Videos

You can learn a lot about native plants and natural landscapes by watching some videos! Below are some produced by Wild Ones and by other organizations.

“FEATURED” indicates that we have featured these resources either as virtual presentations during the pandemic or that they have been featured in our twice-monthly FREE newsletters as useful resources. (Interested in receiving this FREE e-newsletter? Email us to subscribe!)

National Wild Ones videos

• FEATURED: Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy, a Wild Ones Honorary Board Member
• FEATURED: Bombus among us — Bumble bee basics by Heather Holm, a Wild Ones Honorary Board Member
• Meet the Designers series:
  • Meet the Designers – the first in a series of presentations by designers who created design templates

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Wild Ones chapter videos

Wild Ones has a national Events Calendar listing all the events hosted by individual chapters. Some chapters open some of their online/virtual or livestream meetings to the public, so you can register for those of interest to you.

Many chapters have also recorded their online-only or hybrid meetings, and they’re available to others. Many are listed in their chapter’s YouTube channel or on their chapter website. This is a wonderful resource for all of us.

HGCNY’s recorded presentations

• Our HGCNY YouTube channel recorded presentations including:
  • Renaturalizing our Landscapes: Why and How – Janice Wiles, Go Native! Perennials
  • The Wonderful Life of a Dying Tree – Gillian Martin, founder of Cavity Conservation
  • Asian Jumping Worms: A research update – Dr. Tim McCay of Colgate Univ.
  • The Plight of Insects – Jim D’Angelo of Sterling Nature Center
  • Right Plants in the Right Places – Ellen Folts of Amanda’s Native Garden
    (NOTE: A PDF of Ellen’s plant list handed out at the in-person meeting is below)

PDFs available from the in-person HGCNY meetings:

Examples of resources from other chapters

• Capital Region NY: Involving Municipalities and HOAs in Ecological Landscaping
• Kalamazoo Area: more than a dozen videos of their past programs

Videos produced by other organizations

BIODIVERSITY

• TED
  • FEATURED: The global movement to restore nature’s biodiversity – Thomas Crowther; 11 min (2020)

BIRDS

• Ecological Landscape Alliance:
  • FEATURED: Chickadee’s guide to gardening – 1 hr – Dr. Desiree Narango
• Audubon:
  • Inside Look: Bird Adaptations – 56 min (2020)
  • Inside Look: Marsh Birds and Healthy Wetlands – 55 min (2020)
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bird Academy:
  • FEATURED: eBird Essentials – 3 hr FREE course on using eBird community science app!
  • Learn when and where birds migrate – 1 hr  
  • Nest talk with NestWatch – 1 hr 8 min 
  • Cat Wars: The devastating consequences of a cuddly killer – 1 hr 20 min
  • Intimate views of the courting, parenting, and family lives of familiar birds –
    1 hr 12 min
  • Lights out to protect migratory birds (2020) – 30 min  
  • What’s that bird song? ID birds by sound with BirdNet – 1 hr
  • Bird cams appreciation night – 1 hr 43 min
  • Bird sounds decoded – 1 hr 7 min
  • Merlin Bird ID: Tips tricks and updates – 1 hr 5 min
  • Can drones help our bird populations – 1 hr
  • Questions about nesting birds? Live from a robin’s nest, we’ve got answers – 56 min
  • Mapping migration with eBird – 35 min

BUTTERFLIES

• The Xerces Society:
  • Gardening for butterflies east of the Rockies – 59 min (2020)

BEES

• Ecological Landscape Alliance:
  • Landscape maintenance practices for native bees – Sam Droege; 1 hr 4 min [Note: The actual presentation starts a minute or so in to the video]
• Grow Native Massachusetts:
  • FEATURED: More than the buzz: Finding real solutions to native pollinator declines  – Robert Gegear; 1 hr 13 min
  • How native plant cultivars affect pollinators – Annie White; 54 min
• The Xerces Society:
  • Beyond plants: What else do insects need to thrive? – Matt Shepherd; 1 hr 6 min
  • Bring back the pollinators – 1 hr 19 min
  • Pesticides and pollinators — Understanding the risks – 1 hr 30 min (2020)
  • Gardening beyond your yard – Bee City USA – 50 min (2020)
  • Bumble bees – Charismatic megafauna of the backyard safari – 57 min
  • Tickle bees – Insights into the life and times of ground-nesting bees – 1 hr 3 min
  • Building pollinator habitat in towns and cities: Northeast/Mid-Atlantic –  1 hr 12 min
• TED Talks
  • The hidden beauty of pollination – 7 min (2011)

INSECTS in general

• The Xerces Society:
  • I Notice and I Wonder – The joy of discovering invertebrates – 52 min (2020)
  • Fireflies – The jewels of the night – 57 min (2020)

