Restoring Nature’s Relationships lecture slated Oct. 21
As part of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Trees meeting, Doug Tallamy, award-winning author and ecologist, will give a free public lecture at 10 a.m., Monday, Oct. 21, in the second-floor Commissioners Room at Rehoboth Beach City Hall, 229 Rehoboth Ave.
In his “Restoring Nature’s Relationships” lecture, Tallamy will speak about how specialized relationships among animals and plants are the norm in nature rather than the exception. Those relationships provide birds with insects and berries, disperse bloodroot seeds, pollinate goldenrod and more.
Plants that evolved in concert with local animals provide for their needs better than plants that evolved elsewhere. Tallamy will explain why this is so, why specialized food relationships determine the stability and complexity of the local food webs that support animal diversity, why yards and gardens are essential parts of the ecosystems that sustain people, and how landscapes can be used to connect the isolated habitat fragments around humans. It is time to create landscapes that enhance local ecosystems rather than degrade them.
Tallamy, a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, has authored 95 research publications and has taught insect-related courses for 39 years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities.
His book “Bring Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens” was published by Timber Press in 2007 and was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers’ Association. “The Living Landscape,” co-authored with Rick Darke, was published in 2014. Tallamy’s new book, “Nature’s Best Hope,” will be published in 2020.
Among his awards are the Garden Club of America Margaret Douglas Medal for Conservation and the Tom Dodd Jr. Award of Excellence, the 2018 AHS B.Y. Morrison Communication Award, and the 2019 Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award.
For more information, call 302-227-6181, Ext. 522 or email communications@cityofrehoboth.com.
