Ditch that Fall Clean Up! Your Landscape is an Ecological System

In this presentation, Claudia Thompson explains how traditional fall garden clean-up harms birds, butterflies, pollinators, and other wildlife. She describes a new approach to landscaping that supports soil health, biodiversity, and native plants, while also saving time and money. Claudia invites participants to consider which practices to keep and which to leave behind for a healthier community. Claudia Thompson founded Grow Native Massachusetts in 2010 and served as the organization’s President and Executive Director through its first decade, simultaneously becoming recognized nationally as a leader in the native plant movement. Her work as a landscape ecologist is also deeply informed by her lifelong career working on ecological and environmental issues, as well as her personal experience transforming her relatively small urban garden in Cambridge, MA into rich habitat where she documented more than 80 species of birds.