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.