A special program on Cumberland County Rewilding Project 2026 is open to the public from 5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15.
The program will be in the Community House at 48 Church Drive, Uplands Village in Pleasant Hill.
The event includes a free soup and bread supper that will include vegetarian and gluten-free selections.
Mary Schantz, publicity coordinator, said the program will include “a lot of ‘how-can-we-make-a-difference’ discussion, followed by a very short video presentation of Still Nature’s Best Hope by Dr. Doug Tallamy.”
She added, “You have the opportunity to view it with other concerned individuals, groups and town and county representatives.”
Schantz said Tallamy is a respected and award-winning author, a popular speaker at Chautauqua Institute, and co-founder of Homegrown National Park.
He is the T.A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware.
“His goal is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of plants and wildlife,” Schantz said. “He asks us to consider ‘… what if each American landowner converted half of his or her yard to productive native plant communities? Even moderate success could collectively restore some semblance of ecosystem function to more than 20 million acres of what is now ecological wasteland.’”
She said Tallamy is not asking people to turn their front lawns into meadows.
“He advocates removing invasive species and replacing them with the native plants that have created and supported the biodiversity of our beautiful county for thousands of years,” she said.
“Let’s put Cumberland County on Tallamy’s homegrownnationalpark.org website by each doing our own very small part.”