Lawn to Meadow

The concept of converting lawns to meadows has existing for decades yet has enjoyed a recent surge of interest in the US.  Compared to typical lawns, meadow plant communities support orders of magnitude more biodiversity, contribute more valuable ecosystem services to the surrounding landscape like protecting water quality, building soil and sequestering carbon, and can generate direct dollar value through harvest of flowers and other materials.  For over a dozen years Sam Quinn, Private Lands Conservation Biologist at SUNY ESF's Restoration Science Center, has been restoring and managing habitats like meadows in mixed-use landscapes including farms, golf courses and solar collection facilities, and has worked with landowners to generate sustainable revenue from these plant communities.  He will discuss the environmental harms of lawns, the benefits of meadows, and techniques to restore and manage these plant communities.

NOTE: Sam will speak via Zoom, but many of us will be gathering at the Nevin Center to watch on the big screen.