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School of Environment and Natural Resources

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Informing Operations at Dawes Arboretum based on Ohio Climate Change

Description: 
This seminar will be given by Shana Byrd, Director of Land Conservation at Dawes Arboretum. As climate change continues to influence ecosystems, public gardens are faced with the challenge of developing strategic plans in order to ensure native plant conservation for years into the future. Extreme weather challenges are now well known and many impacts are already evident. Arboreta and public gardens provide an ideal setting in which horticulture, conservation, operations and strategic direction can synergize to assist with planning for resilience in living collections and land management. The Dawes Arboretum is developing a sustainable way forward, despite changes in our climate, through practical planning, conservation practices and ecological research. In light of anticipated climate changes, the Arboretum is implementing native tree plantings aimed at reforesting exhausted agricultural soils and revegetating working lands with diverse native prairie. Basing species selection on current publications, both climate hardy and climate sensitive species are being evaluated in natural areas. As a strategic decision, plant exploration and seed collections are being made throughout southern ecotype ranges, as a form of assisted migration and genetic repository. Learning from this process, the Arboretum has gradually undertaken a new paradigm in order to have the flexibility and adaptability to weather the changing climate of Ohio well into the future.
Event date: 
Wednesday, December 4, 2019 - 3:45pm
Event location: 
Byrd Center - 177 Scott Hall, OSU Campus