Join JCLS and the Jackson County Master Gardeners for this presentation on native biodiversity! Planting native plants is crucial to ecosystem health and to preserving and protecting life on earth. Plant choice matters, and choosing native plants helps to restore and ensure vital ecosystem services in our landscapes. Based on the work of Dr. Doug Tallamy, this presentation outlines seven steps you can take to create healthy, productive gardens, and help save our disappearing pollinators and birds.

Lynn Kunstman began gardening with her parents in Lafayette, California, as a young child. She has a degree in Wildlife Management from Humboldt State University and, after moving to Ashland in 1986, obtained a Masters in Science Education from SOU. After teaching middle school special ed and science for 22 years, she retired to Medford where she grows a huge vegetable garden, harvesting and preserving food crops year round. She became a Master Gardener in 2012, and a Master Food Preserver in 2013. Most recently her focus has been on gardening for wildlife and pollinators. Lynn is the Master Gardener Speaker on the weekly gardening show Garden for Life, on Jefferson Public Radio. Her quarter acre lot in Medford is certified as a Monarch Way Station, a Pollinator Garden, and a Wildlife Habitat. In 2023 she was named Oregon State Master Gardener of the Year. She established and runs the native plants nursery at Jackson County Extension Campus.