Conference Agenda

Wednesday, November 13, 2024 – Scruggs University Center at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri

Registration for this exclusive Grow Native! Professional Member event is now closed. Please check back next summer for information about the 2025 conference!

Welcome from Mackenzie Job, Jefferson City Council Member

Welcome from Ronda Burnett, Grow Native! Committee Chair

Keynote: Stormwater Green Infrastructure Projects: Case Studies for Lessons Learned

Presenter: Rusty Schmidt, Nelson Pope Voorhis

Rusty Schmidt’s keynote presentation will include several case studies of a variety of green infrastructure BMPs that highlight lessons learned during the 26 years of installations, designs, and remedies. Examples of inlet protection, erosion control, long-term maintenance, and plant selection are some of the information being presented. In addition, a new planting guide for stormwater projects book for the Lower Midwest will be available with an explanation on how to interpret the book, in PDF form, for plant selection.

Native Flora in an Altered State: Soil Nutrients Affect Floristic Distribution

Presenter: Sam Lord, University of Missouri

Working with Nature: Dialog Between Designers and Native Plant Producers to Sustain Original Plant Communities

Presenters: Maria Landoni, Sur Landscape Architecture and Mike Hoyle, Missouri Wildflowers Nursery

2024 Grow Native! Ambassador Award Recognition

Nature-Based Site Solutions

Presenter: Pamela Conrad, Climate Positive Design / Harvard University

Extension Across Generations: Boys and Girls Club and Native Plants at Lincoln University

Presenter: Dr. Nadia Navarrete-Tindall, Lincoln University

Floating Wetlands: Old Concept – Revitalized Twist

Presenter: Kara Tvedt, Missouri Department of Conservation

Growing Natives for the Floral Industry

Presenters: Andy and Joan Klingensmith, River Folk Flowers

Speaker Information

Rusty Schmidt

Stormwater Green Infrastructure Projects: Case Studies for Lessons Learned

This presentation will include several case studies of a variety of green infrastructure BMPs that highlight lessons learned during the 26 years of installations, designs, and remedies. Examples of inlet protection, erosion control, long-term maintenance, and plant selection are some of the information being presented. In addition, a new planting guide for stormwater projects book for the Lower Midwest will be available with an explanation on how to interpret the book, in PDF form, for plant selection.

Biopgrahy: Rusty Schmidt is a landscape ecologist at Nelson Pope Voorhis in Melville, New York and is an adjunct professor with the Horticulture Department at Farmingdale State College. Rusty designs and constructs alternative methods for managing stormwater runoff. He has created hundreds of designs for habitat restorations, rain gardens, bio-infiltration swales, bio-retention basins, and stormwater ponds ranging in size from small backyard rain gardens to large multi-acre sized rain gardens throughout the nation.

Rusty helps train homeowners and design professionals on the techniques of rain gardens nationwide. He has assisted rain garden initiatives like the “10,000 Rain Garden Initiative” in Kansas City and the MetroBlooms and BlueThumb Programs in Minnesota. He is a co-author for four books, three on plant selections for stormwater management and a homeowner guide to rain gardens.

Sam Lord

Presentation: Native Flora in an Altered State: Soil Nutrients Affect Floristic Distribution

Soil nutrients have been highly altered due to land use conversion over the last 200 years. In this presentation, Sam will discuss how that affects floristic distribution of native flora and how we can maximize the potential of native plantings from landscape scale restorations to your front yard.

Biography: Sam Lord is an instructor, soil scientist, and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Missouri. He teaches three courses in soil science and ecology aimed at providing undergraduates with an in-depth understanding of the environment around them and their place within it. His research delves into soil as the foundational medium for all terrestrial ecosystems, while focusing on plant-soil interactions in remnant and degraded grasslands and the soil’s role in determining ecosystem outcomes.

Maria Landoni

Presentation: Working with Nature: Dialog Between Designers and Native Plant Producers to Sustain Original Plant Communities (with Mike Hoyle)

Biodiversity loss is one of the greatest challenges of our time. What actions should landscape architects and landscape designers take to help find solutions to this major threat to life on earth? This presentation will explore native plant supply, native landscape design, and landscape architecture policies aimed at protecting native biodiversity.

Biography: Maria Landoni is a licensed landscape architect with over 15 years of experience, including extensive work in the fields of urban design, horticulture and planning. She brings a unique, culturally informed aesthetic, having grown up and studied in both The Patagonia and Buenos Aires, Argentina, and having lived and worked in the U.S. for over 20 years. Maria is driven to resolve complex design challenges without losing sight of the social and physical milieu in which a landscape resides. Maria has led numerous prominent projects ranging from civic and tech campuses and botanical gardens to urban gardens and pastoral landscapes.

