Events

Biologist, pollinator conservationist, and award-winning author Heather Holm will be the featured speaker April 30 at the Fifth Annual Keweenaw Native Plant Symposium. She will be joined by two experts on Michigan's native plants with distinctly different perspectives on our state's beautiful wildflowers. This free symposium will be hosted on Zoom. Click here to register. In her talk, "The Pollination of Native Plants," Heather leads us on a fascinating journey showcasing the development of different flower types and the presentation of floral resources to pollinators. Exploring the types of insect pollinators, their foraging behavior, and the floral features that attract pollinators, she will provide many examples of how native plants are pollinated and what pollinator is most effective and why. Heather informs and educates audiences nationwide, through her writing and many presentations, about the fascinating world of native pollinators and beneficial insects, and the native plant communities that support them. Her first book, Pollinators of Native Plants, was published in 2014, and her second book, Bees, published in 2017, has won six book awards including the 2018 American Horticultural Society Book Award. Heather's expertise includes the interactions between native pollinators and native plants, and the natural history and biology of native bees and predatory wasps occurring in the Upper Midwest and Northeast. Heather's latest book, Wasps: Their Biology, Diversity, and Role as Beneficial Insects and Pollinators of Native Plants, was published in February 2021 and has won five book awards. Also on the program is Carolyn Miller, botanist and plant recorder at Michigan State University, who will speak on "Michigan Native Plants: From their Habitat to My Home." She combs habitats throughout the state, her camera capturing as many plants as she can find. Her presentation includes a photographic tour of Michigan plants, from prairies, to bogs, to cedar swamps. Carolyn is the president of the Wildflower Association of Michigan, recording secretary for the Michigan Botanical Club, a master's student in biology at Miami University (Ohio), and serves on various environmental groups in the mid-Michigan area.   Michelle Wietek-Stephens will present “A Watched Seed Never Sprouts: Adventures in Starting a Native Plant Nursery in the U.P.” on her experiences starting the region's only all-native plant nursery. Michelle, a U.P. native and avid hiker, biker, and observer of nature, spent the first 15 years of her professional life as an environmental consultant. Then she moved with her husband and children to her family homestead near Marquette, where in 2020 she founded Designs by Nature�"Upper Peninsula Native Plants, LLC. Michelle will speak on her experiences opening a native plant nursery in the unique climate and culture of the U.P. in the middle of a pandemic; native plant selection appropriate for the U.P.; and what the future holds for her nursery. The symposium is sponsored by Keweenaw Wild Ones, the Sustainability Demonstration House at Michigan Technological University, the Keweenaw Garden Club, the Keweenaw Land Trust, and Michigan State Extension Master Gardeners.