Join Environmental Concern (EC) on Sunday,  April 22 for Earth Day at Layton's Chance Winery and Vineyard. Participate in EC's Mid-Atlantic Monarch Initiative and learn how to attract butterflies to your garden while enjoying a complimentary tasting, touring the vineyard and listening to oldies music. The winery is located at 4225 New Bridge Road in Vienna, MD. 

Speaker: Dwight Johnson, MNPS Field Trip leader

Description: Field trip season is in full swing. Learn about Maryland's beloved spring wildflowers with Dwight Johnson. This talk will cover the flowers you are likely to see on your field expeditions, with an introduction to their taxonomic relationships.

Location: Kensington Library, 4201 Knowles Ave, Kensington, MD

The program is free and open to the public. Registration is not required.

Topic: Weed or Wildflower?

Leaders: Christine Campe-Price, Friends of New Germany State Park & Liz McDowell, MNPS

Want to help preserve our regional biodiversity? Then bring your work gloves, kneeling pads, favorite weeding tools & some elbow grease to remove unwanted plants from the native plant garden. As you work, you’ll learn how to identify common weeds and why protecting native plants is so critical for wildlife. Meet at the native plant garden near the dam. Please bring your own water bottle, insect spray & sunscreen. In case of rain this activity will be cancelled.

Directions: From I-68 take exit 22 and follow signs for New Germany State Park. Turn left into the park onto McAndrews Hill Road. The program will be held in the native plant garden near parking lot #5.

No registration.

Discover the important connection between native plants, people, and wildlife at the fifth annual Mountain Maryland Native Plant Festival!

A large variety of plants native to the mid-Atlantic for sale all day!  (Please contact vendors directly if you wish to pre-order for pick-up at the event. Purchases made the day of the event are cash or check only.) 

Evergreen Heritage Center
Mount Savage, MD
www.evergreenheritagecenter.org

Go Native Tree Farm
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
www.gonativetrees.com

Wood Thrush Native Plant Nursery 
Floyd, Virginia
www.woodthrushnatives.com

Educational programs geared for adults & teens:

• • 10:30 to 11:30 am - Nasty Natives? No! (Fact-checking Common Misconceptions about Native Plants) - Candy DeBerry, Professor of Biology, Washington & Jefferson College 
  • 12:00 to 1:00 pm - Species Complexity: Species, Subspecies, Variants, Eco-types, and Phenotypes - Ian Caton, Owner/Operator, Wood Thrush Native Plant Nursery
    
  • 1:30 to 2:30 pm - Saving the Planet, One Plant at a Time: How a community's renewed love of native plants can contribute to large-scale biodiversity conservation - Iara Lacher, Landscape Ecologist, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
    

Family-friendly activities:

• 10:00 to 11:00 am - Birds & Blooms (discover birds & wildflowers during this easy walk) 
• 2:00 to 3:00 pm - Let's Pull Together (pull garlic mustard to save an endangered butterfly)
• All day! - Scavenger Hunt (find native plants with special features and win a prize)

Local experts answer questions on native plants & other conservation topics!

To get a better idea of why this continues to be such a nice event, view this video created at last year's festival by our friends at Engage Mountain Maryland https://youtu.be/eFkj4lahKcw

New Germany State Park and the Western Mountains Chapter of MNPS are co-sponsoring this FREE event. More details to follow!

Directions: From I-68 take exit 22 and follow signs for New Germany State Park. Turn left into the park onto McAndrews Hill Road. Signs will direct you to parking for this special event.

Speaker: W. Carl Taylor.
Carl Taylor worked at the Milwaukee Public Museum where served as Chair of the Botany Department. He has taught university courses in general biology, plant taxonomy, and local flora. Recently, he served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. He served as Secretary of the American Fern Society for many years and published many papers in the American Fern Journal. Carl is retired and now volunteers at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

Description: Ferns make great additions to gardens. There are many kinds and lots of them are easy to grow. Some will thrive in sunny places, others in rock gardens, wet areas, or windowsills. Many species of ferns are available from nurseries, garden centers and Internet vendors. Carl Taylor will identify some suitable garden ferns for the mid-Atlantic region. He will describe the unique structure of ferns, as well as their fascinating life cycle, which reveals why ferns grow where they do and what they need from you as a gardener. You may also be surprised to learn that ferns are easy and fun to grow from spores.

