SCHEDULE
February 21 |
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7:30-8:30 |
Registration |
8:30 |
George Radnovich – Opening Remarks, Announcements
New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman (Invited)
New Mexico Representative Tom Udall (Invited) |
9:00 |
Hunter Lovins – Keynote |
10:00 |
Break |
10:30 |
Gloria Flora |
11:30 |
Peter Warshall |
12:30 |
Lunch |
2:00 |
Keith Bowers |
3:00 |
Susan Tweit |
3:45 |
Break |
4:15 |
Dr Jonathan Wolfe |
5:30 |
Speaker Dinner/Reception (Reservations Required) |
|
|
February 22 |
|
8:30 |
Ketzel Levine – Keynote |
9:30 |
Betsy Damon |
10:30 |
Break |
11:00 |
Charles Mann |
12:00 |
Lunch |
1:15 |
David Salman |
2:15 |
Charles Anderson |
3:00 |
Break |
3:30 |
Gary Mallory |
4:15 |
N. Scott Momday |
*The Xeriscape Council’s book sale of speaker books will only be on site 2/21/08 right outside the Conference. The book booth will then be available at the Expo at Expo NM on 2/23 and 2/24. (Lujan Building)
The following conference outline provides more detailed information about each presentation.
Every month the eight Xeriscape Council members meet to discuss and debate issues, identify and research possible speakers, and then repeat the process until all speakers are selected and contacted and if interested and available – scheduled. This process continues throughout the year until, finally, another event is complete.
We have probably never assembled a total group with the depth and range of both knowledge and experience as this year.
George Radnovich, President of the Xeriscape Council, Inc., usually assumes the critical role and responsibility for making sure the planned agenda flows and meets our objectives and assessed goals.
Because of the quality and range of expertise in this year’s resources, we felt that the following narrative, which was sent to all speakers as a guide, might provide you a better “agenda” of the event than a simple listing of name and precise, restrictive topic.
George compiled this “directive” as a guide for the speakers to help define the conference flow and ensure connectivity of the whole event. While all speakers have “signed off” on this description, there might still be some deviation and variance from this narrative – but that will be up to them in the context of the 2-day agenda.
First, we have Hunter Lovins. We are extremely fortunate she has agreed to keynote this conference. In essence, what Hunter will do is set a broad context within which we, who are the experts, can determine whether xeriscaping has any real role, and if so what that might be. There could not be a more powerful launch for this conference.
Thursday Speakers – Environmental Focus
Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism Solutions: Hunter will discuss unleashing the new energy economy as the antidote to life in a carbon constrained world. The global climate crisis threatens many aspects of life on earth, but perhaps none so much as access to water. Energy is a relatively easy challenge to solve. But providing access to water, both in this country and in water-short regions around the globe will not be trivial. Fortunately, in water, as in energy, there are solutions in hand that cost less, work better and can deliver a higher quality of life. Hunter will describe the drivers of change that are confronting us, and how to create a future based on greater prosperity, security, and well being.
Gloria Flora, Executive Director, Sustainable Obtainable Solutions: Ms. Flora’s powerful and effective stands for the environment will resonate with and inspire participants. Solving global water and environmental crises takes tenacity and leadership, but also a keen understanding of the relationship of humans to their land and the power of effective communication. Gloria Flora will share her 30 years of experience in developing and applying effective techniques and “rules of engagement”.
Peter Warshall, Project Director for Dreaming New Mexico (Bioneers), former editor Whole Earth Catalog: Peter is a return speaker to the Xeriscape Conference. He will talk about the “Unholy Triumvirate” -- the entanglement of water, energy and cash flows in human and natural history and, especially, in contemporary arid lands. A more holistic view of modern xeriscape governance is necessary in a century where any of these three flows can destroy the dreams of a sustainable future. From the fog-catching beetle of the Namib to the largest water pumps on the planet in Tracy, California to the refugee camps in Darfur, water and energy drive history of ecosystems and society.
