By MG Alison Edwards
The 17th Annual Fall Conference will be held on Thursday, October 9, 2025 from 9 am to approximately 1 pm. MGs can earn up to 3.5 Continuing Education hours for attending the conference. Please sign into Zoom using your full name per University of Maryland policy. (See the October newsletter for the Zoom link.)
The agenda includes general MCMG membership announcements and presentation of the 2026 slate of MCMG board members, followed by three guest speakers. We will take 10-minute breaks between each speaker. Conference speakers’ presentations will be recorded and posted on the MCMG website as soon as possible, but only live participants will be able to pose questions in the Zoom chat. All MCMG members are encouraged to attend!
Our program will feature the following topics and speakers:
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| Eva Monheim Photo: courtesy of Eva Monheim |
Assisted Plant Migration Helps to Expand Our Native Plant Palette for Climate Change
Eva Monheim, Co-Principal of Verdant Earth Educators
How can we help plant species to move northward as temperatures rise? The disruption of our highways and other man-made structures inhibits plant movement, including buildings and heavily paved surfaces. In this talk, we look at the role humans play in helping to move plants as well as helping animals to move more freely to aid in seed dispersal.
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| Ben Gregory Photo: UMD Department of Entomology |
Natural Mosquito Control
Ben Gregory, PhD Student, Megan Fritz Lab
Ben will talk about our local species of mosquitoes in Maryland and the disease risks they present, and how natural landscaping/ecologically-friendly urban planning can mitigate those risks.
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| Dr. Karin Burghardt Photo: UMD Department of Entomology |
Dr. Karin Burghardt, UMD Assistant Professor
Municipalities and states are ramping up their tree-planting efforts to expand canopy cover and provide ecosystem services, such as shade, biodiversity support, and stormwater management. Achieving these goals requires not just planting trees, but ensuring they survive and thrive in often harsh urban environments. Because heat and pavement are unevenly distributed across cities, species selection and site-specific planning are critical. This talk presents strategies for building resilient, biodiverse urban forests through targeted species choices, with preliminary findings from a field study in Baltimore, MD, on the performance of native street trees. We will also discuss incorporating evidence-based cultural IPM principles into suburban plantings and gardens to decrease the risk of pest outbreaks in yards while increasing the ecosystem and biodiversity
services provided by those spaces.
