The Tennessee Valley Chapter of the Wild Ones is holding its 10th annual event, “Plant Natives 2021.” This year, there are big changes – an exciting and expanded lineup of speakers AND a new way to obtain a great variety of native plants for spring planting. “Plant Natives 2021!” will consist of three components:

- Virtual Special Seminar | Friday, March 19 | 9 a.m.-noon
- Virtual Symposium & Expo | Friday-Sunday, March 19-21 
- Outdoor Native Plant Marketplace | Saturday, March 27 | 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature (2016), Safina Center Fellow J. Drew Lanham, PhD, will also present on Saturday. In his program, “Coloring the Conservation Conversation”, Dr. Lanham will discuss what it means to embrace the full breadth of his African-American Heritage, deep kinship to nature and adoration of birds. Candid by nature - and because of it - Dr. Lanham will examine how conservation must be a rigorous science and evocative art, inviting diversity and race to play active roles in celebrating our natural world. Dr. Lanham is a professor of wildlife at Clemson University, where he holds an endowed chair as an Alumni Distinguished Professor and was named an Alumni Master Teacher in 2012. A South Carolina native, Dr. Lanham is active on numerous conservation boards and is a member of the advisory board for the North American Association of Environmental Education. His research focuses on songbird ecology, as well as the African-American role in natural-resources conservation. Dr. Lanham received his B.A. and M.S. in zoology, and his Ph.D. in forest resources from Clemson.

See the full lineup of speakers and events, and find out how to register here.