NPSOT 2023 Fall Symposium (Pineywoods Ecoregion)

NPSOT has assembled a remarkable schedule of recognized experts to speak about the astounding East Texas Pineywoods plant communities. Highlights include plenary and concurrent sessions, workshops, field trips, a silent auction to raise money for scholarships, a native plant sale, vendors and exhibitors, the state annual meeting of members, and an awards dinner honoring outstanding achievements in the field of Texas native plants.

43^rd Anniversary of Native Plant Society of Texas
2023 Fall Symposium – Hybrid Event
November 9 – 12
Fredonia Hotel and Convention Center
Nacogdoches, TX

ATTEND IN-PERSON or ATTEND VIRTUALLY

Symposium 2023 will draw a diverse audience of more than 200 academics, professionals, conservationists, educators, and landscaping experts from across Texas. It should not be missed!

Admission

Plenary Speakers

Matt Buckingham – “An Overview of the Plant Communities of the Pineywoods”

Matt will provide a broad overview of the varied natural communities present within the Pineywoods and discuss current threats and conservation concerns.  Matt Buckingham is a naturalist, photographer, and protected species biologist based out of Lufkin. He has spent the last 20 years exploring the Pineywoods and studying and photographing the region’s incredible biodiversity. Matt received a bachelors in wildlife management and a masters in biology with an emphasis on ecology and evolutionary biology from Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA).

Peter Loos – “East Texas Plant Gardening” – Owner/Operator of Ecovirons, Chireno, Texas and Pineywoods Chapter President, Native Plant Society of Texas

Peter is the owner/Operator of Ecovirons located in Chireno, deep in the heart of the Pineywoods. His lifelong love for the outdoors led getting degrees from SFASU in Horticulture/Botany, with his Masters project being on the Ecology of Silky Camelia. He has served tirelessly in various positions for numerous organizations dedicated to native plants. From landscaping to nursery work to wetland mitigation/creation and currently documenting (surveying) native species along with genetic conservation of numerous native plant species, Peter continues to promote native flora whenever possible.

Dr. David Creech – “Lessons Learned from Forty Years of Native Plant Studies in the Pineywoods” – Director of SFA Gardens

While the typical urban landscape of east Texas is packed with exotics, many of those have proven unsustainable in the climate challenges of just the last three years. Yet, the Pineywoods native plant palate remains solid and deserving of greater use. This presentation will recount the efforts made, the successes, the failures, the challenges we face with a changing climate and a plan for the path forward. After a long career in the Stephen F. Austin State University Department of Agriculture, Dr. David Creech retired in 2007 and returned to serve as the Director of SFA Gardens. The 138-acre SFA Gardens is an umbrella for numerous theme gardens and collections of trees, shrubs, vines, herbaceous perennials and fruit. These serve as a valuable germplasm resource for the Gulf South. Dr. Creech received his BSc from Texas A&M University in 1970, his MSc from Colorado State University in 1972 and his PhD from Texas A&M University in 1978. In 2022, he received the ASHS Career Award for Outstanding International Horticulturalist which recognizes a member who has made an outstanding and valuable contribution to international horticultural science, education, research and/or outreach for a period of 10 or more years. Dr. Creech has served as president of the Native Plant Society of Texas, the Southern Region American Society of Horticulture Science, and the International Plant Production Society Southern Region.

Dr. James E. Van Kley – “Introducing Plants of the Pineywoods Part 1″ – Professor, Department of Biology, Stephen F. Austin State University

Written by James Van Kley and illustrated by Bruce Lyndon Cunningham, Plants of the Pineywoods-Part 1 covers the herbaceous native and naturalized eudicotyledons along with the herbaceous magnoliids and the waterlilies (Nymphaeiids) of the Pineywoods of eastern Texas and western Louisiana. Filling a major gap in earlier treatments, it marks the first time that there has been comprehensive coverage of the entire flora for this region in a local-level manual.  After first attending Calvin University,  James E. Van Kley obtained an MS in Biology from Central Michigan University and a PhD in Forest Ecology from Purdue University. In 1993, he took his current position at Stephen F. Austin state University (SFASU) in the east Texas Pineywoods. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in areas including general biology, botany, local flora, plant systematics, plant ecology, and wetland ecology; he has authored several publications in his field of plant ecology. His research interests can be broadly summed up as “What grows in the woods and why”. They include description and analysis of the natural vegetation and ecosystems of the Texas Pineywoods and the impact of invasive plants.

VMS:  AT: Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT 2023 Fall Symposium Pineywoods Ecoregion)