From Backyards to Ecosystems: Connecting Native Plant Communities in New Jersey

In person tickets for the conference are now sold out! Zoom tickets are still available.

In person registration and breakfast starts at 8:00am. The conference starts at 9am on Zoom and in person.
It will last until about 3:10 (our event software can’t handle ten minute increments).

Native plants do more than beautify individual spaces—they form the living foundation of resilient ecosystems. In New Jersey, where over 85% of land is privately owned, each restored yard or natural area provides vital resources for wildlife. With over 1,400 Native Plant Society members leading the way, the transformative power of native plants reaches its full potential when these spaces connect across property lines, neighborhoods, and towns. This conference explores how we can amplify the impact of native plant restoration by thinking beyond individual boundaries.

From backyard habitats to large-scale restorations, we’ll examine strategies for creating ecological connections that support the movement of plants and animals, enhancing biodiversity. Our focus includes establishing pollinator corridors, maintaining genetic diversity in plant populations, and building climate resilience through connected landscapes. Our speakers will share insights on coordinating conservation efforts across different scales, overcoming barriers to connectivity, and measuring collective impact.

Join us as we explore how coordinated native plant restoration can help rebuild the interconnected natural systems that once defined New Jersey, from the Pine Barrens to the Highlands to our coastal habitats and the Meadowlands. Together, we’ll discover how to transform fragmented landscapes into thriving networks that support biodiversity and ecological health for generations to come. Together, we can create lasting change in our state’s ecological landscape.

All In-Person tickets include a Zoom link.

All tickets include early access to the conference videos.
Tickets are for members only and you must be logged in to purchase.
Tickets will not be available any other way.

Lunch is included.
Vegetarian and Gluten-free options available.
Bagels, muffins, and coffee will be available at registration

Tentative Schedule

8:00 am
Morning coffee, bagels, and muffins

8:50 am
Zoom stream begins

9:00 am
Welcome

9:10 am
How Can I Help?
Dr. Doug Tallamy
Founder, Homegrown National Park
TA Baker Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Delaware

10:10 am
Coffee break

10:45 am
Growing Native Plants for Restoration Projects
Dr. Linda Rohleder
Founder, Wild Woods Restoration Project

11:45 am
Lunch & Socializing (lunch is included for all attendees who purchase tickets by February 16)

1:15 pm
Plant of the Year Voting, Year in Review, Elections, & Door Prizes

1:45 pm
Break

2:00 pm
Crucial, Tiny Threads: The Importance of Connections
Dr. Randi Eckel
Owner, Toadshade Wildflower Farm
Past President, Entomologist, and VP of Membership, NPSNJ

3:00 pm
Closing remarks

3:10 pm
Event close

How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard

Dr. Doug Tallamy
Founder Homegrown National Park
TA Baker Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources,
University of Delaware

Nearly every day I get emails from people who have read my books and heard my talks and yet still have questions about ecological landscaping. These are good, thoughtful questions about ecology and evolution, biodiversity, invasive species, insect declines, native and non-native plants, conservation and restoration, residential and city landscapes, urban issues, oak biology, keystone plants, Homegrown National Park, monarchs, supporting wildlife at home, and more. In this talk I address as many of these queries as I can with hope that my answers will further motivate people to help restore ecosystem function where they live, work, play, worship, and farm.

Doug Tallamy is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 114 research articles and has taught Insect Taxonomy, Behavioral Ecology, Humans and Nature, and other courses for forty-four 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 Bringing 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 Writer’s Association. Tallamy was awarded the Garden Club of America Margaret Douglas Medal for Conservation and the Tom Dodd Jr. Award of Excellence in 2013. His next book, The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees, published in 2021 has received widespread praise. How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard comes out on April 8, 2025.

Growing Native Plants for Restoration Projects

Dr. Linda Rohleder
Founder, Wild Woods Restoration Project

The understory is a crucial component of forest ecology. Volunteers with the Wild Woods Restoration Project are growing native plants for restoration efforts in local parks across the Hudson Valley. By using local ecotype seeds, they are helping to preserve the region’s genetic diversity and restore habitats in these parks. Dr. Rohleder will explain how the project organizes volunteers to grow plants at home and will discuss the concepts and challenges they face with local ecotype seeds and sustainable growing practices. Since 2022, the project has engaged over 300 volunteers and cultivated tens of thousands of plants. This initiative highlights the powerful impact volunteers can make through collective action.

