Hocking Hills Pollinator Gardening Symposium

04/06/2025

We had a great time at the 2nd Annual Hocking Hills Pollinator Gardening Symposium. The audience was triple that of 2024! And the slate of speakers was very interesting and knowledgeable. Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make the symposium happen. Thanks also to Logan Theater, such a great venue and easy to work with staff! More pics to come!

04/02/2025

Only a few tickets left for our 2nd Annual Hocking Hills Pollinator Gardening Symposium. Have your thinking caps ready because these experts will make sure you get your money's worth! Saturday April 5. $20. Register at www.polygoniafoundation.org

03/31/2025

We are getting close! Don't forget to register at www.polygoniafoundation.org for the Hocking Hills Pollinator Gardening Symposium this Saturday. $20 which is a steal for all of the expertise we will have gathered in the same room!

03/20/2025

2025 Hocking Hills Pollinator Gardening Symposium, Saturday April 5. Register at: www.polygoniafoundation.org

Speaker Feature - Converting Acreage to Pollinator Habitat

Christopher Kline is a plant guy by training, with a Forest Management degree from Northern Arizona University and a Masters in Plant Biology from Ohio University. Along the way his interest in bugs has grown, leading to developing and directing the Butterfly Ridge Butterfly Conservation Center in Rockbridge, Ohio, where he and his wife have converted 21 acres of fields and forests into butterfly-friendly habitats and have exploded the butterfly population in the process. As their butterfly population has increased by 300 percent, they have also documented well over 1000 moth species.

03/16/2025

Lots of seed of milkw**d and other valuable perennial plants will be available at Symposium 2025. Register at www.polygoniafoundation.org

Your Daily Pollinator - Today we feature the Monarch. Perhaps the most popular butterfly in North America. Monarchs use milkw**d as their caterpillar host plant. While they will use many species of milkw**d, I have found over the years they tend to have favorites. At Butterfly Ridge, butterfly w**d is the favorite for egg laying. In Arizona, it would seem Whorled Milkw**d, Asclepias subverticillata, is the favorite. Although keep in mind, simply planting milkw**d is not enough to create habitat for this species. The adult butterflies will feed on a variety of wildflowers, whose names are NOT milkw**d. Monarchs are not currently listed as threatened or endangered in the US. Please read here for a discussion of this issue, https://www.butterfly-ridge.com/butterfly-basics/2025/1/17/monarchs-on-the-threatened-list

03/16/2025

The title of this post was a recent headline in the news. The release of a recent study shows that since the year 2000, butterfly populations throughout North America have declined by twenty percent. Study Finds That US Butterfly Populations Are Severely Declining | Xerces Society The study

03/15/2025

2025 Hocking Hills Pollinator Gardening Symposium, Saturday April 5. Register at: www.polygoniafoundation.org

Speaker Feature - Kelly Capuzzi, who's topic will be the Buzz About Bees.

Kelly Capuzzi is a fisheries biologist and water quality specialist with over 30 years of experience sampling lakes, streams, rivers and wetlands throughout the state of Ohio. Kelly is also a master gardener, volunteer pollinator specialist, Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist and the garden manager of the Logan Community Garden. Kelly is a founding member of the Hocking Hills Wild Ones which promotes native plants, natural areas, pollinators, and wildlife.

03/07/2025

Speaker Feature - Gale Martin will be speaking on Unique Pollinator Plants at Symposium 2025 on Saturday April 5. To register visit www.polygoniafoundation.org

Gale E. Martin, owner of Natives in Harmony Nursery, believes that the preservation of local genotypes is of the utmost importance and wants to convert others to natives by offering high quality, genetically appropriate native forbs and grasses as well as providing the expertise to use and care for them. Education is a big part of Gale’s mission, and she works hard to educate and support her customers and the public at large in their land-use decisions. She is passionate about making Ohio genotypes available for anyone interested in using native plants to create habitat for native pollinators, birds, and other wildlife species.

02/25/2025

SPEAKER FEATURE - Leah Conway. Her presentation is titled Cryptid Caterpillars and she will discuss not only the coolness of caterpillars but also encouraging them in your home landscape to perform their important roles. Leah Conway is an Ohio naturalist and wildlife photographer. She has been photographing local Ohio flora and fauna for the past ten years, with an emphasis on lepidoptera. During this time, she also acquired a Bachelor of Fine Art in Photography from Columbus College of Art & Design and, mostly recently, a natural resources management degree from Hocking College. She hopes to advocate and facilitate positive change for the natural world via education, inspiration, and direct participation in conservation causes.

To register for Symposium 2025 visit www.polygoniafoundation.org