Speakers and demonstrations will be located inside the Community Center at Chandler Park
Dr. Ray Moranz is the Grazing Lands Pollinator Ecologist for the Xerces Society, an international non-profit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. Hired in September 2016, Ray also serves as a Partner Biologist for the USDA NRCS and is based at the NRCS Field Office in Stillwater, OK. His current focus is assisting the NRCS with planning and implementation of pollinator (and especially monarch butterfly) conservation efforts in the central United States. Ray began studying the effects of fire and grazing on plant and butterfly communities in 2004 and earned his Ph.D. in Natural Resource Ecology and Management from Oklahoma State University in 2010. Prior to joining the Xerces Society, he worked as a rare plant conservationist for The Nature Conservancy in Florida and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in California, as a postdoctoral researcher at Iowa State University, and as an adjunct professor at Oklahoma State University.
Ray, his wife Lara and their two children reside on 10 acres just outside of Stillwater. They raise chickens, ducks and guinea fowl, and Ray spends much of his free time expanding his vegetable and pollinator gardens.
9:30 AM
Creating Beautiful, Healthful Habitats for Monarchs and Other Pollinators in Your Yard and Garden
Dr. Ray Moranz has been gardening for butterflies and other pollinators for over 30 years. He will teach you what pollinators need and how to give it to them, with a focus on the monarch butterfly. He will tell you about pollinator plants that thrive in Tulsa-area gardens. He will also share insider tips from his decades of experience, such as how a frugal gardener can greatly improve their soil, where to purchase plants, when to plant, and how you can get help identifying the awesome pollinators that show up in your garden. Gardening for monarchs and other pollinators is a labor of love for Dr. Moranz, and he hopes that you too will get started in this amazing hobby.
10:30AM
10:45AM
Transforming Your Rural Acreage into a Large-scale Monarch and Pollinator Preserve
Dr. Moranz knows first-hand that transforming your rural land into a pollinator paradise is an exceptionally rewarding experience. However, he knows there are special challenges, and he shares what he has learned from multiple habitat restoration projects that he and his wife have conducted on their farm just outside of Stillwater. When you go big, you need to focus on sowing seeds rather than planting transplants, so he talks about the process of designing a seed mix, sowing seeds, and managing your monarch meadow in perpetuity. When you go big, you probably aren’t going to want to spend the money irrigating a large area, so he will tell you about the plant species that can hack our droughty summers. Through a series of beautiful landscape photos, he hopes to inspire you to envision what your land could look like. To close, he will talk about the techniques you can use to achieve your dreams for your land.
Taylor Melone began at Up With Trees in 2015 and currently serves as Program Director coordinating seasonal education and volunteer opportunities. Taylor was born and raised in Tulsa and attended NSU where she found her passion for serving communities and the environment. She is a certified arborist and recently attained her Master of Urban Forestry Leadership.
11:45AM
Standing Tall – Trees after the Storm
Trees are essential green infrastructure for cities, providing protection, shade, and wildlife habitat. After June’s windstorm, Tulsa saw the loss of a number of large, established trees. This contributed not only to a decrease in canopy but to the destruction of public and personal property, causing some to question whether trees are a strength or a threat. The benefits of trees far outweigh the disadvantages and with your help to replant the right trees in the right place, Tulsa’s urban forest will recover.
Taylor Melone Program Director Up With Trees