• TED Talks:
  • FEATURED: Why we all need to learn to love insects – Dave Goulson – 19 min (2020)
  • FEATURED: Insects are extraordinary. And they may save your life – Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson – 15 min (2020)
  • FEATURED: Ew to Aww: Your view of bugs may never be the same – Danae Wolfe – 13 min (2019)
  • FEATURED: Extreme macro photography reveals the beauty of the insect world – Levon Biss – 10 min (2019)
  • Dragonflies that fly across oceans – 16 min (2009)
  • The loves and lives of fireflies – Sara Lewis -13 min (2013)

COMMUNITY SCIENCE (formerly known as “citizen science”)

• TED Talks
  • FEATURED: Can Citizen Science Save Us? – Mary Ellen Hannibal – 14 min (2017)
  • FEATURED: Citizen Science: Everybody Counts – Caren Cooper – 18 min (2017)
  • The citizen science revolution – Leesa Ricci – 8 min (2015)
  • The future of discovery — citizen science – Rob Dunn – 11 min (2014)
  • Citizen Science – Chandra Clarke – 18 min (2014)
  • Citizen Science – Kerryane Monahan – 16 min (2019)

SOIL

• TED Talks
  • Humus – the essential ingredient – Graeme Sait;  19 min (2013)
• EcoBeneficial:
  • Leave the leaves in place – 2 min (2016)
• Food and Agriculture – United Nations
  • Soils: Our ally against climate change – 2 min (2015)
• BBC – David Attenborough
  • Life in the Underground selections from the series (Full DVD is available at the library)

CLIMATE

• Grow Native Massachusetts:
  • FEATURED: Climate change, conservation, and the role of native plant horticulture by Jesse Bellemare
• Audubon:
  • An Inside Look: Radical Climate Action – 58 min (2020)

PLANTS

• Grow Native Massachusetts:
  • FEATURED: Spring Wildflowers: Ephemeral beauty with a purpose – 1 hr 3 min
  • FEATURED: Sugar, sex, and poison: Understanding the vital powers of plants – 1 hr 4 min Bill Cullina
  • FEATURED: Beautiful adaptations of native plants: Inviting the wild into our gardens – Dan Segal; 1 hr 9 min
  • Lessons learned when field botany meets design – 1 hr
  • Art and science of growing native plants from seed: Why, when, and how – 1 hr 8 min
• Wild Seed Project:
  • Why native plants matter – Heather McCargo [Note: The link to the presentation is in the middle of the webpage.]
• Ecological Landscape Alliance:
  • A walk in the garden with Dan Jaffe – Wilder adventures with oddities – 1 hr 20 min (includes question period)
• TED-Ed:
  • The amazing ways plants defend themselves – 6 min
• Land Conservancy McHenry:
  • Native Plant Seed 101: Collect, store (sometimes), sow – 1 hr 26 min

INVASIVE PLANTS

• Grow Native Massachusetts:
  • Humans and wildlife: The new imbalance – (deer, geese etc) 51 min

TREES / FORESTS

• TED Talks:
  • Nature’s internet: How trees talk to each other in a healthy forest – 19 min
  • FEATURED: How trees talk to each other – Suzanne Simard; 18 min(2016) More than 4.5 million views! (See Intelligent Trees below for more with Suzanne Simard.)
  • FEATURED: What happens if you cut down all of a city’s trees – 5 min (2020)
• TED-Ed:
  • The Secret Language of Trees – 4 min
• Other:
  • Intelligent Trees – If you enjoyed TED talk on trees by Suzanne Simard, you’ll love Intelligent Trees, a longer documentary featuring Simard as well as Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees, a worldwide best-selling book. (Note: This is available to rent at Vimeo or Amazon; free to Amazon Prime members)

ROBIN KIMMERER, a SUNY-ESF professor and author

• FEATURED: Yale: The Teachings of Plants – Finding Common Ground between Traditional and Scientific Knowledge – 1 hr 15 min (2017)
• OnBeing: The intelligence in all kinds of life –  51 min
• Bioneers: The teachings of grass – 21 min
• TED: Reclaiming the honorable harvest – 18 min
• NYBG: What plants can teach us – 1 hr 26 min
• Humans&Nature.org: Questions for a resilient future -17 min

DESIGN

• Garden Fed’n of Mass:
  • Native plant design  – 1 hr 43 min
• Grow Native Massachusetts:
  • FEATURED: Nurturing the liberated landscape – 1 hr 14 min – Larry Weaner
  • FEATURED: Native plant gardens: Learning by example – 50 min – Carolyn Summers
  • The Challenges and Promise of Restoring Urban Landscapes – 1 hr 7 min
• Ecological Landscape Alliance:
  • Tenacious plants for tough places – 55 min
• LandConservancyMcHenry:
  • Native Plant Gardening and Design – 48 min 
• NY-NJ Trail Conference:
  • Designing and planting with Native Plants Webinar – 1 hr 14 min

HOW-TO

• The Xerces Society:
  • Gardening with native plants – Learning from our mistakes and successes  – 1 hr 24 min
• National Wildlife Federation:
  • How to garden for wildlife – 1 hr 4 min (2020)