Planting the Future Workshops and Keynote
Benes Room and adjacent Hamilton Williams Campus Center on the campus of Ohio Weselyan University

Discover the crucial role pollinators play in our food supply and learn how to support them! This engaging presentation explores the importance of bees and other essential pollinators like bats, hummingbirds, beetles, and hoverflies. Gain practical tips to create thriving habitats that benefit pollinators and the ecosystems we all depend on. Perfect for gardeners, nature enthusiasts, and anyone eager to make a positive impact.

About Patty

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Patty Shipley is the owner and founder of Leaves for Wildlife, a pesticide-free nursery specializing in straight-native shrubs, trees, and perennials. Inspired by Douglas Tallamy’s Bringing Nature Home, Patty, along with her team, has transformed 10 acres into both a working farm and a hub for ecosystem education that features rain gardens, meadows, vernal pools, agroforestry and ornamental beds. Since 2020, she and her team have inspired visitors with their dedication to using native plants to create thriving habitats.

Learn why a soil-focused approach to property care is so important. An introduction to the skills needed to naturally improve the soils on your property and the best practices for planting and design. Subjects include soils, pollinators, lawns, landscapes, trees, and gardens.

About Tyler

Tyler Frysinger is a conservation ecologist and successful business owner with 20 years of experience in conservation, education, landscaping, tree care, and site & facilities. He holds a BA in Forestry and Wildlife Management from The Ohio State University. For 13 years, he worked as an outdoor educator at Heartland Outdoor School in Marengo, Ohio, where he taught thousands of students. He also cared for the 360-acre property that included a 200-acre mature native forest and a 25-acre restored prairie. In May 2020, after 16 years of research on soils, plants, and ecology, he created Strata Eco Solutions LLC to assist property owners in managing their lawns, landscapes, trees, gardens, and wildlife habitats with little to no chemicals. Utilizing inspiration from forest soil ecology, his goal is to create a balanced ecosystem both above and below ground.

Bringing the Earth back into education. 

Starting in 2020, Pete Barnes and his fifth-grade students created a roughly 8,000-square-foot pollinator garden on their school campus. The garden now supports a wide variety of plants, pollinators, and other wildlife. Students from grades 1-12 visit the garden to learn about their local wildlife and to enjoy a thriving natural area near a wetland and woods. This session will describe the process of creating the garden, partners involved, and school activities that involve the garden and the surrounding nature preserve. 

About Pete

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Pete Barnes has 28 years of teaching experience and over 20 years teaching fifth-grade science in New Albany. Pete now plans STEM activities for students in grades K-12 as the Easton E3 Learning Lab Teacher for New Albany Schools. He has served as co-chair of the district science fair, director of the Elementary Science Olympiad, director of the school greenhouse and gardening projects, co-advisor to the elementary drone club, and co-advisor to the high school environmental club.

The Environmental Professionals Network, a program of The Ohio State University's School of Environment and Natural Resources, will facilitate a session designed to provide participants with the tools and connections necessary to support a functioning coalition into the future. During this session, participants will engage in a 30-minute activity where they will consider their current or recent sustainability or conservation projects from a collaborative lens; network with new contacts to further their individual and collective goals, and engage in a discussion with their peers about how to overcome barriers to forming effective and cohesive multi-stakeholder collaborations. At the end of the workshop, participants will be introduced to the EPN as a connecting service to enhance their coalition going forward.

​Dr. Harrison Fried is the program director of the Environmental Professionals Network at The Ohio State University’s School of Environment and Natural Resources. Dr. Fried completed his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. degrees in Environmental Policy all from SENR. He is the co-founder of the Columbus Environmental Networking Tool. CENT is a research-based decision support tool for enhancing collaboration between environmental organizations in Ohio (CENT link: https://tinyurl.com/CENTool). In his role as Program Director for the EPN, Dr. Fried is working to advance the structure and functionality of the EPN’s networking services. He is committed to working with community members, to enhance the ability for multi-stakeholder coalitions and organizations to effectuate improved environmental and social outcomes in Ohio. During the summer, Dr. Fried instructs the Environmental and Natural Resources Policy course (ENR 3200) at OSU’s Stone Laboratory.

Hallie Stelzle is the Environmental Professionals Network Program Assistant. She graduated from Ohio State in 2022 with a B.S. in Environment and Natural Resources (environmental policy) with a specialization in environmental and social justice. During her time at Ohio State, she worked as a Research Assistant in the OSU Socio-Environmental Networks and Sustainability Lab on a project studying community wildfire risk mitigation in Colorado, and spent the past few years working for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Parks and Watercraft.

Laurel "Laurie" Anderson is a plant ecologist at Ohio Wesleyan University. Anderson's research and teaching interests include temperate forest ecology, invasive plants, and global environmental change. In 2015, she was recognized as the Ohio Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. In 2022, she was honored with the Eugene P. Odum Award for Excellence in Ecology Education from the Ecological Society of America.

In 2000, Terry helped form a chapter of Pheasants Forever. By 2009, he had started his own wildlife habitat improvement business, The Conservationist. One of his early projects was a 30-acre roadside habitat improvement project along three miles of US Rt. 36 in Darke County, but he went on to create 345 acres of prairie plantings at Dayton International Airport and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base—and much more! In all, he estimates that he has planted and helped maintain 12000- 14000 acres of bird and pollinator habitat within the Great Miami River and Little Miami River Watersheds. [Limit: 22 attendees]

In a new-build neighborhood a few residents worked with their Home Owners Association to modify acres of reserve space. The Pines of Berlin Station was able to change its typical neighborhood by incorporating native prairie plants. This presentation will show how grant funding from the Columbus Audubon has helped our neighborhood group start to accomplish our goals of restoring prairie habitat and the process we have taken to get there.   [Limit: 30 attendees]