Road Trips Gardeners can learn about “Conserving Rare Plants in the Internet Age” from 11 a.m. to noon January 28, 2017, at Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Road, Hockessin, Delaware. The snow date is February 4, 2017. Fee is $20.

Using case studies, Joel Dunn, President and CEO of Chesapeake Conservancy, will discuss “internet age” technology and partnerships that have revolutionized the conservation movement.

Increased land development, forest fragmentation, and climate change threaten rare plants with extinction. Scientists have determined that many species need large and contiguous protected areas to sustain their populations and adapt to changing conditions. Recognizing this urgent need, conservationists have built partnerships that leverage technology, funding, and land conservation to save rare plants on a landscape scale.

Chesapeake Conservancy is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting landscapes that are vital to the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its cultural heritage. Dunn leads the Conservancy’s efforts to strengthen the connection between people and the Bay’s watershed as a way to promote the need to conserve the watersheds and special places that sustain the Chesapeake’s unique natural and cultural resources. Dunn was co-editor of A Sustainable Chesapeake: Better Models for Conservation and has written numerous opinion editorials for newspapers in the Chesapeake region.

(Photo of False Indigo courtesy of Mt. Cuba Center)