Mike Hoyle

Presentation: Working with Nature: Dialog Between Designers and Native Plant Producers to Sustain Original Plant Communities (with Maria Landoni)

Biography: For 24 years, Mike Hoyle has been an indispensable resource at Missouri Wildflowers Nursery, one of the pioneering native plant nurseries of the Midwest. During this time, Mike has played a key role in the growth and expansion of the business with his extensive seed collection, seed cleaning, and native plant propagation experience, years of nursery management know-how, and passion for native plants and their native environments. An excellent educator, Mike generously shares his knowledge with peers and customers, and advocates for the use of native plants in landscaping to support nature’s web of life.

Pamela Conrad

Presentation: Nature-Based Site Solutions

Join landscape architect and climate advocate Pamela Conrad as she demonstrates ways to support low-carbon, nature-based solutions that also promote equity, biodiversity, and community resilience. Conrad’s influential carbon research and projects highlight the net positive impacts of regenerative exterior environments. She will discuss her advocacy efforts focused on addressing climate and biodiversity crises and planning for a resilient future.

Biography: Pamela Conrad, PLA, ASLA, LEED AP, is an internationally recognized landscape architect, founder and executive director of Climate Positive Design, faculty member at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and Architecture 2030 Senior Fellow. Her passion for the environment is deeply rooted—from growing up on a farm in Missouri to studying plant science at the University of Missouri and regenerative landscape architecture. Pamela’s 20-year career has focused on implementing carbon sequestering nature-based solutions in the built environment ranging from large scale habitat restoration to urban waterfront adaptation.

Dr. Nadia Navarrete-Tindall

Presentation: Extension Across Generations: Boys and Girls Club and Native Plants at Lincoln University

Learn how a proactive leader has created a collaboration between the Specialty Crops/Native Plants Program at Lincoln University and the Jefferson City Boys and Girls Club by promoting children’s participation in hands-on training and events about native plants.

Biography: As the Extension State Specialist and the director of the Speciality Crops/Native Plants Program at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Dr. Nadia Navarrete-Tindall develops educational programming and resources to help Missouri’s underserved farmers to integrate native plants into agricultural production for food and conservation. She promotes native plants for their benefits to people and wildlife through many outreach initiatives. The FINCA (Families Integrating Nature, Conservation and Agriculture) project provides educational tools to students and the public to learn to identify, grow, and market native edible plants and those important for pollinators. Two native plant demonstration areas on the Lincoln University campus include the Finca EcoFarm and the Native Plant Outdoor Laboratory. She writes native plant publications in Spanish and English. In 2008, she received the Missouri Conservation Commission’s highest conservation honor when she was named a Master Conservationist. The following year, she received the Erna Eisendrath Memorial Education Award from the Missouri Native Plant Society

Kara Tvedt

Presentation: Floating Wetlands: Old Concept – Revitalized Twist

The concept for floating wetlands has been used for centuries. Originally, they were a way to raise crops. Today, the concept has merged with native plants, and they are being used as a nature-based solution for addressing water quality and habitat in built spaces.

Biography: Fisheries Biologist Kara Tvedt has been with the Missouri Department of Conservation for more than 30 years. She has spent most of her career working in the Department’s Southwest Region and is currently part of the region’s Community Conservation Team providing communities and partners assistance with aquatic resource management.  Other large projects include aquatic invasive species control (hydrilla) and participating in the Department chronic wasting disease (CWD) efforts.

Andy and Joan Klingensmith

Presentation: Growing Natives for the Floral Industry

The local flower movement is a growing and necessary part of the national floral industry, and natives can make an impact there, too. Joan and Andy Klingensmith own and operate River Folk Flowers, a cut-flower market garden in Union, MO. Hear how they incorporate natives into their business by including them in bouquets and selling them wholesale. Learn how River Folk Flowers’ natives help grow their business, shape their growing space, and spread awareness of the importance of biodiversity in our landscapes. 

Biography: Andy and Joan Klingensmith started River Folk Flowers in 2022 and currently sell at markets, wholesale to florists, and to customers for small events. Joan is a horticulturist at Shaw Nature Reserve, where she helps care for the Whitmire Wildflower Garden, a landscape of all Missouri native plants. She has worked in outdoor education, urban farming, and floristry before settling into native horticulture and cut-flower growing. Andy is the Student Activities Director at East Central College after working almost two decades in natural resource education. They both enjoy hiking, canoeing, and spending time with their dog, Dell, and cat, Beaux.

Photos submitted by presenters