Lunch & Learn: The Miyawaki Method
with Maya Dutta

Join Micro-Forest creator Maya Dutta to learn about this unique method for reforestation using micro-forest design that was created by Japanese botanist Dr. Akira Miyawaki in the 1980's and how they can build communal and climate resilience.

Lunch & Learn: Falling For Foliage
with Chris Teter

Join Chris Teter, Board Certified Master Arborist, Accredited Organic Land Care Professional, and Connecticut Master Gardener, for this presentation to gain a deeper understanding of how you can use leaves in your surroundings, strategically placing them to enhance both beauty and ecological value.

Lunch & Learn: Wild Plants I Have Known and Eaten!
with Russ Cohen

Join Russ Cohen, expert forager and author of Wild Plants I Have Known…and Eaten, for a presentation featuring at least two dozen species of native edible wild plants suitable for adding to your own landscape, or nibbling on as you encounter them in other locales. 

Keys to the identification of each species will be provided, along with edible portion(s), season(s) of availability, and preparation method(s), as well as guidelines for safe and environmentally responsible foraging.

Lunch & Learn: Cultivating Backyard Habitat for Pollinators in Every Season with Desiree Narango

From creating “Soft Landings” to leaving the leaves and planting Keystone Species...there are so many brilliant ways for us to make our residential properties safer, more productive and more welcoming to our critical pollinator species. Remember, a healthy population of moths, butterflies, and bees, in turn generates healthy populations of birds, mammals, and everything up the native food chain.

Join renown conservation scientists and research ecologist Desiree Narango for an enlightening talk on action steps we can take, starting this fall, to cultivate our backyard habitats for native pollinators.

Lunch & Learn: Hedgerows with Heather McCargo from Wild Seed Project

Join Heather McCargo, Founder of Maine’s Wild Seed Project, as she inspires us to use hedges and edges in our garden design and puts this natural phenomenon to good use increasing productivity and biodiversity of our yards. Creating hedgerows between garden zones, breaks up the space and adds a whole new range of microclimates and growing conditions.  

Lunch & Learn: Working the Night Shift - Pollination After Dark with Emily May from The Xerces Society

Join Emily May from The Xerces Society to learn more about the pollinators that come out to work as others turn in for the evening. Moths, flies, beetles, and other dusk and night-time pollinators can play important roles in pollinating wild and managed plants. Emily will talk about the ecology, diversity, and importance of these hidden pollinators, and how we can best support them.

Lunch & Learn: Lungs of Fairfield County with Adam Goodman

Join Adam Goodman, ALT Land Acquisition Specialist, on a digital hike, through what we love to think of as the "Lungs of Fairfield County" and learn more about Aspetuck Land Trust's trails and preserves.

Lunch & Learn: Measuring the Impact of Rewilding Your Yard
with Bram Gunther and Desiree Narango

At Plan it Wild, we need your help in developing our new science tool. As rewilding of the yard grows in popularity, we need science to justify our actions as well as increased investment. We are piloting a ground-breaking science initiative to build a rating system to measure the impact of rewilding. This system will be easy to use and will increase our understanding of the importance of rewilding yards in bringing back biodiversity. Learn more about our new science and participate in a live feedback session on the components of Proof of Life.

Lunch & Learn: Advancing the Habitat Gardening Movement, One Yard at a Time
with Missy Fabel of Plan it Wild

Whether you've already committed to reducing your lawn footprint or curious about all the new buzz about rewilding your landscape, this is the webinar for you. Join Missy Fabel & Dave Baker of Plan it Wild, a sustainable landscaping and design company specializing in ecological design to learn the newest trends in native landscaping. Missy will be sharing new design alternatives to transform your yard into a beautiful native habitat that increases biodiversity, captures carbon, and absorbs stormwater. Click HERE to view the slide deck.

Lunch & Learn: Landscapes for Better Living - Healing the Waters, Caring for the Land
with Jay Archer

How Ecological Landscape Design, Organic Horticulture and Land Stewardship Can Improve our Human Health and Save the Planet

By understanding present conditions and factors which influence the health, ecological function, and aesthetic appearance of the suburban landscape environment, we can develop plans and strategies to renovate, repair, renew and reimagine the land where we live, work and play. 

