Program to spotlight backyard buffer benefits Oct. 29

The Delaware Native Plant Society will host From Backyards to Buffers – Reclaiming Nature Through Better Design from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 29, at the Lewes Public Library.

The free educational symposium will focus on the benefits of vegetated backyards and buffers in the Delaware region. It will cover the many types of buffers, their positive benefits to the environment and the services they provide, which can be easily replicated in backyards and gardens. Better design and better choices in planting, with a focus on native species, will ultimately help the local community by improving green infrastructure and connecting natural habitats within local neighborhoods.

From forested buffers to riparian buffers, and even roadside buffers, how they are planted and what is planted play vital roles in reclaiming nature. The cumulative effect of adding portions of private backyards to this vision can be monumental. How much so is dependent on how many citizens take part.

Eric W. Wahl, RLA, Delaware Native Plant Society president, will speak on this topic using Lewes and its surrounding neighborhoods as a model and base for discussion. 

Wahl is a local landscape architect at Pennoni Associates in Milton, where he works on a variety of projects ranging from private residential landscape design to land planning projects, public parks and institutional designs. He is also the current president of the Mispillion Art League in Milford. A short time for questions and answers will follow the presentation.

For more information, email Eric Wahl at ewahl@pennoni.com.