Close to Home: Biodiversity in Your Backyard!

Thor Hanson, acclaimed local author, will give a presentation on his recent book, Close to Home. focusing on exploring and appreciating backyard biodiversity. Highlighting fascinating and unheralded creatures, from gall wasps to leaf miners, the talk explores three themes about the nature in our yards and neighborhoods: what is out there, what is it doing, and what can we do to help it? Native plants play an important role in answering all those questions!

Hanson is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Switzer Environmental Fellow, and an independent conservation biologist. In addition to his writing, he consults for conservation groups and government agencies, and is a sought-after public speaker. Hanson co-hosted the PBS Nature series American Spring Live, and has appeared as a guest on programs ranging from NPR's Fresh Air to On Point, Science Friday, The World, The Splendid Table, and Book Lust with Nancy Pearl. He often works at the interface between natural and human systems, and has conducted research on habitat fragmentation, endangered species, and the ecological impacts of warfare. Hanson received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Redlands, his master’s from the University of Vermont’s Field Naturalist Program, and his doctorate in a joint program through the University of Idaho and the Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza, Costa Rica. Hanson was born and raised and continues to live in the Pacific Northwest.

This program is presented by the Washington Native Plant Society, Central Puget Sound Chapter. It will be in person in the Goodman Room A at the Mountaineers (7700 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle) at 7:00 PM and will not be live streamed on Zoom. However, it will be recorded for later viewing after the event on our recorded event web page https://www.wnps.org/wnps-annual-events/virtual-events

It will be a 40 minute presentation followed by Q & A and book signing. We plan on having copies of his books for sale.

Doors Open at 6:00, with a plant identification workshop with our Botanist Fellow, Stuart Wechsler before the Speaker Program at 7:00. In addition to any plant samples the chapter botanists bring, attendees are welcome to bring in plant samples for identification.

There will be refreshments, door prizes (including Thor Hanson’s latest book!) and native wildflower tote bags for sale!

Photo credit: Thor Hanson

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Host or Publisher Washington Native Plant Society, Central Puget Sound Chapter