By recognizing and identifying issues in the landscape, we can begin to heal and restore the balance of nature for our own benefit while providing a brighter, healthier future for our families and communities for…today, tomorrow and all the days of our lives.

Lunch & Learn: Leave the Leaves
with Anna Fialkoff

Autumn is typically when many of us put our gardens to bed by removing leaves and cutting back perennials. Yet, allowing fallen leaves, branches, stems, and seed heads to stay where they are rather than raking, blowing, shredding, or cutting them away will ensure our gardens are places for life to thrive. Anna Fialkoff from Wild Seed Project helps us rethink our garden “clean up” this year and consider taking steps toward supporting essential pollinators, birds, and other wildlife through the cold winter months.

Lunch & Learn: Unflappable
with Suzie Gilbert

Author of the best-selling memoir Flyaway: How a Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings, and in 2020 the award winning novel Unflappable, Suzie Gilbert shares her love of the natural world, passion for wild birds, and how she went from raptor center volunteer to founder of her own bird rehab center and author.

Lunch & Learn: Designing with Native Plants in Deer Country
with Brid Craddock, Growing Solutions
September 7, 2022

Veteran landscape designer Brid Craddock from Growing Solutions tells us the whole truth (hard to find these days) about what plants are deer-proof and what tried-and-true techniques she has used to keep Bambi away from our native plants! Deer in Newtown behave differently from deer in Westport and Old Lyme…what’s a gardener to do? 

Lunch & Learn: Think Like A Forest
with Anna Fialkoff, Wild Seed Project
August 26, 2022

Planting Native Trees to Support Local Food Webs

Native trees offer countless benefits beyond their four-season beauty––purifying air, shading and cooling in hot weather, storing atmospheric carbon, minimizing flooding and storm water runoff and helping to sustain vital pollinators, birds and other wildlife. It is important to consider trees as part of a forest-like system, even when not planted in actual forests but around homes and businesses, in parks and public open spaces, along city streets and highway margins and even in parking lot islands. In this one hour talk, Anna teaches the what, why, and how of planting native trees to support local food webs.

Lunch & Learn: Green Corridor - From Vision to Reality
with Mary Ellen Lemay
August 10, 2022

Join our Director of Landowner Engagement, Mary Ellen Lemay, to learn why the Green Corridor Initiative is an important method to heal the fragmented and toxic landscape that surrounds us. By taking simple eco-friendly steps in our own yards and other private properties, we are creating stepping stones to connect to our protected properties, creating a Green Corridor that allows for the movement of species across the landscape and improving biodiversity. From vision, to action steps, to impact, learn how the Green Corridor is making a difference in healing the landscape and saving our corner of the earth and how you can join thousands of other people and become a “stepping stone” on the corridor.

Annual Meeting of the Members
June 16, 2022

Become A Green Corridor Partner: Take the Pledge

View the Green Corridor Partner Map: So many chickadees!

Lunch & Learn: Transforming Your Lawn Into A Meadow
with Jay Petrow
April 29, 2022

Join Jay Petrow, the owner and principal designer of PetrowGardens Landscape Design for this informative presentation. This Lunch & Learn introduces you to various ways of creating a pollinator meadow in your backyard. By eliminating part of your lawn and planting or seeding a native meadow garden, you will introduce plants that are beneficial for pollinators, are mostly deer resistant, are more drought tolerant than your lawn, and look beautiful. Learn about putting together a planting plan and then create a plan for your own yard.

Lunch & Learn: 2/3 for the Birds
with Edwina von Gal
April 22, 2022

Having designed landscapes for the rich and famous - in terms of people and places along the lines of Rockefeller Center, Ina Garten, Calvin Klein, Robert De Niro - it was midway through her career that Edwina had an epiphany about the potential impact for the better or worse in how gardens are cared for in our world.

In order to help tilt the balance back toward gardens large and small being positive contributors to the life, health, habitat and biodiversity of our world – she founded the Perfect Earth Project – promoting toxin-free lawns and landscapes for their people, pets, and planet.

In the last few years, Edwina has expanded her mission with advocacy known as 2/3rds 4 the birds – based on the research of Dr. Doug Tallamy – urging all residential and campus landscapes to dedicate 2/3rd of their plantings to be native plants for habitat value and to commit to going toxin free.