Keith Bowers, LA, Biohabitats: Mr. Bowers is in the unique position of operating a company that is in the business of ecological restoration yet he is a landscape architect. He should discuss the importance of the environment and how conservation planning, ecological restoration and regenerative design can build resiliency and maximize evolutionary potential of ecosystems throughout the world. Since we live in a desert here in the southwest and most of his experience is in wetter environments I think there are basic precepts for environmental restoration that span every environment, which should be his concentration.
Susan Tweit: Susan is a plant ecologist who turned to writing. Her writings explore the “community of the land,” where biology, environmental concerns and human health issues intersect in our everyday lives. She is the author of ten books, including Seasons in the Desert, a nominee for the Western States Book Award. Her talk will link to Vernice’s as she draws on her experiences to describe reclaiming the decaying industrial site where she lives in Salida, Colorado.
Dr. Jonathan Wolfe, Fractal Foundation: The Beautiful Chaos of Nature - Dr Wolfe is at once concerned with art and the science of the way things work and how that relates to the green industry from the cellular level right up to how large watersheds respond to their environmental impacts. He should talk about the basic concepts of fractal and chaos theory and bring that thinking to the green industry.
Friday Speakers – The Art of Landscape
Ketzel Levine, Senior Correspondent NPR, LA: Because of Ketzel’s varied background -- as a reporter, garden writer and former owner of a landscaping business -- she's been able to observe American landscaping trends and attitudes towards conservation from the ground up. She's watched hose water run down Salt Lake City streets in the middle of summer and municipalities that fine homeowners for letting ornamental grasses recklessly grow. (Can you imagine? The insult!). She's met field botanists who regularly risk their lives to save endangered species, and lumbermen who are passionately and politically green. Drawing from her most recent stories for the NPR series, "Climate Connections," Ketzel will place our own efforts in the context of what's being done across the country and around the world.
Betsy Damon, Artist: Ms. Damon is an artist but one that concentrates her efforts on the outside environment. She therefore has an understanding of site that other artist’s cannot reach. Her discussion should concentrate on the art and how it relates to the environment as well as the orientation and placement of the art within the larger landscape. She can provide either case examples or a presentation of the concepts surrounding the placement of art.
Charles Mann, Photographer: Charles Mann may well be one of the best garden photographers in the West. During his fifteen years of shooting gardens from Kyoto to New Mexico to England, Charles has pondered the subjects of art, beauty, and photography and has some insights, observations, and anecdotes as well as some pictures to share about the process that is going on behind the camera's viewfinder. He suggests that you can learn to use the camera as a tool to renew your enthusiasm for the garden, to see the world differently and to redefine your appreciation for the hidden beauty all around you. This presentation will be about photography, but not about how to photograph gardens and landscapes, but rather more about "Why?".
David Salman, High Country Gardens: David will discuss the importance of plants in the Xeriscape. In reaction to the all-to-common “Zeroscape” paradigm that many people mistake as the correct model for low water landscaping, Salman will focus on using regionally suitable plants to create a well designed Xeriscape. See how a diversity of plant types in combination with organic soil care adds texture, form and color to the landscape while enhancing its ecological health.
Charles Anderson, Landscape Architecture: Charles Anderson is the landscape architect of record for the new Seattle Sculpture Garden. This talk should concentrate on the garden’s design and layout rather than the detail; how the designer worked to set off the art in terms of space, the orientation of the visitor and how the visitor experience was considered, the environmental aspects of the project should also be highlighted since this is the xeriscape conference.
Gary Mallory, Heads-Up Landscape Contractors: this topic is intended to show the differences between the maintenance of landscapes which are traditional turfgrass vs. the newer and more xeric landscapes. The discussion should focus on the differences and “green” or environmental approaches to landscape maintenance, particularly regarding irrigation issues.
N. Scott Momday is a poet, a Pulitzer prize-winning novelist, a playwright, a painter, a storyteller, and a professor of English and American literature. He is a Native American (Kiowa), and among his chief interests are Native American art and oral tradition.Momaday was born in Lawton, Oklahoma and was raised in the Indian Country in Oklahoma, New Mexico and the Southwest. He graduated from the University of New Mexico (BA 1958) and Stanford University (MA 1960, Ph.D. 1963).
We are honored to have Dr Momaday close our conference. His topic could not be more relevant: “The Spiritual Aspects of Landscape and Water.”
