Pollinator workshop

Join us Wednesday, June 14th, for a two-part Pollinator Workshop! LCD will be joined by pollinator experts Connie Crancer and Kay Charter (speaker bios can be found below) to provide an educational classroom workshop and field day focused on creating native habitat for bees, butterflies, and everything in between. The $15 registration fee covers your choice of lunch from Fiddleheads in Lake Leelanau. We hope you can make it! Register by contacting our office with the button below, please include your name(s), phone number, choice of lunch (cherry chicken salad sandwich or vegetarian falafel), and any additional comments:

Register

Connie Crancer
Project Wingspan Michigan State Coordinator & NRCS Pollinator Liaison

Connie has a BS in Horticulture from Michigan State University and received her MS in Terrestrial Ecology from the University of Michigan where she was employed for twenty-six years at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum. At the beginning of her career at the Gardens and Arboretum her main focus was growing plant material for the UM Biology Department and the School of Natural Resources along with maintaining the Helen V. Smith Wildflower Garden.
​Her interests grew towards native plants when she joined the Michigan Botanical Club and later became Vice President and Program Director for six years. As her interests grew in ecology with the completion of her Masters; her responsibilities shifted to the natural areas focus at the Gardens and Arboretum, specifically native plants. Her duties included seed collection, plug production, the installation of bio-swales, native gardens and plantings, and participation in restoration efforts including prescribed burns and seed dispersal, all of which was made possible by the help of her many dedicated volunteers.
She retired from her University job and moved back to the west side of Michigan, now residing on a 200 acre organic farm.

Kay Charter
Executive Director at Saving Birds Thru Habitat

In the fall of 1992, Kay and Jim Charter realized that many of their favorite bird species were in decline. Migrating species like Baltimore orioles, scarlet tanagers, indigo buntings, and warblers were losing ground every year. Unwilling to stand by helplessly and watch the downward slide of these beautiful creatures, the Charters opted to take action by selling their lakefront home in order to purchase a large tract of land away from the water. Before the year was out, the house was sold and the couple used the proceeds from the sale, and their retirement savings, to purchase a 47-acre tract of mixed habitat. There they established a safe haven for the feathered jewels they love.
​Nine years later, in the summer of 2001, Kay Charter was the driving force behind the founding of Saving Birds Thru Habitat. This organization is dedicated to the cause of teaching others about the challenges facing our migrating birds, pollinators, and others, and instructing them about how to help resolve those problems.