Maryland Native Plant Society

The education of our members is a top priority. We provide opportunities to learn about native habitats, plant identification, and native and invasive plants, through a combination of:

• monthly Meetings with speakers;
• Field Trips, lead by knowledgeable botanists and/or ecologists, who guide us through natural areas and assist us with plant identification;
• Workshops, where we can learn about plant identification, plant propagation, seed collection, and other things;
• and our annual Fall Conference, with speakers and outings.

A full listing of our events can be found on the Calendar.

Because travel distances make it difficult for many of our members to attend the general meetings, we are developing educational and networking opportunities through the creation of Chapters, units of the Society which concentrate activities in a smaller geographic area. These are slowly growing.

Last, but not least, an important component of our education efforts are our Publications, most of which are available for download on this site without charge.

Before we can even begin protecting and conserving habitats, we first need to identify them. Our knowledgeable botanists and ecologists conduct field surveys. We (the Web Committee) are working on making this Survey Data available on-line.

We publish research in our occasional journal, Marilandica.

An important part of our mission is to protect and conserve native habitats. We do this through a variety of activities:

• Local Habitat Restoration Projects, otherwise known as workdays; we often work in partnerships with other local organizations;
• provision of expert testimony for hearings and legal actions;
• informing our members about Places at Risk from development and encouraging them to take action;
• informing our members about Pending Legislation affecting natural habitats and encouraging them to take action;
• and, as a last resort, initiating legal action.