2026 Native Plant Speakers

Lecture Title: Nature for Community Development: Integrating Nature into Daily Experiences

Speaker: William Wilson and Alex Rivera, MPA 

Program Description:

Conservationists have had tremendous success preserving parcels of land for water, habitat, and biodiversity, but in urban areas, land is often inherently multi-purpose. For nature to matter in cities, it must be woven into daily life in ways that are visible, practical, and meaningful to residents. This session will explore how integrating nature into the economic and social life of a community can create broader community development opportunities. Drawing from the Outdoor Equity Alliance’s work and aspirations in Trenton, the presentation will highlight strategies for land management and nature access that support community goals such as neighborhood vitality, belonging, health, and opportunity. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how to expand nature access in urban communities by aligning environmental work with the priorities residents care about most.

Biography:

William Wilson is President of the Outdoor Equity Alliance, a Trenton-based nonprofit working to create equitable access to nature in all communities and inspire a diverse new generation of environmental leaders. His work focuses on building stronger connections between environmental stewardship, community development, and public life, with a particular emphasis on expanding nature access in urban communities that have too often been excluded from environmental investment and opportunity.

In addition to leading OEA, William serves as Director of Production and Events at the Doris Duke Foundation, where he helps shape and produce high-level convenings, public programs, and cross-institutional gatherings. Across both roles, his work sits at the intersection of strategy, community engagement, and place-based impact. He is especially interested in how environmental work can become more visible, practical, and relevant in daily life, particularly in cities like Trenton where residents are navigating overlapping challenges related to heat, public space, health, and disinvestment. Through OEA, he is helping advance a model of environmental leadership that is grounded in equity, local relevance, and long-term civic transformation.

Alex Rivera, MPA is Director of the Center for Economic and Workforce Development, Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Kean University, where he leads the U.S. Economic Development Administration University Center grant. In this role, he helps position Kean as a statewide and regional leader in strengthening place-based economic development, workforce strategy, and innovation ecosystems across New Jersey’s urban communities.

Alex brings more than 10 years of experience across state, county, and municipal government in Arizona and New Jersey, with work spanning parks and natural resource management, public works, youth services, and economic and workforce development. His career has been defined by a commitment to helping historically disinvested communities become more socially, economically, and environmentally vibrant. Prior to his current role, he worked on urban environmental restoration projects at the Mercer County Park Commission and Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space, including efforts in Trenton’s historic Cadwalader Park and Roebling Park within the Abbott Marshlands. He also helped develop the first regional, urban-focused Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy for New Jersey Urban Mayors Association member cities, opening the door to critical federal funding opportunities for local economic and workforce development. Alex holds a Master of Public Administration from Arizona State University, where he was a Marvin Andrews Fellow in Urban Management, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from The College of New Jersey. He also holds Green Infrastructure Practitioner and Level I Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional certifications. His work is grounded in the belief that environmental quality is deeply tied to economic and social outcomes, and that conservation and restoration strategies should play a much larger role in how communities plan for the future.

Lecture Title: History In the Leaves: Field Clues to Land Use History

Speaker: Jared Rosenbaum, Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner, Wild Ridge Plants, LLC

Program Description:

The plant species we find in wild areas often provide clues to prior human land use. Sometimes plants communicate as much about recent history as they do about “natural” conditions like soil or aspect. Understanding the history of a site can provide valuable direction to our approaches as restoration practitioners and landscape designers.

How can we decipher clues to prior land use as we work in the field? Join Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner Jared Rosenbaum of Wild Ridge Plants as he describes methods for interpreting the history of natural sites, including pasture trees, signs of logging, high quality remnants, the use of aerial imagery, Floristic Quality Assessment/PSI and more.

Biography: 

Jared Rosenbaum is a botanist, native plant grower, and Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner. He and his wife Rachel run Wild Ridge Plants LLC, a business that grows locally native plants using sustainable practices and performs botanical surveys to support ecological land management. Jared is the author of the book Wild Plant Culture: A Guide to Restoring Native Edible and Medicinal Plant Communities, as well as the children’s book The Puddle Garden, about native plants and wildlife. His work has been featured in the New York Times, on NPR, in Orion magazine, and elsewhere.

Lecture Title: Land Management Language and Practice: From Agrarian Custom to Industrial “Conventional” to Regenerative Land Care

Speaker: Richard A. McCoy; AGZA Northeast Representative, NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional (AOLCP), Rutgers Certificate of Land Care Provider

Program Description:

What many do not realize—or more likely are too busy to question—is how co-opted language has trained generations of practitioners and consumers alike to accept industrial landscape practices as “conventional,” positioning them as the standard of care. Changing that 70-plus-year, market-driven framing requires more than new techniques. It requires correcting the language itself, so our new practices are cohesive, not fragmented, and defined by what they actually do: regenerate living systems.

