Native plants are resilient, beautiful, and support biodiversity. Creating a native plant garden creates habitat that supports bees, butterflies, birds, and insects. Join us to hear from native plant experts and local stories of successful native plantings at a park and at a business.
Join us to learn about:
- How native plants can support wildlife in your backyard and at work
- What plants directly support Wisconsin wildlife
- Where to start with designing a planting
- How to bring your native planting ideas to life
- Native plant care
We’ll hear from Erin Cain from White Pelican Nursery and Evan Nelson from Good Oak Ecological Services will discuss the basics of native plants, their benefits, and how to use them in our home and work landscapes. We’ll also hear stories from Emily King, Sustainability Manager at Emmi Roth and Sayer Larson, the Village of McFarland Parks Superintendent about their recent native planting successes. Emily will share about how she organized a native plants volunteer day at Emmi Roth to beautify their space, increase sustainability, and build community. To close, the speakers will all join us as a panel for Q&A.
This program is VIRTUAL and accessible via this link (also available in an email upon registration).
Our Speakers:
Erin Crain-Sullivan and Jack Sullivan own White Pelican Farm, a native plant nursery north of Madison. The mission of the farm is to help people help Wisconsin’s wildlife by supplying and donating affordable, easy to grow native plants. Prior to opening the farm, Erin had a career in conservation, overseeing management of the state’s natural areas, parks and rare species among other programs at the Department of Natural Resources.
Emily King is currently the Sustainability Manager at Emmi Roth, an award-winning cheese company based in Wisconsin and owned by Emmi Group in Switzerland. She communicates and coordinates with management, shareholders, customers, and employees to address sustainability issues, and oversees the corporate sustainability strategy for the organization. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Photography and is presently pursuing her Master of Science in Sustainable Management.
Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Emily also serves as an Executive Board Member for REAP Food Group. REAP’s mission is to transform communities, economies, and lives through the power of good food, and it acts as a liaison between local food producers and local businesses to create a circular food economy. Emily is also a member of Sustain Dane as well and has received her Master Recycler Certification through its program.
Good Oak is a small company, based in Madison, WI, specializing in natural areas restoration and ecologically-minded landscaping. Our goal is to help our clients manage their property in the most ecologically sound way possible. We work in a diversity of environments and ecosystems across Southern Wisconsin and provide a rich array of land management services, consulting, stewardship, design and implementation.
This program is made possible by the Dane County Environmental Council.