Naturally Beautiful Garden Conference Features Doug Tallamy

Doug Tallamy, visionary native wildlife advocate and researcher, will be the keynote speaker at the Naturally Beautiful Garden Conference from 12:45 to 4:30 p.m., April 4, at Unity Temple, in Oak Park. The event will feature national and local experts showing how ordinary people can heal nature while bringing beauty to our communities. Tallamy will base his remarks on his new book, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard, and outline simple steps to reverse declining biodiversity, including changing our landscape designs so they can sustain the plants and animals that sustain us.

Community horticulturist Ken Williams and permaculture designer and teacher Annamaria Leon will complement Tallamy’s talk with a discussion of community gardening and permaculture principles in Building Neighborhood Ecosystems. Their presentation will show how even those that don’t have yards can participate through community gardens in which beauty isn’t the highest goal: health and biodiversity will be.

The conference is co-hosted by the West Cook chapter of Wild Ones and the Eco-Justice Team of Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation.