Chapters in Alabama

Grab your boots, loppers, gloves, protective eyewear, weed wrenches and buckthorn blasters, and let's get ready to wrangle some invasive plants! We will meet in the Monte Sano Main Trailhead Parking Lot (where the South Plateau Loop trail begins), and head to the worksite that is covered in bush honeysuckle and other invasives. Tools and PPE will be provided by Alabama State Parks and WildOnes, but if you have your own tools and PPE, please bring them. This event is free and open to the public, ages 16+ (minors must be accompanied by a parent). We will have a brief training (depending on experience level) about invasive plant identification and control methods before heading into the work site.

Rain date: none

Join us for a member panel on planting natives in clay, compacted soils. This is the most common soil condition that our members have at their dispossal for native gardens, so this is your opportunity to ask all your burning questions to some locals with experience on the topic. 

Panelists for this discussion include:

Aaron Stiles: Aaron Stiles is a landscape designer and owner of Foraging Ahead, he has worked on multiple farms and gardens throughout North Alabama and has experience working with and amending poor clay soil.

Lyn W: Lyn is a nomadic gardener and serial leaf bandit.  Whether your goal is to improve the soil or cope with what you have, she can help.

Denise Woodring: Denise has 16 years experience as a landscape designer and owner of Green Thumb Design, in Huntsville, AL.  As a gardener, she has designed and created native habitats and landscapes in clay soils, for her current and former homes over the past 30 years.

Samuel Sikes: Sam has been gardening in his own clay soils for five years, as well as two years professionally as the owner of the former Sikes & Carlton Corporation. Through the years, Sam has installed everything from large, mature burlapped trees and bare-root specimens to mature native plants and native seeds sown directly into garden beds. Unless the species you are installing is specifically adapted for heavy clay, he recommends not planting directly into it. The most effective way to ensure success when gardening in clay soil is to amend it.

Join local botanist and native plant advocate Lynne Weninegar as she takes us through the steps of planning a native garden.

April Waltz will speak about the Alabama Wildlife Federation and more specifically the Habitat Learning Lab program. 

April works with schools to create schoolyard habitats that can be used for hands-on, inquiry-based learning opportunities.  The Habitat Learning Program emphasizes the importance of using native plants in pollinator, butterfly, frog & toad, and songbird habitats.  WONA members can learn more about our program on our website at https://alabamawildlife.org/habitat-learning-lab/.

This will consist of a 30 minute presentation with time for questions afterwards. 

Join WONA and Janice Barrett from Wild Alabama as she tells us the story of the hemlock wooly adelgid, an invasive insect threatening hemlock trees across the Easter U.S.