Saturday, March 20, 2027
9 AM - 4:30 PM

MEMBERS: $35 | NON-MEMBERS: $50
Add Lunch Option: $15

Recommended for ages 8+ with astronomy background and general astronomy knowledge.

Advance registration is required and includes admission to the museum and all symposium presentations. A prepared lunch can be added for an additional fee. Registration closes at noon on Wednesday, March 10 or when we reach maximum capacity.

Prepaid reservations are required. Cost includes all presentations, breakfast social and lunch, as well as Museum admission. Edited 03/03/26 per email from Ryan.

EXPLORE THE GROUND BENEATH YOUR FEET

Spend a day learning more about three key pieces of the Southeast’s ecosystem: the native plants that anchor a healthy landscape, the pollinators that depend on them, and the forgotten grasslands that once defined our region. Whether you’re a backyard gardener, a conservation professional, or simply curious about the wild world outside your door, this symposium will change the way you look at the ground beneath your feet.

SPEAKER LINEUP TBD – updated 02.17.26

master of ceremonies

Ashley Frasca — Host, "Green and Growing with Ashley Frasca," 95.5 WSB Radio

Ashley Frasca has spent 17 years with Atlanta’s WSB Radio, guiding listeners through morning traffic and, every Saturday since 2020, through the ins and outs of lawn, landscape, and garden on her show Green and Growing.

Native Plant Speakers

How Did I Get Here? A New Gardening Ethic: My Journey to Being a Messy and Compassionate Gardener

Trecia Neal — Owner, Green Gardens Education and Design

After more than 30 years as a biologist at Fernbank Science Center, Trecia Neal traded a lifetime of environmental education for a second act in ecological landscape design. Her presentation traces a path from her early career through retirement, a chance encounter with the ideas of Doug Tallamy, and a move to Rock Road that upended everything she thought she knew about gardening. She’ll touch on invasive species, habitat restoration, and the founding of both Green Gardens Education and Designs and Wild Roots Native Nursery. It’s an invitation to embrace a little “messiness” in the name of a healthier, more alive landscape.

Talk Info TBD

Kyle Lybarger — Owner, Native Habitat Project

TBD

Pollinator Speakers

Keeping Our Common Birds Common

Doug Tallamy, PhD — Entomologist, University of Delaware; author of five books

Biodiversity is disappearing at an accelerating rate, and the birds we once took for granted are vanishing fastest of all. Dr. Tallamy makes the case that the key to saving them isn’t exotic or far away — it’s the insects in our own yards. He’ll explain which insects matter most to nesting birds and how anyone can design a landscape that brings them back in force.

Doug Tallamy is the T.A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 120 research publications and taught for 45 years. He is the author of Bringing Nature Home, The Living Landscape, the New York Times bestseller Nature’s Best Hope, the award-winning The Nature of Oaks, and his newest book, How Can I Help. In 2021, he cofounded Homegrown National Park with Michelle Alfandari.

Bats: Our Environment's Friends

Laurie + Larry Alvord — Georgia Bat Experts, Forsyth County Master Naturalists

Over 500 flower species worldwide depend on bats for pollination, and that’s just the beginning of what these misunderstood creatures do for us! Bats devour night-flying insects by the thousands and help spread the seeds that keep forests growing. Laurie and Larry Alvord, longtime bat educators with the Georgia Bat Working Group, will share why bats deserve our fascination instead of our fear, and how we can help their populations thrive.

Southern Grassland Speakers

Picturing Our Forgotten Grasslands

Philip Juras — Grassland Artist, Athens, Georgia

Grassland ecosystems once stretched across eastern North America, shaping the region’s biodiversity and the lives of the people who lived there, but today they’re mostly forgotten. Through his paintings, Philip Juras takes guests on a visual tour of these landscapes and highlights the importance of conserving and restoring them to health.

Juras blends direct observation with natural science and history to capture ecologically intact landscapes on canvas. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Illinois State Museum, and museums across Georgia, and has been published in three books. He holds degrees in fine art and landscape architecture from the University of Georgia, where his 1997 thesis on pre-European settlement grasslands continues to shape his art today.

Talk Info TBD

Dr. Dwayne Estes — Executive Director, Southeastern Grasslands Institute

Known across the region as the “Prairie Preacher,” Dr. Dwayne Estes co-founded the Southeastern Grasslands Institute in 2016 and has since helped raise $46 million for grassland conservation across the Southeast. A Full Professor of Biology and Director of the APSU Herbarium, his work was the subject of the Emmy-winning PBS documentary The Prairie Preacher. He’ll share why the region’s lost grasslands matter and what it will take to bring them back.