Midwestern friends - Just wanted to invite you to attend the Wild Ones Annual National Conference July 14-16 in Naperville, Illinois. We have a wide variety of courses we're offering on topics including the outdoor classroom, education in the children's garden, conservation at home and more. Other topics will include native plants 101, landscape design, birdscaping, dealing with invasives, wildlife and habitat, stormwater management, and more.

We're also having a photo contest (you do not need to attend the conference to enter and it may be something your students may be interested in) and important speakers such as Gerould Wilhelm, author of Plants of the Chicago Region, Darrel Morrison, designer of the Ladybird Johnson Wildlife Center, and Michael Jeffords, scientist, entomologist, ecologist, photographer and co-author of Illinois Wilds.

In addition, we've lined up some phenomenal tours of local restoration projects, nurseries, green building, native plant roofs, etc. For more information and to register now for early bird pricing, go to http://www.for-wild.org/conference/2006/.

Leslie Cummings

Communications Specialist

Wild Ones, DuPage County, IL Chapter