Thursday Night Nature Fall 2025 Discount Bundle

Walking through the eastern forests, you may have noticed some striking characteristics of our American beech (Fagus grandifolia), including withered banded leaves. The presentation will provide an overview of the cause, a plant-parasitic nematode and the resulting beech leaf disease. It will cover current knowledge of dispersal mechanisms of the nematode causing the beech leaf disease. We will highlight plant-nematode interactions and outline the management strategies currently available for this disease.

Program Fee: $15 (Members, enter your code at checkout to receive your 20% discount.)

All lectures will be held virtually using Zoom. They will be recorded and shared with everyone who registers for a short time.

Habitats offer wildlife the food, water, shelter, and space they need to survive. Learn how to add each of these elements to your living space, no matter where you live. From the basics of bird feeding to brush piles, to offering (and managing) water through a bird bath, DIY pond, or rain garden, you can turn your yard into a 5-star wildlife resort!

Katie Fisk holds a BS in Wildlife Biology, an MS in Environmental Education and Interpretation, and has been an environmental educator for nearly 20 years. She loves connecting people of all ages to nature and helping them make new discoveries about the world around them. At home, her greatest passion is working in her native garden and observing all the birds, bugs, and flowers it supports. She is proud to be the recipient of the 2025 Land Ethics Award for Individual Effort.

Program Fee: $15 (Members, enter your code at checkout to receive your 20% discount.)

All lectures will be held virtually using Zoom. They will be recorded and shared with everyone who registers for a short time.

Chimney swifts (Chaetura pelagica) have a long history tied to human settlement in the eastern United States. Over centuries, this species adapted its nesting habits to include primarily man-made chimneys. Unfortunately, this amazing adaptation could be part of their demise, as we continue to see range-wide population losses over the past 10 years. What’s causing these declines, and what can you do to help? Come learn about the chimney swifts' natural history and conservation, and gain an appreciation for these amazing creatures living in your local neighborhood.

Stefan grew up in Central Pennsylvania, where he caught the birding bug as a young teenager.  During his formative years, he was a field technician studying golden-winged warblers in southern New York and Seaside Sparrows on Long Island.  After grad school, Stefan returned to Central Pennsylvania as a Pheasants Forever biologist working with local farmers to create wildlife habitat on private lands, mainly converting cropland to grassland habitat.  In 2022, he took a position with the Game Commission as the avian recovery biologist working on statewide initiatives to recover Pennsylvania’s declining bird species.  He enjoys birding, hiking, and camping across the county, running, and planting wildflower meadows in his local area.

Program Fee: $15 (Members, enter your code at checkout to receive your 20% discount.)

All lectures will be held virtually using Zoom. They will be recorded and shared with everyone who registers for a short time.

Nature play can awaken children’s senses, challenge their bodies, inspire their imaginations and build self-confidence. In order to grow up healthy and happy, children need abundant, unstructured time to play and explore in the natural world, but today’s children rarely have the opportunity to roam free outdoors. Creating nature play spaces that are inviting and engaging for children AND good for the planet is a great solution. Based on her book, with rich, inspiring images from around the world, detailed DIY project instructions, and an abundance of themed lists of child-friendly plants including many North American natives, author, educator, and landscape designer Nancy Striniste explains why and how to bring the beauty, adventure, and sustainability of nature play to backyards, schoolyards, churchyards, neighborhood parks, early childhood settings, and more.

Nancy Striniste is the founder and principal designer at EarlySpace, LLC, and has a unique background as both a landscape designer and an early childhood educator. For more than four decades she has worked with schools, childcare centers, municipalities, and organizations to create sustainably designed natural play and learning spaces in the mid-Atlantic and beyond, and to teach teachers and others about how to use the outdoors for teaching and learning. Nancy is the author of Nature Play at Home: Creating Outdoor Spaces that Connect Children to the Natural World (Timber Press 2019) and is the former National Policy Liaison for Green Schoolyards America where she focused on curating the pandemic-era National Outdoor Learning Library and on advocacy for the Living Schoolyards Act, a bill before the US Senate. After more than 20 years living and practicing in Arlington, Virginia, she has recently relocated to Bensalem, Pennsylvania and is eager to connect with colleagues in the area!

Program Fee: $15 (Members, enter your code at checkout to receive your 20% discount.)

All lectures will be held virtually using Zoom. They will be recorded and shared with everyone who registers for a short time.

The face of amateur astronomy has changed dramatically over the past few years. Advances in optics, precision mounts, computerized cameras and tracking capabilities have all elevated the world of the backyard astronomer to new levels that rival what professional observatories were capable of just a few years ago. Amateur equipment and citizen science opportunities abound for ordinary people to make valuable contributions to the professional astronomical community. Whether just casually stargazing with friends or monitoring the skies for science, it is an exciting time we live in for amateur astronomers. We'll explore what it takes to get involved with observing the sky, along with showing some of the amazing astrophotos taken by the club members of the Bucks-Mont Astronomical Association.

For the past 21 years, Dwight Dulsky of the Bucks-Mont Astronomical Association has worked on school and community outreach programming among numerous regional organizations, teaching children and adults about the wonders of the night sky. Most recently, with the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, providing Solar Eclipse safety information in 2024. He enjoys observing astronomical objects and dabbling in various aspects of astrophotography.

Program Fee: $15 (Members, enter your code at checkout to receive your 20% discount.)

All lectures will be held virtually using Zoom. They will be recorded and shared with everyone who registers for a short time.

The orchid family (Orchidaceae) is one of the largest and oldest flowering plant families on earth, with about 28,000 species, and developed about 100-125 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous Period. This lecture will help you understand how orchids have grown and flourished. Basic orchid culture, major types of orchids, and types of orchids grown at home without a greenhouse.

Anne is a retired CPA whose love for orchids started after finding the Central Jersey Orchid Society nearly 15 years ago. She is currently the immediate past President of the organization. She maintains a 200 square foot greenhouse at her home in Ewing, NJ, with over 400 orchids with many species represented. She loves presenting her class “Orchid Culture” to various garden and civic associations.

Program Fee: $15 (Members, enter your code at checkout to receive your 20% discount.)

All lectures will be held virtually using Zoom. They will be recorded and shared with everyone who registers for a short time.

Having a passion and sharing it with others can be one of the most rewarding experiences. As gardeners, nature lovers, and environmental stewards, we relish those moments when we see that twinkle of wonder across a student's eyes. In this age of technology, it seems like these moments of natural wonder are getting harder to find, but it is more important than ever to connect, even in a small way, with the environment. Join us for a look at how environmental interpretation has changed over the years, what inspired our journey, and methods and techniques you can use to share your love of nature and native plants with others.

Shannon and Anthony Trimboli have loved nature and the outdoors since childhood. Despite growing up hundreds of miles apart, they had similar childhoods, exploring the “wilder areas” of their yards and neighborhoods, chasing critters, and playing in the dirt. Like anyone passionate about something, they loved to share their love of nature with anyone who would listen. This passion followed them into college, where they obtained degrees in wildlife biology and then into their careers with both holding multiple conservation and environmental education positions. Eventually, both went back to college, while working part-time to obtain their Masters’ degrees, Shannon in ecology and Anthony in agriculture. Despite all the starts and stops of life, their passion for education never wavered. Today, they operate Backyard Ecology™ to help you avoid some of the mistakes they've made so you can achieve your own habitat dreams even faster and easier, guided by the principles of Curiosity, Balance, Science Informed, and Stewardship.

Program Fee: $15 (Members, enter your code at checkout to receive your 20% discount.)

All lectures will be held virtually using Zoom. They will be recorded and shared with everyone who registers for a short time.