Xerces Society Webinar: Removing Barriers to Successful Restoration - The Xerces Society’s Habitat Kit Program
What: One of the best ways to help declining pollinators and other wildlife is to restore safe habitat for them. Although the concept of restoring habitat may not be complicated, there are plenty of barriers to successful, high-quality pollinator habitat restoration. One of the ways Xerces has tried to reduce these barriers is through our Habitat Kit program, which provides both plant materials and technical assistance to folks with the interest, experience, and land to make it happen. Through this program, we offer carefully selected, native and regionally appropriate plant material directly to our partners for shovel-ready projects. Please join us for this informative webinar to learn more about the program and how you can get involved.
When: Thursday, July 27th; 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (Mountain Time)
Where: Virtual webinar.
Click here to learn more and register!
This webinar will be recorded and available on the Xerces Youtube Channel. Closed Captioning will be available during the webinar.
Speakers:
Jessa Kay Cruz - Senior Pollinator Conservation Specialist for California and the Intermountain West, The Xerces Society
Jessa is the Senior Pollinator Conservation Specialist for The Xerces Society in California, and a partner biologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. She manages and coordinates many aspects of the pollinator program in California and throughout the western United States. Since joining Xerces in 2008, she has worked in agricultural and natural lands throughout the western U.S. to create habitat for pollinators and other beneficial insects, and to promote practices that support them. She provides education and technical support to a range of individuals and agencies, including farmers and ranchers, agricultural professionals, and land managers. Jessa holds a master's of science in environmental entomology and integrated pest management from California State University, Chico, and a bachelor's degree in sustainable farming from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Kaitlin Haase - Southwest Pollinator Conservation Specialist, The Xerces Society
As the Southwest Pollinator Conservation Specialist, Kaitlin works to create climate-resilient, connected pollinator habitat in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. She collaborates with and educates public and private urban land managers in New Mexico and the desert Southwest on pollinator-friendly practices for landscaping, gardening, and open space restoration. She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Northern Arizona University, where she studied impacts of drying on aquatic invertebrate diversity in natural and human-made ponds. Before graduate school, she worked as an ecological science technician in a variety of systems across the US, including predator-prey ecology in Michigan, riparian restoration in Virginia, and rare species monitoring in Massachusetts.