LWLA_NativeMeadowTour

Photo by Nick Novick

Our office is proudly partnering with Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy and Rock Creek National Park Service to restore native meadows at the famed Dumbarton Oaks Park in Washington, D.C.

Dumbarton Oaks Park, designed by America’s first professional female landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, has deteriorated significantly over the last half century due to resource limitations faced by the National Park Service, but the Conservancy, in collaboration with the Park Service, is restoring this historic landscape and its ecological functions. As part of the restoration effort, Larry will lecture on native meadows at nearby George Washington University and then the following day will lead a hands-on tour of the meadow restoration work at Dumbarton Oaks Park.

The unique event begins with a late afternoon lecture entitled “Setting a Process in Motion: The Self-Proliferating Landscape.”  The presentation will explore how we can capitalize on plants’ natural reproductive abilities and actively encourage existing, planted, and recruited species to colonize our designed landscapes. After all, nature has spent thousands of years perfecting plants’ abilities to reproduce and proliferate on their own, even though often go to great effort and expense placing every plant in our designed landscapes.  Larry will discuss principles and protocols for creating dynamic, ecologically rich landscapes where nature does much of the “planting.”  The presentation will emphasize meadow projects and include detailed case studies that demonstrate how practical, concrete plant proliferation strategies can be applied at diverse scales, from small scale plantings to large multi-acre meadows.

On the following morning, join Larry on a tour the meadows at the legacied Dumbarton Oaks Park.  Larry has partnered with Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy and Rock Creek Park National Park Service to revitalize the first two of five meadows designed by noted landscape architect Beatrix Farrand.  Larry will lead a tour of the meadows in their varying stages of development.  Participants will have the opportunity for hands-on engagement in restoration practices and learn first hand about the design, implementation, and management of native meadows.

We’re pleased to be participating in this exciting project and look forward to seeing it evolve.

Learn more and register for this special event. We hope to see you there!