Pre-WWII land management in the United States was not intended to be regenerative or ecological. It was agrarian by limitation. Without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or industrial machinery, practitioners worked within natural constraints, using manures, rotations, mechanical control, and naturally derived, often highly hazardous, chemical compounds. Soil stewardship was inconsistent and often extractive. By the early 20th century, widespread tillage, monocropping, and poor ground cover had already degraded soil structure and organic matter, culminating in the 1930 crises.

This session examines the historical transition from agrarian land management to industrial landscape practices and explains how language, institutions, and market forces reframed industrial methods as “conventional.” Participants will explore how terminology influences management decisions, maintenance culture, and ecological outcomes in both agriculture and landscape operations.

The presentation introduces Regenerative Land Care (RLC) as an evolution of organic land care and a practical framework for contemporary land care. RLC integrates soil health, water function, biodiversity, and positive community impact into professional practice. Attendees will gain historical context and practical strategies to improve land care and landscape management by applying living-systems principles rather than purely input-based programs.

Biography:

Richard founded Richard A. McCoy Horticultural Services Inc. in 1998 using conventional industrial methods. In 2005, he made a voluntary transition to organic land care to prioritize the health of staff, clients, and the environment. In 2017, the company launched a Sustainable Energy Transition Initiative and successfully migrated to battery-powered lawn and garden maintenance and developed a custom-designed off-grid solar-battery trailer system.

After exiting McCoy Horticultural, Richard now operates Richard A. McCoy Regenerative Land Care Consulting LLC. and serves as the Northeast Representative for the American Green Zone Alliance (AGZA), focusing on consulting, industry education, and advocacy. With over 35 years of service in the green industry, Richard has earned distinguished recognition, including NJNLA 2021 Horticulturist of the Year and the 2024 NJLCA "Making a Difference" Award for Education and Advocacy. He received recognition in 2016 from the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Gardens and served as an instructor for the Rutgers NJAES Organic Land Care Certificate Program from 2013 to 2020 , and is a NOFA Accredited Land Care Professional. He co-authored the Rutgers Organic Land Care Best Management Practices Manual and maintains an ongoing role with the Ecological Landscape Alliance Speakers Bureau. Richard is dedicated to helping New Jersey landscape companies transition successfully and profitably, and to enabling communities to transition collaboratively. For more information, contact Richard at: rmccoyrlc@gmail.com or for AGZA environmental impact studies, tool certifications, and monetary outcome data are available from the American Green Zone Alliance upon request at: richard@agza.net

Lecture Title: From Reservoirs to Rivers: A Look at the Klamath River Renewal Project Restoration Journey

Speaker: Dan Chase, Resource Environmental Solutions (RES), dchase@res.us 

Program Description:

Removal of four hydropower dams on the Klamath River in northern California and southern Oregon is the largest dam removal and river restoration project in the country. Tribal communities had long advocated for an undammed and restored river, citing the negative impacts on Tribal fisheries, health, and culture. After decades of advocacy and work, in Fall 2024, dam removal was achieved. The historic project restored free-flowing conditions and volitional fish passage to hundreds of miles of the Klamath River, once the third largest producer of salmon on the West Coast, and is leading to landscape level change seldom seen in a single project. The Klamath River Renewal Corporation selected RES to lead restoration for this ambitious effort, as well as accept liability associated with ensuring restoration meets ecological and biological performance standards and long-term goals/objectives. This presentation provides a look at the landscape scale change that has occurred over the past two years from the project, approaches used for restoration and lessons learned and will provide an update on the tributary restoration actions undertaken in 2025.   

Biography:

Dan Chase is a Senior Fisheries Biologist and the Director of Fisheries, Aquatics, and Design Discipline for RES’ Western Region. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor of Science and San Francisco State University with a Master of Science. Dan serves as the RES lead fisheries biologist for the Klamath River Renewal Project, which is the largest dam removal and river restoration in the United States.  He has been involved with permitting, design, costing, and implementation of the restoration and fisheries components of this project.  His broader professional experience over the past 20 years has focuses on mitigation, restoration and conservation work of imperiled fish and wildlife species of the western US.

Lecture Title: How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard

Speaker: Doug Tallamy, Ph.D.

Program Description: 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.

Biography:

Doug Tallamy is the T. A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 120 research publications and has taught insect-related courses for 45 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 books include Bringing Nature Home, The Living Landscape, co-authored with Rick Darke, Nature's Best Hope, a New York Times Best Seller, The Nature of Oaks, winner of the American Horticultural Society’s 2022 book award, and his latest book How Can I Help. In 2021 he cofounded Homegrown National Park with Michelle Alfandari (HomegrownNationalPark.org). His awards include recognition from The Garden Writer’s Association, Audubon, The National Wildlife Federation, Allegheny College, Ecoforesters, The Garden Club of America, The Herb Society, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, and The American Horticultural Association.

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