GREENFIELD — Research scientist Dr. Desiree L. Narango is returning to the area on Friday to share her latest research on what it takes to attract pollinators and songbirds.
Narango will give a free talk called “Gardening for Wildlife: How to Attract Pollinators and Songbirds to Your Neighborhood” starting at 7 p.m. at the Woolman Hill Conference Center, 107 Keets Road in Deerfield. Refreshments will be served.
According to a press release from Greening Greenfield, which is hosting the event with Woolman Hill, Narango is fascinated with the ways that plants and animals interact with each other, their environment and with humans, and what enables birds and insects to thrive, especially in landscapes that have been altered by humans such as urban yards, forests and farmland.
“The decline of pollinators and birds has been all over the news,” Narango said. “My research in urban and suburban areas provides evidence that small changes in our landscaping styles can create habitat that supports pollinators and songbirds, and bring nature closer to us for our enjoyment.”
“In the well-attended talk she gave last fall, Dr. Narango told fascinating stories about chickadees,” recounted Nancy Hazard, a member of Greening Greenfield’s Planting for Pollinators campaign. “Among other things, we learned that if we choose native plants so that over 70 percent of our yards are ‘native,’ they can thrive. We look forward to more stories and tips on what we can do to build what Doug Tallamy calls a ‘Homegrown National Park.’”
Tallamy, who was in fact Narango’s thesis professor, makes the case that if we plant natives in our communities, we would build millions of acres of habitat that would be larger than all our national parks combined.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree in environmental biology, Narango, a Baltimore native, spent five years as a traveling field ecologist studying wildlife from the deserts of Arizona to the rainforests of Ecuador. During her travels, she became aware of how urban development has drastically reduced the quality of habitat for wildlife, and was motivated to change that, according to the release.
Narango’s talk on Friday will kick off a weekend retreat at Woolman Hill on how to design native habitats for pollinators, people and the planet. To find out more about the weekend retreat and how to register, visit bit.ly/2wlNsNc.