This year’s Ecological Plant Conference at Wave Hill on Friday, October 24 will feature four incredible speakers, each with a unique perspective and stories to share about working with plants. The Ecological Plant Conference is always a deep dive into the world of plants in the built landscape and this year's program is sure to inspire you to learn more about the plants around you.

CEU Information
The Ecological Plant Conference has been approved for the following CEU's. Additional CEU's are being sought and will be posted here as they are approved.

• Landscape Architecture Continuing Education System (LA/CES) (4.0 credits)
• Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) (4.0 Credits)
• Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) (4.0 Credits)

Registration details

Member registration opens on September 5, 2025. Non-member registration opens September 12, 2025. Registration closes October 17, 2025.

• Member in-person registration: $169
• Non-member in-person registration: $209
• Member virtual registration: $74
• Non-member virtual registration: $89

In-person registration includes morning refreshments and lunch. Vegetarian and gluten-free options will be available for lunch. Virtual registration includes live access to each session. All sessions will be recorded and made available to registrants after the conference concludes.

Sponsorship Details

Interested in sponsoring the Ecological Plant Conference? We offer three different sponsorship levels. All sponsors receive a table to exhibit at the conference if desired.

Bronze Sponsors receive two complimentary registrations to attend the conference. Sponsor logos will be displayed on the event webpage, included in communications to attendees, social media posts, and displayed throughout the day during breaks between sessions.

Silver Sponsors will receive all Bronze Sponsorship benefits, including two complimentary registrations to attend the conference. Additionally, Silver Sponsors will receive one free banner ad in an upcoming ELA Bulletin. Sponsor logos will be displayed on the event webpage, included in communications to attendees, social media posts, and displayed throughout the day during breaks between sessions.

Gold Sponsors will receive all Silver Sponsorship benefits. Additionally, Gold Sponsors will receive a one-year complimentary company-level membership and an opportunity to address the audience during the conference. Sponsor logos will be displayed on the event webpage, included in communications to attendees, social media posts, and displayed throughout the day during breaks between sessions.

Agenda

8:00 - 9:00am
Registration and Refreshments

9:00 - 10:00am
Ecological planting futures | Noel Kingsbury
It is time for us to reflect on several decades of progress, as well as face the urgent challenge of climate change. In particular, how can designed landscapes  become the vital refuges for nature and our well-being that the future will need? I look at a range of issues that will define how we might work in the future: aesthetics, how we understand plant growth, and the challenge of novel ecosystems.

10:30 - 11:30am
Cherchez la fleur!  The plants behind the ecology of the Naval Cemetery Landscape | Avvah Rossi
The Naval Cemetery Landscape is a contemplative memorial meadow with a wooded perimeter in an industrial area of Brooklyn.  The landscape was designed and functions as a pollinator and bird habitat and unique place of human respite and nature connection with over 100 native plant species on 1.8 acres.  At many levels of perspective and focus there is a lot of life to observe on site! The meadow is celebrating its 10-year anniversary next year and Avvah’s talk will touch on the history of the landscape and horticultural management strategies with a main focus on the flora on site and related ecological connections.  What can we learn from this managed urban meadow 10 years on that can be helpful in our approach to other landscapes?

11:30am - 1:30pm
Lunch and Explore the Gardens
Wave Hill Horticulture staff will provide garden tours for those interested

1:30pm - 2:30pm
Design as Mutualism | Joe Wahler
Joe Wahler is a landscape architect and Principal at STIMSON, an urban and rural landscape architecture studio, working farm and plant nursery located in Cambridge and Princeton, Massachusetts. STIMSON values longevity, no waste, education, ecological fluency, community, slowness, and that the design process is just as important as the end project. Joe will share STIMSON’s commitment to a collaborative process and mutualism through a series of recent projects. The Coonamessett Gateway Park and River Restoration in Falmouth, MA, is a 20-year collaboration to restore the Coonamessett River and its community’s connections to the river. Harvard University’s Paulson School of Engineering in Allston, Massachusetts, a 15-year journey to create an integrated high-performance building and landscape that references the function of historic landscapes as a basis for site restoration. Ferrous Foundry Park in Lawrence, Massachusetts, a public park on a brownfield site along the Lawrence River that embraces spontaneous vegetation and its ability to heal a degraded landscape.

3:00 - 4:00pm
Contextualizing risk from range-shifting native plants | Bethany Bradley
There is broad concern that the range shifts of global flora and fauna will not keep up with climate change, increasing the likelihood of population declines and extinctions. To help plants to persist, conservation and restoration professionals have recommended managed relocation of native plants and genotypes to outside of their historic native ranges. But invasion ecologists are often reluctant to move plants for fear of causing unwanted harm (if range-shifting plants act like invasives). In this presentation, I will review observed and potential range shifts for native plants globally. I will show that native species on their own are moving much too slowly to keep up with climate change. I will further ask whether existing risk assessment protocols for range-shifting invasive plants are appropriate for minimizing risk of ecological harm.

Meet our Speakers

NOTE: Standard parking at Wave Hill is not available for symposium attendees. Limited handicap parking spaces are available for symposium attendees. There are many options for public transit, which can be found on Wave Hill's website here: https://www.wavehill.org/visit/getting-here.
Shuttle service will run for attendees prior to registration and at the end of the day from both the Riverdale train station and the last stop on Subway #1.