Gardening for Monarchs and Other Wildlife Using Native Plants

Registration – $55

This interactive two-day workshop will be hosted online (via Zoom) on August 7th (9:00 am-4:30 pm CST), and August 9th (9:00 am-4:30 pm CST), with plenty of breaks and time for Q & A. We will send a link to the meeting 2 days beforehand, via email. When you register, please double-check your email address to ensure you receive future instructions to join the workshop.

As part of the National Wildlife Federation’s Monarch Stewards Certification Program, the Federation is offering Gardening for Monarchs & Other Wildlife with Native Plants in your Ecoregion. This is one of three workshops that can be taken (in any order) in the Program. Complete all three workshops and become a certified NWF Monarch Steward! The Federation collaborates with many other conservation groups, federal and state agencies, to host and teach these workshops.

To bring back the monarchs and help protect all pollinators & other wildlife we need to create native gardens in our urban & suburban spaces. Through this workshop, participants will learn to design, install, and maintain their own monarch-friendly native gardens —that also benefit many kinds of wildlife—choosing the proper native plants for their ecoregion, site, and weather conditions. Workshop participants will also learn to use their new native gardens as an environmental educational tool.

Main Topics:

• How gardening for monarchs benefits many other wildlife species
• The human benefits of native gardening
• Importance of gardening with native plants
• Components of a native garden
• Creating native gardens, what to keep in mind
• Providing themed native gardens
• Growing your own native milkweed, the successful technique
• Basics of Landscape Designing (includes exercises)
• Installing and maintaining your new native garden

Lunch & Learn sessions that complement the information offered in this workshop will be offered:

To complement what you will learn during this workshop, we will offer Lunch & Learn Sessions specific to the ecoregions of Texas and North Carolina. During these sessions, we will provide you with a list of native plants suitable to create native gardens in your ecoregion. These sessions are free of charge to participants who take any of the three Monarch Stewards workshops and respond to our after-workshop surveys. Take this opportunity to learn from state experts about what are the most suitable and available native plants to create your gardens!

We will organize the Lunch & Learn Sessions for the rest of the states of the country as participants from those states join our workshops. Thus, if you are located in a different state to Texas and North Carolina, do not hesitate to register!

Registration Fee includes:

• One copy of the second edition of the book: “Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Wildlife” by David Mizejewski, National Wildlife Federation’s Naturalist
• Access to digital resources on native gardening
• Copy (in notes format) of the workshop presentations
• Lunch & Learn Sessions about native plants in your region

Further details: Please note that this is an 11-hour training course, divided into two days, with breaks between presentations and individual exercises.

The Trainers

Christine Anastas is a Texas Master Naturalist, Master Gardener, and active member of the Native Plant Society of Texas. She has been involved with growing native milkweed plants and monarch citizen science projects since 2012. Her current citizen projects include MLMP, Journey North, Monarch Health, IMMP, and Monarch Watch, and is part of the beta testing for the University of Michigan M3 Monarch Migration Project. She has developed and conducted workshops for MLMP training and community presentations on Monarch and Milkweed conservation.

Kim Conrow joined the Native Plant Society of Texas in 1997, and now, in 2023, is the Immediate Past President of the Society, she has been president of the North Central Chapter in Fort Worth, is a Texas Master Naturalist-Cross Timbers Chapter 2014, and member of the Native Prairie Association of Texas-Fort Worth Chapter. She has worked with the National Wildlife Federation in their Monarch Steward program providing presentations on native plant landscaping and supports the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge through the Fort Worth Pollinator Ambassador partnership. She holds a BS in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Education and an MS in Science Education. Kim taught high school biology and environmental science.

Craig Hensley is a Texas Nature Trackers Biologist with Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. Craig is a lifelong naturalist and educator, now training citizen scientists across Texas about iNaturalist and helping document the flora and fauna of Texas. Craig has been educating children and adults about the wonders of the natural world, including monarch conservation, for more than four decades from Minnesota to Texas. He teaches workshops on a wide variety of topics, ranging from birds and butterflies to native plants and use of them in home settings. Craig holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Management from Arkansas Tech University and a Master’s in Zoology from the University of Arkansas.

Lee Marlowe is a restoration ecologist with over 25 years of professional experience working in the field of ecological restoration and natural resource management. Her expertise includes the use of native plants to provide wildlife habitat, water quality benefits, bank/site stabilization, and aesthetic beauty in landscapes of all sizes. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from the University of Minnesota, and currently serves as the Sustainable Landscape Ecologist for the San Antonio River Authority and President of the San Antonio Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas.

Rebeca Quiñonez-Piñón is the National Wildlife Federation’s Director of Climate Resilience Habitats and Monarch Recovery Strategist. Rebeca holds a Ph.D. in Geomatics Engineering from the University of Calgary and an MSc in Environmental Engineering. She has almost a decade of experience in monarch butterfly habitat restoration and conservation in the eastern U.S. flyway and Mexico overwintering grounds. Rebeca leads and facilitates the creation of a Federation-wide, science-based monarch conservation strategy, and will work with people at different levels and backgrounds to define the best strategies to implement monarch conservation programs. Rebeca also directs NWF’s Monarch Stewards Certification Program.