If all our yards and parks and campuses become Two Thirds, they will eventually connect and create life filled corridors of habitat. A life saver for our birds, our biodiversity, ourselves.

Lunch & Learn: Plant Invaders in our Landscape and How to Manage Them with Suzanne Thompson
April 13, 2022

Suzanne Thompson, organizer of Nix the Knotweed and co-leader of Pollinate Old Lyme provides an overview of ALL of the worst invasive plants in southeastern Connecticut, (think Mugwort, Garlic Mustard, Multiflora Rose, Japanese Barberry, and of course Knotweed) and shares tips on how to remove or combat them and to reestablish native ecosystems that support our pollinators, wildlife, and insects to feed those spring babies!

Resources from Suzanne

Lunch & Learn: Invasive to Native, A Backyard Restoration
with Pam Roman
April 8, 2022

We had another fabulous Lunch & Learn with super-gardener Pam Roman and learned about her multi-year project (during COVID) that not only transformed her garden but healed her heart and soul.

Large scale invasive removal takes a village, or at least a big team. However, backyard invasive removal can leave us to our own devices. Do you want to be inspired with a “can do” attitude and see the stunning results that one person can successfully create? 

Watch this wonderful story of a local woman who is working with nature to restore the health and beauty of a suburban landscape. A true example of improving biodiversity, one yard at a time.

Caryl and Edna Haskins Lecture
with James Prosek
April 6, 2022

Growing up in Easton CT, James Prosek often trespassed onto the watershed lands surrounding the Aspetuck Reservoir. This experience shaped a career as a renowned artist, author, and passionate conservationist. Prosek’s talk “Trespassing and Conservation,” draws attention to the beauty of our natural world while urging us to protect, conserve, and connect our lands, restoring a healthy ecosystem for all. “The danger comes”, Prosek writes, “when the lines we draw make us lose sight of the interconnected nature of Nature. The challenge is to communicate and celebrate the beauty of diversity on our planet without embracing an ethos of division.”

Lunch & Learn: Invasives Panel Discussion
March 31, 2022

GREEN IS GOOD? Not necessarily…plants that turn green early are often the invasive ones, grabbing an early stake on resources.

Let’s learn what to remove and when to do it! Many hands make light work...that is why our local teams are collaborating on this project. Join Aspetuck Land Trust, Fairfield Pollinator Pathway, Connecticut Audubon Society, Connecticut Invasive Species Working Group (CIPWG), Fairfield Garden Club, Weed Wrangle, and MowGreen in a Lunch & Learn EXPERT panel discussion.

Lunch & Learn: Smith Richardson, A Neighborhood Sanctuary
with Charlie Stebbins
March 22, 2022

Connecticut Audubon Steward and Aspetuck Land Trust member Charlie Stebbins shared the amazing story of Audubon’s Smith Richardson Preserve in Westport. This is one of the few places in Connecticut where visitors can see a significant habitat restoration project while it is in progress.

Until roughly 2016, a section of Smith Richardson was a thicket of weeds and invasive shrubs and vines such as barberry and Asiatic bittersweet. Connecticut Audubon envisioned an ecological overhaul that would transform it into a rich, coastal forest and shrubland.

Lunch & Learn: Native Plant Guilds
with Anna Fialkoff
March 16, 2022

Anna Failkoff, Ecological Programs Manager of Wild Seed Project, talked with us about native plant guilds. When you consider plants in simple groupings, or guilds, it becomes a lot easier to design a landscape with appealing texture, color, and wildlife value throughout the seasons. Native plant guilds draw on inspiration from natural plant communities in habitats like coastal plains, forests, wetlands, or mountain tops.

Lunch & Learn: Forest Resilience
with Juliana Barrett
February 23, 2022

Mary Ellen Lemay kicks off our popular Lunch & Learn webinar series for 2022. Juliana Barrett, Ph.D. presented Forest Resilience in Face of Climate Change, the story of the Hoffman Preserve in Stonington, CT. This almost 200-acre forest had several large patch cuts due to a large number of dead, dying, and damaged trees in 2019. Dr. Barrett discussed the development of a coastal forest management plan for the patch cuts, focused on resilience in the face of climate change.

