LAF is putting together a webinar for landscape professionals and enthusiasts to gain further education in the advancements in public gardens. The online educational event is titled "Shaping the Future of Public Gardens" and will take place on June 4th.

 
The hour-long webinar focuses on communicating ideas about the development and improvement of public gardens. Furthermore, LAF explains how botanical gardens, arboreta, and other forms of public gardens hold the potential to be examples of sustainability and climate actions. These environmental goals can be realized by careful design and management. More specifically, LAF mentions the educational value these gardens can offer by permitting research and other scholarly activities.

They continued by relaying the idea that the evolving nature of public gardens has led to landscape architects to capitalize on the changes to confront challenges in biodiversity, climate change, and other issues. To discuss these ideas, LAF has brought three landscape architects with an extensive history in managing and developing public gardens.

The first presenter, George Briggs, is the executive director of The North Carolina Arboretum, where he has aided in the development of public gardens since 1987. He has been a leading voice in advocating for the economic improvement of climate business and the managed landscape industry. Bob Grese, the director of Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, has been a landscape architecture educator at the University of Michigan for over 30 years. Grese also has a history of supporting ecologically-based design as well as the stewardship of cultural landscapes. The third presenter, Ursula Dean Hoskins, is the vice president for capital project for The New York Botanical Garden.

The webinar has a max occupancy of 500 hundred attendees, so be sure to register (link at the bottom). LAF will also record the webinar and post it on their website upon its conclusion.

https://www.lafoundation.org/resources/2020/05/landscape-architects-public-gardens