Dr. Linda Rohleder founded Wild Woods Restoration Project in early 2022 to mobilize volunteers to grow local ecotype native seeds for restoration projects in local parks. The organization is now a 501c3 nonprofit and has involved over 300 volunteers. For nearly 10 years, she served as Director of Land Stewardship at the New York – New Jersey Trail Conference where she built the Trail Conference’s Stewardship department and created programs such as the Invasives Strike Force which trained over 400 invasives-mapping volunteers who collectively surveyed more than 1,500 miles of hiking trails for invasive plants, conducted over 100 invasives-removal workdays and managed a seasonal conservation corps crew. Dr. Rohleder was also the founding coordinator of the Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM) in New York leading it for almost ten years. She grew the partnership to over 50 organizations and agencies, and led the development and implementation of regional strategy for invasive species management in the Lower Hudson. In addition, Dr. Rohleder led a volunteer group to create and maintain the Trail Conference’s native plant gardens.

In 2013, Dr. Rohleder received her PhD in Ecology from Rutgers University, where she studied the effects of deer on forest understories. While attending graduate school she worked as a seasonal park resource assistant in Monmouth County, NJ, and taught beginning Biology labs at Rutgers and Wetland Plant ID for Rutgers’ Wetland Delineation certification series. Prior to returning to graduate school she worked at AT&T as a software developer and project manager for 14 years. Dr. Rohleder has also spent more than 30 years creating native plant wildlife habitat on her own properties both in New Jersey and New York. She is a member of the Garden Club of Orange and Dutchess Counties and a Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Forest Owner.

Crucial, Tiny Threads:
The Importance of Connections

Dr. Randi Eckel
Owner, Toadshade Wildflower Farm
Past President, Entomologist, and VP Membership, NPSNJ

What is your connection footprint? Every living thing relies on connections to other species – and our connections to those species, both great and small, are critical to their survival and the survival of entire ecosystems, starting in our own backyards. Oaks and mosses, aphids and butterflies, hummingbirds and hawks – they all have a role to play in the great web of life. What do hummingbirds feed their babies? What species rely on our vanishing ash and beech trees? Randi will discuss the overlooked, the understudied, and the importance of even the finest threads in the food chain. She will cover lessons learned from species lost in the past, current challenges, and hopeful paths to the future that rely upon us and the actions that we can take, together, in our gardens, fields, and forests, to protect ecosystems for generations to come

A life-long naturalist, lover of nature, entomologist, and confirmed plant and ecology nerd, Dr. Eckel has been working with native plants for over 35 years and founded the mail-order native plant nursery Toadshade Wildflower Farm in 1996. With a particular focus on education and the fascinating ecological diversity of the natural world, Randi has been involved with NPSNJ for many years as member, speaker, and President from 2022 to 2024. She currently serves on the board as the Entomologist and Vice-President for Membership. At present, Randi also serves on the board of directors of the New Jersey Planning Officials and she is the Chair of the Frenchtown Planning Board. 

Tickets

All in person tickets are for members only. You may purchase a membership here and then return to this page.

Update: After 23 February we will be unable to give refunds for in-person tickets.
We expect to close in-person ticketing on 23 February.

Please enter your full name when asked to enter your name.

Lunch is in a separate building and will require walking down (and then back up) a flight of stairs. If you are unable to do that, please let us know in the “Anything else?” field.

If you are Gluten-free, please let us know in Anything else? We will also be sending out an email asking individuals who are gluten-free to let us know through a sign up form. GF meals are limited to the caprese and roasted veggie selections.

If you want to volunteer to help, please let us know in the “Anything else?” field.

Continuing Education Credits

Both in-person and Zoom attendees are eligible for 3 New Jersey Urban and Community Forestry CEUs.
We are still seeking to obtain CEUs from other accredited CEU providers.
If you need CEUs, please fill in your municipality and county. Again, this is only if you need CEUs.

If you have any questions or need help, please write

Tickets are now not available.