Start Date
08/19/2021
End Date
08/19/2021
Description
Native plant communities can be found on remarkably difficult sites, e.g., highly alkaline, saline, acidic, droughty, and flooded. In the Northeast U.S. these communities include alvars, dunes, acidic pine barrens, inland salt marshes, marl fens, and other wetlands. A subset of these natural assemblages can be used to create sustainable landscapes on human-made sites that have similarly hostile conditions. Through a pair of presentations ending with an informal conversation and Q&A session, our presenters will discuss the ecology of these assemblages and how they can be adapted to a wide variety of “difficult site” projects from residential to urban to highly degraded industrial landscapes.
Distance Learning
Yes
Course Equivalency
No
Subjects
Sustainable Development & Design
Health, Safety and Welfare
Yes
Hours
3.0
Learning Outcomes
Examine the environmental factors that are most stressful to plant species that thrive in natural communities on marginal sites (saline, alkaline, extremely dry, acidic, etc.).
Learn how to determine which stressed “analogue” site is most appropriate to use as a vegetative model for high-stress landscape planting sites.
Understand how these native plant species can be used in innovative, sustainable ways on highly disturbed sites from residential to industrial.
Instructors
Dr. Donald J. Leopold & Tim Toland, RLA, LEED AP
Course Codes
Provider
New Directions in the American Landscape