2026 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

CAMILLE DUNGY

Award winning poet, acclaimed essayist and critic.  Dungy is the author of  Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden.

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DR. ABIGAIL DERBY LEWIS

Scientist and Conservation leader with over 20 years of experience in landscape-scale conservation, climate resilience, and ecological restoration. She currently serves as Executive Director of Citizens for Conservation

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PROGRAM

Day 1
10 Feb 2026
Day 2
11 Feb 2026

The ABCs of Wildlife Conservation: Why We Protect What We Love

Why do some species inspire our protection while others are ignored—or worse, reviled? In this thought-provoking talk, conservation photographer and storyteller Danae Wolfe explores the psychology behind our conservation choices....
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Danae Wolf

Gifts That Keep on Giving: Edible and Medicinal Perennial Plants

We all love perennials… they’re beautiful, resilient, and reliable. But did you know that many of these amazing plants are also edible and even medicinal, offering an incredible assortment of...
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Luke and Linda Black Elk

Native Grasses for Every Garden

Looking for strategies to garden smarter and boost your landscape’s ecological impact? Join us to learn how native grasses can help reduce resource use, add biodiversity, and increase resilience. Offering...
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Shannon Currey

Restoration Below the Grassland

Restoring native grasslands requires more than planting seeds—it depends on rebuilding the below ground microbial communities that support plant growth and ecosystem resilience. Dr. Liz Koziol will share research on...
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Dr. Liz Koziol

Building Resilience in our Designs and Policy

Stacy Passmore is the Co-Founder of Superbloom, a Denver-based landscape architecture practice. Her work focuses on reimagining Western landscapes to be climate-resilient, biodiverse, and deeply connected to place, through projects,...
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Stacy Passmore

Planting Resilience, Restoration, and Joy: A Reading and Talk

In her book-length narrative Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, Camille Dungy blends memoir, poetry, photography, and maps to describe her family’s work to create a more diverse,...
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Camille Dungy

Treecycling: Funky and Functional Ways to Conserve Woody Debris for a Healthier Garden Ecosystem

Recycling woody debris like fallen twigs, branches, and logs is foundational to nurturing a healthy garden ecosystem. Keeping woody debris onsite fosters the development of fungal and invertebrate communities to...
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Erin Presley

Grow your membership, not your lawn

Backyard conservation programs have grown in popularity in the United States in the last decade as a way to provide habitat for biodiversity, combat the effects of climate change, and...
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Dr. Gerardo Camilo

Transforming a Degraded Landscape – The Wolf Run Grassland Restoration

In 1960, 120 acres of open ground at Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, MO was allowed to “go back to nature” through old-field succession. The land became a thicket...
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Mike Saxton

Native Landscaping – Gardening with a Sense of Place

Creating a native plant landscape is a journey, not a destination. It’s a process that connects you to the local environment and makes a statement about your style and values....
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Brad Guhr

The Art, Joy, and Science of Local Ecotype Native Seed Harvests

There’s a growing demand for native seed, and vendors across the country are working hard to bolster the supply. For one company in Nebraska, that means hand collecting seed from...
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Rita Cunha

Beyond Bees and Butterflies: Embracing and Conserving Local Insects

In this age of insect decline, it is of paramount importance to rewild landscapes to promote biodiversity and abundance. Focusing on ecological relationships is key, along with expanding the community...
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Eric Eaton

Native Plant Solutions: Managing Water in Your Landscape

Traditionally, built structures and hardscape did the heavy lifting when it came to managing water and runoff in our landscapes. While that’s often still the case, we now recognize that...
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Shannon Currey

Successfully Establishing Native Plantings

Establishing native plants from seed is not complicated when there is a plan in place. This presentation will cover establishment methods for a host of purposes ranging from restoration of...
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Elizabeth Steele

From Seed to Sky: How Native Plants Fuel Bird Life Year-Round

Birds and plants have been perfecting their partnership for millions of years, with migration schedules, breeding seasons, and food availability woven together in an intricate ecological dance. Even species we...
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Dana Ripper

The Urban Plant Palette: Natives, Nativars, and Adaptable Choices

While native plants may be our first choice for urban landscapes, what happens when they aren’t commercially available or are not the best fit for a specific site? A native-first...
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Brad Guhr

Bees in the City: Natives are Better

Cities in general are considered biodiversity poor due to the harsh environment, e.g., urban heat island effect, and the constant disturbance. Alternative, for many insect pollinators, like bees, cities can...
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Dr. Gerardo Camilo

Keeping it Green—Designing and Planning for Green Infrastructure Maintenance

The City of Lancaster, PA has been installing and maintaining green infrastructure practices including rain gardens, porous pavements, green roofs, and constructed wetlands for over a decade, and has learned...
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Kate Austin

Nurturing Vibrant Garden Communities at Olbrich Botanical Gardens

On the shores of Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, Olbrich’s enchanting gardens are the culmination of relationships between the many layers of community we invite and nurture.  From plants to...
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Erin Presley

Supporting Monarch Resilience: The Role of Native Plants

Monarch butterflies have experienced population declines in recent years, with habitat loss, pesticides, and climate identified as contributing factors. Recent research on monarch responses to changing conditions is discussed in...
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Kristen Baum

The Power of People, Pollinators and Prairies

Intentional partnership building across sectors to advance shared goals for resilient landscapes can generate wide-ranging benefits for both people and nature. Working lands have enormous potential—not only to grow healthy...
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Dr. Abigail Derby Lewis