Each native plant species has a suite of host-specific insects that depend on it for food. Even allowing a single “weed” to grow in your garden can significantly increase its habitat value, and choosing to plant native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers will cause your yard to teem with life. Using a number of common New England plants as examples, Charley Eiseman will introduce us to some of these insects, their natural history, and signs of their presence to look for on their host plants. His close-up photos will provide an unusual perspective on the tiny animals that are going about their lives right under our noses. Charley Eiseman is a freelance naturalist, conducting plant and wildlife surveys for various nonprofits, state agencies, and universities throughout New England. He has co-taught an “Ecology Through Animal Tracking” course in various incarnations since 2004, and since 2018 he has been teaching week-long field seminars on insect tracks and sign at the Eagle Hill Institute in Maine. He holds an MS from the University of Vermont’s Field Naturalist Program and a BS in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation and Management from the University of Massachusetts. Charley is the lead author of Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates (Stackpole Books, 2010) and Leafminers of North America (self-published e-book, 2019), and he has coauthored over 30 scientific papers, including the description of over 60 new insect species. http://charleyeiseman.com/ . This lecture, on October 9 beginning at 7 pm, will take place at the Millers River Environmental Center, 100 Main Street in Athol. Free and open to the public. For more information visit http://atholbirdclub.org.
