Back to Our Roots: Being Wild About Wild Plants

In celebration of RIWPS 30th Anniversary, Lisa Lofland Gould, founding member and first president of RIWPS will address the question, Why should anyone care about plants, and especially about that seemingly obscure and often subtle flora we Wild Folks so enjoy?  She will consider the pivotal role that plants play in our lives, some history of human knowledge of the plant world, and how we seek to understand plants today.

Lisa grew up in Winston-Salem, NC in a family of nature lovers. Not surprisingly, she majored in Biology at UNC-G and went on to earn an MS in Zoology (ecology and behavior of birds) at the University of Rhode Island. At URI she met her husband, Mark, who was also an ecologist. Lisa taught biology at URI for many years and was a research associate in the Department of Natural Resources Science. In addition to her legacy at RIWPS, she cofounded and served as first executive director of the RI Natural History Survey, and initiated the RI Invasive Species Council.

While in New England, Lisa especially enjoyed leading walks and teaching plant identification courses for state and regional environmental organizations. Among other publications, she is a coauthor of Vascular Flora of Rhode Island and Coastal Plants from Cape Cod to Cape Canaveral (UNC Press).

Now that she is back in North Carolina, she enjoys participating in activities with the NC Audubon Society, the Piedmont Land Conservancy, the Carolina Butterfly Society, and the NC Native Plant Society (where she currently serves as Secretary of the board of directors). Most her travel these days involves visiting her daughters and their families in New York City and the Albuquerque, New Mexico area, where she hopes to pass along her passion for nature to her three fabulous granddaughters.

Talk cosponsored by
Rhode Island Natural History Survey and URI Master Gardener Program, Extension Outreach Center

Detail for parking below.

Schedule of Events

1:00 to 1:30 — Business Meeting
Includes electing the Board of Trustees, announcing the recipients of the  RIWPS Volunteer Awards and the recipient of RIWPS annual grant

1:30 to 2:00 — Refreshments & Fellowship
If your last name begins with the letters N through Z, please bring refreshments to share.

2:00 to 3:30 — Guest Speaker, Lisa Lofland Gould

Free and Open to the Public

Thanks to our Seed Starters East we offering two different Spring Ephemerals for sale

Enjoy the small (3 -4″) woodland Trailing Arbutus with its white flower. It likes shade and is found in pine and oak tree forests and the taller (1-2′) Virginia Bluebells, whose pink buds open to purple flowers.  It thrives in partial to full shade in rich soils. Both plants are best in mass plantings. Happy Spring!

Only cash and checks accepted.

Parking

The closest parking lot to the Pharmacy building is at the Coastal Institute, 1 Greenhouse Road, Kingston. Enter this parking lot from Flagg Road.  Additional parking is found in the Fine Arts Parking lot, also accessed from Flagg Road.

Campus Map.  Please note the Coastal Institute on the campus map is marked URI Watershed Watch and the Pharmacy building is marked Brett M. Ferret.