Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens

Bringing Nature Home - Doug Tallamy

With many of our bird species in serious decline, it is clear that we must change our approach to bird conservation if we hope to keep them in our future. Our parks and preserves are too small to sustain most species, so we must share human-dominated landscapes more successfully with birds to save them. Native plants will play a key role in the restoration of our landscapes because only natives provide the coevolved relationships required by animals. By supporting a diversity of insect herbivores, native plants provide food for birds, particularly during reproduction.

Doug Tallamy is Professor and Chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, where he has authored 68 research articles and has taught Insect Taxonomy, Behavioral Ecology, and other courses for 28 years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. His new book “Bringing Nature Home; How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens” was published by Timber Press in 2007 and was awarded the 2008 silver medal by the Garden Writer’s Association.  

Location:  Heron Hall, Audubon House, 5151 NW Cornell Rd, Portland, 97210