Meadowcraft: The Alchemy and Science of Creating and Maintaining Native Wildflower Meadows

While the Pacific Northwest is famous for vast forested landscapes, expansive and sunny wildflower meadows once occupied tens of thousands of acres in a thin linear band extending from British Columbia to Northern California. Largely erased from contemporary memory, these regional “prairies” were biologically supercharged with pollinators and grassland birds, aesthetically captivating, and a primary source of staple human foods. This presentation will excavate some of that history and present contemporary models for meadow restoration and management – including in rural, residential, and urban landscapes – locations where meadows are actively replacing lawns and bringing life back to biological wastelands.

Eric Lee-Mäder is an insect ecologist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a principal at Northwest Meadowscapes, and author of various books, including the recently released The Milkweed Lands (Storey Publishing). He is based in Port Townsend and farms on Whidbey Island.