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The Biodiversity Jamboree

June 10 | North Branch Nature Center

FREE (donations welcome at the door)
Tickets required for keynote program (SOLD OUT)

Celebrate birds, bugs, plants, pollinators, and all the other creatures that call Vermont home in this summer nature festival for all ages! North Branch Nature Center and the Vermont Center for Ecostudies are co-presenting this day full of field outings, nature exhibits, kids activities, live songbirds and raptors, music, food, art, and more! Explore the woods and meadows, and bring your discoveries to our naturalist-staffed laboratory tent equipped with microscopes, guides, and specimens. Learn how to get involved in community science research, and find out what you can do to protect biodiversity in your own backyard or community.

Full Schedule, Outings and Activities

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**Keynote Program: Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy**

4:30 - 5:30 pm presentation (downtown) and 5:30 - 7:00 happy hour (at NBNC)
Tickets required for keynote - SOLD OUT

**UPDATE** Due to high demand, the keynote presentation will take place downtown at the Pavilion Auditorium at 109 State Street. Public parking along State Street. Happy hour reception will follow at North Branch Nature Center.

Keynote Description: Recent headlines about global insect declines and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at sustaining the plants and animals that sustain us. To create landscapes that enhance local ecosystems rather than degrade them, we must 1) remove the invasives on our property and 2) add the native plant communities that sustain food webs, sequester carbon, maintain diverse native bee communities, and manage our watersheds. If we do this in half of the area now in lawn, we can create Homegrown National Park, a network of viable habitats throughout the U.S. that will provide vital corridors connecting the few natural areas that remain. This approach to conservation empowers everyone to play a significant role in the future of the natural world. It is also enormously restorative for those who take action.

Doug Tallamy is the T. A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 111 research publications and has taught insect related courses for 41 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 books include Bringing Nature Home, The Living Landscape, co-authored with Rick Darke, Nature's Best Hope, a New York Times Best Seller, The Nature of Oaks, winner of the American Horticultural Society’s 2022 book award. In 2021 he cofounded Homegrown National Park with Michelle Alfandari. His awards include recognition from The Garden Writer’s Association, Audubon, The National Wildlife Federation, Allegheny College, Ecoforesters, The Garden Club of America and The American Horticultural Association.