Join us on Zoom on Monday, June 12th at 6:30 pm to hear Elmer Dengler’s talk:

Twenty Years of Finding the Best Ways to Introduce People to Pollinator Habitat Management as opposed to just a garden of miscellaneous native cultivars that do not address habitat restoration, education, or sustainability in traditional parks and public areas

As a teen, Elmer Dengler participated in insect migration studies, raising and tagging thousands of monarch butterflies including one that traveled from PA to the Gulf of Mexico in 30 days. He received a BS in Environmental Resource Management from Penn State University and began a career with the USDA Soil Conservation Service in 1980 where he managed an office in Montana that focused on sustainable agricultural systems and converted 80,000+ acres of cropland to perennial grassland. He eventually transferred to Maryland where he has converted half his backyard to native pollinator friendly plants.

Elmer has training in Total Quality Management and Teambuilding that he uses to promote collaboration within the greater MD Conservation Partnership. He served as the MD Grassland Specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service; concentrating on the use of regionally native grasses for Management Intensive Grazing and helping conventional farms transition to organic production. He developed education programs with the UMD Extension and SARE grants in partnership with Universities, the Rhodale Institute, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

For the past 10 years Elmer has served on the City of Bowie's Green Team, creating pollinator gardens on city land and teaching pollinator needs though both the Green Team and the Bowie-Crofton Garden Club.

He engages the public on pollinator habitat development and monarchs at Patuxent Wildlife Refuge through talks and exhibitions, is a certified Anne Arundel Watershed Steward and key member of the RePollinate Anne Arundel program and leads restoration projects in AA County including conversion of stormwater ponds in Bowie to native pollinator friendly habitat using native plants grown at the USGS Native Bee Lab.