Location: Kensington Library, 4201 Knowles Ave, Kensington, MD

The program is free and open to the public. Registration is not required.

Topic: Weed or Wildflower?

Leaders: Christine Campe-Price, Friends of New Germany State Park & Liz McDowell, MNPS

Want to help preserve our regional biodiversity? Then bring your work gloves, kneeling pads, favorite weeding tools & some elbow grease to remove unwanted plants from the native plant garden. As you work, you’ll learn how to identify common weeds and why protecting native plants is so critical for wildlife. Meet at the native plant garden near the dam. Please bring your own water bottle, insect spray & sunscreen. In case of rain this activity will be cancelled.

Directions: From I-68 take exit 22 and follow signs for New Germany State Park. Turn left into the park onto McAndrews Hill Road. The program will be held in the native plant garden near parking lot #5.

No registration.

Topic: Weed or Wildflower?

Leaders: Christine Campe-Price, Friends of New Germany State Park & Liz McDowell, MNPS

Want to help preserve our regional biodiversity? Then bring your work gloves, kneeling pads, favorite weeding tools & some elbow grease to remove unwanted plants from the native plant garden. As you work, you’ll learn how to identify common weeds and why protecting native plants is so critical for wildlife. Meet at the native plant garden near the dam. Please bring your own water bottle, insect spray & sunscreen. In case of rain this activity will be cancelled.

Directions: From I-68 take exit 22 and follow signs for New Germany State Park. Turn left into the park onto McAndrews Hill Road. The program will be held in the native plant garden near parking lot #5.

No registration.

Topic: Weed or Wildflower?

Leaders: Christine Campe-Price, Friends of New Germany State Park & Liz McDowell, MNPS

Want to help preserve our regional biodiversity? Then bring your work gloves, kneeling pads, favorite weeding tools & some elbow grease to remove unwanted plants from the native plant garden. As you work, you’ll learn how to identify common weeds and why protecting native plants is so critical for wildlife. Meet at the native plant garden near the dam. Please bring your own water bottle, insect spray & sunscreen. In case of rain this activity will be cancelled.

Directions: From I-68 take exit 22 and follow signs for New Germany State Park. Turn left into the park onto McAndrews Hill Road. The program will be held in the native plant garden near parking lot #5.

No registration.

Topic: Weed or Wildflower?

Leaders: Christine Campe-Price, Friends of New Germany State Park & Liz McDowell, MNPS

Want to help preserve our regional biodiversity? Then bring your work gloves, kneeling pads, favorite weeding tools & some elbow grease to remove unwanted plants from the native plant garden. As you work, you’ll learn how to identify common weeds and why protecting native plants is so critical for wildlife. Meet at the native plant garden near the dam. Please bring your own water bottle, insect spray & sunscreen. In case of rain this activity will be cancelled.

Directions: From I-68 take exit 22 and follow signs for New Germany State Park. Turn left into the park onto McAndrews Hill Road. The program will be held in the native plant garden near parking lot #5.

No registration.

Topic: From the Mountains to the Sea: Maryland’s Natural Areas

Speaker: Kerry Wixted, Wildlife Education & Outreach Specialist, MD Department of Natural Resources 

Explore many of the 31 unique natural areas found in Maryland, their special habitats, and the rare species they contain. 

This free program will begin promptly at 7:00 pm; the public is welcome to attend.

Directions: From I-68 take exit 33 (Braddock Rd & Midlothian Rd exit). Follow Braddock Road approximately 1.3 miles to stop sign. Turn left onto Park Avenue. Drive a short distance and turn left, following signs for the Compton Parking Lot.

No registration.

Topic: TBD

Speaker: Elizabeth Green, Graduate Student, Biology Department, Frostburg State University

Details to follow. This free program will begin promptly at 7:00 pm; the public is welcome to attend.

Directions: From I-68 take exit 33 (Braddock Rd & Midlothian Rd exit). Follow Braddock Road approximately 1.3 miles to stop sign. Turn left onto Park Avenue. Drive a short distance and turn left, following signs for the Compton Parking Lot.

No registration.