Webinars highlight Alaska Native Plant Month

Webinars highlight Alaska Native Plant Month

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, in collaboration with the Alaska Native Plant Society, is hosting a series of free webinars to highlight native plants and animals and the challenges they face.

All webinars will be from noon-1 p.m. on Wednesdays during May, which is Alaska Native Plant Month. Register using the online form or visit https://bit.ly/NativePlantMonth.

On May 6, Todd Eskelin, a biologist at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, will feature rufous hummingbirds, an important pollinator that is in decline. Eskelin will talk about current research into how rufous hummingbirds interact with native plants and what is needed to expand the hummingbirds' range.

On May 13, Lisa Strecker, with UAF's ethnobotany program, and Jessica Newton, of the Kenaitze Tribe, will talk about how people develop relationships with plants that tend to grow well in human-impacted habitats. They will focus on how people can interact with plants for holistic well-being through the lens of Alaska Native plant traditions and ethnobotany.

On May 20, Maddie Dong, with Pollinator Partnership, will review the two new ecoregional planting guides for Alaska. She will discuss how the guides were developed in collaboration with Alaska-based plant and pollinator experts. The guides provide targeted native plant recommendations that support pollinators throughout the growing season.

On May 27, Gino Graziano, Cooperative Extension invasive plants instructor, will explain how some wildflower seed mixes can carry varieties that can spread beyond where they were planted and, in some cases, become invasive. He will discuss which species to look out for and avoid in wildflower mixes.

For more information, contact Molly Johansson at [email protected] or 907-786-6313.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made five business days in advance to Alda Norris at [email protected] or 907-474-7120. Language access services, such as interpretation or translation of vital information, will be provided free of charge to individuals with limited English proficiency upon request to [email protected].

This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

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