Pre-registration required.

Cost: $25 (25% off for BGA Members)

We like the leaves for shade and fall color, but they seem to become our dreaded enemy once they fall to the ground. If you want pollinators in the spring, keeping those leaves in your yard is essential.

A city-funded study by Davey Research Group of Kent, Ohio, released in late 2019 found Asheville lost 6.4% of its tree canopy from 2008-18, or 891 acres. The study's authors labeled the reduction a "call to action," saying the city should take steps to stop — and even reverse — the loss. They did! In March 2023, they hired Asheville’s first urban forester, but in September 2024, Hurricane Helene dramatically increased Asheville’s tree loss!

This class teaches the role tree leaves (and dead plant stems) play in the lives of pollinators year-round and explores which trees to plant and how to have a tidy yard–with lots of fallen leaves!

Instructors

Keith Aitken is the Urban Forester for the City of Asheville. With over 15 years of experience in forest management and research, Aitken is responsible for implementing the canopy protection ordinance, including developing and implementing a comprehensive urban forestry program. Best of all, Aitken understands the importance of indigenous trees.

Phyllis Stiles is founder and director emerita of Bee City USA®. The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign named Stiles “Pollinator Advocate of the Year for the United States” in 2015, the same year the sister program, Bee Campus USA, launched. To date, more than 400 cities and campuses in 47 states have joined the Bee City and Bee Campus USA networks, which became initiatives of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in 2018. Stiles has made well over a hundred presentations and published countless newspaper and magazine articles about pollinator conservation across the nation. She spent her career at universities and non-profit organizations serving communities from West Africa to the Mississippi Delta, in fields ranging from natural resource and farmland protection to fundraising. Today, Stiles is as excited to inspire individuals and communities to create climate-resilient, connected pollinator habitat as she was when she launched Bee City USA in 2012.

Photo: Phyllis Stiles