Annual Meeting of the Members
June 24, 2021

Become A Green Corridor Partner: Take the Pledge

View the Green Corridor Partner Map: So many chickadees! 

Add Property Pictures to the Green Corridor Partner Map: Share Pictures of Your Garden. Send an email to Shaina Meyer (smeyer@aspetucklandtrust.org) if you would like help adding a picture of your garden to the Green Corridor Partners Map.

Buy the Keystone Native Trees Booklet: Native Trees for Northeast Landscapes: A Wild Seed Project Guide

Lunch & Learn with Dr. Felicia Keesing
June 9, 2021

Dr. Felicia Keesing, Professor of Ecology and Infectious Disease, and Distinguished Professor of the Science, Mathematics, and Computing at Bard College shared her years of research on the biology of species diversity on June 9th. She helped us understand how reversing the decline of a variety of plants and animals in our environment could help prevent the emergence and spread of these diseases on a global and community based scale.

Since we couldn’t record the talk, here are two podcasts and a paper where Dr. Keesing covers the same topics discussed in our Lunch & Learn.

Diluting Disease with Felicia Keesing

Controlling The Lyme Disease Epidemic

Impacts of biodiversity and biodiversity loss on
zoonotic diseases

Beyond Competition: Trees Communicate and Cooperate to Make Healthy Forests with Dr. Charlotte Pyle
April 26, 2021

The amazing ways that trees communicate and cooperate with each other seem almost like otherworldly magic! Hear Dr. Charlotte Pyle discuss forest ecosystems, which are held together by relationships among individual trees and between trees and other organisms. You'll never look at trees the same way again!

The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of our Most Essential Native Trees with Doug Tallamy

Hear from Doug Tallamy all about his book launching on March 30. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees… from woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards.

Living Harmoniously with Wildlife - Peter Reid, Wildlife in Crisis

Spring is a critical time to understand the behaviors and needs of the native wildlife around us. Now it is the beginning of baby season when Wildlife in Crisis educates people about what’s to come with our wild neighbors. Hear from Peter Reid, Outreach Coordinator at Wildlife in Crisis in Weston to learn how to make our yards safe stepping stones across the landscape … let’s share our land harmoniously with the wildlife around us.

Green, Clean, and Quiet Lawn Care Practices - Dan Delventhal, MowGreen

Let’s get the facts from Dan Delventhal on the latest and greatest quiet and clean lawn care machines AND learn how eco-friendly practices are keeping our air and water cleaner and our neighborhoods quieter. Check out this Lunch and Learn Lecture, helping us to take small steps in our yards that make big differences to the planet.

CT's Largest Landowner's Pollinator Initiative - Adam Boone, CT DOT

Since the Act Concerning Pollinator Health was passed by the state legislature in 2016, our largest landowner, the DOT has embarked on an extensive project to test native plants and grasses for pollinators on our state roads. Hear from DOT Transportation Landscape Designer Adam Boone and Kevin Carifa, Assistant Director in the office of Environmental Planning!

Special Guest Lecture - Edwina von Gal

Listen and learn how changing our understanding of "perfect" can mean a biodiverse, beautiful and affordable property from Edwina von Gal, founder of the PRFCT Earth Project!

Soundscape Ecology: Welcoming the Sounds of Nature to your Yard

Find out more about the emerging field of Soundscape Ecology, and how you can take some simple steps to welcome nature’s chorus back to your yard.

Doug Tallamy Keynote - 2020 Annual Meeting

Doug Tallamy speaks to Aspetuck Land Trust at our 2020 annual meeting.

Native Pairings: From Earth to Sky

Learn about the Ecotype project and how landowners and residents can help preserve biodiversity and support the food system by bringing these native plants back into the Connecticut landscape. Hear from Dina Brewster - Executive Director of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (CT NOFA) and founder of The Hickories Organic Farm, and Sefra Alexandra - a wilderness skills instructor and permaculture educator trained in seed saving.

Plant for the Queens

Learn how to enjoy spring at home and help the bees in this lecture that people are buzzing about! Hear from speakers Emily May, Bee Conservationist from the Xerces Society, and Jim Sirch, Education Coordinator and Native Plant Guru from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.