Explore the challenges that shifts in climate and the tendency for more extreme weather events pose to garden design, maintenance and plant health and learn strategies for creating garden spaces that are more resilient to our increasingly unpredictable weather.
Full-day conference includes morning coffee/continental breakfast, four speakers, lunch and a panel discussion.
Seating is limited. Registration required.
Registration fee is $70.00 or a discounted rate of $60.00 is offered for current members of the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Arboretum and Wild Ones.
51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ students, non-profit representatives and/or emerging industry professionals may apply for a limited number of sponsored or discounted registrations by submitting a letter of interest to arbor@conncoll.edu expressing how their attendance to this conference will benefit their professional goals or ecological projects.
51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏecticut DEEP Continuing Education Units (CEUs)
The State of 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) is offering the following Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for the 2025 SALT Conference:
Course #: 25-023 Credits: 1 Resilient Coastal Landscape Design (Categories: 3A, 5)
Course #: 25-024 Credits: 1 Climate Forward Tree Care (Categories: 3A, 3D, 2)
Course #: 25-025 Credits: 1 Brave New World for a Coastal Forest (Categories: 2, 3D)
Course #: 25-026 Credits: 1 Rain, Rain, Go Away: Reducing Runoff One Garden at a Time (Categories: 3A)
Participants interested in receiving Continuing Education Units (CEUs) must bring a current photo ID.
Session Titles/Descriptions
Resilient coastal landscape design: a multi-pronged approach to heal, protect, and enhance shoreline ecosystems
Tara Mahon Vincenta, PLA, FASLA Artemis Landscape Architects
Tara will discuss her unique approach to combining considerations of site, local ecosystems, regulations, and client goals to facilitate resilient coastal residential design. Tara is nationally recognized for her thoughtful, beautifully detailed work that harmonizes environmental sustainability and healing while fostering personal connections for all who encounter her designed spaces. In this talk, Tara will highlight three distinct projects and her approach to creative problem solving for (1) a tidal marshland, (2) constructed dunes on a Long Island Sound beachfront, and (3) inland wetland and coastal buffers at a RI oceanfront property.
Climate Forward Tree Care
Christopher Roddick, Sweet Birch Land & Tree
Because trees are rooted in and can’t run away, they must adapt to anything that comes their way. Storms, pests, disease, even development - trees are in a constant state of reacting to the environment around them. Can we help? This talk will look at ways trees adapt to protect themselves and the associate organisms that live with and among them. We’ll discuss what strategies to use and practices to change to help trees as well as the flora, fauna, and funga that rely on them.
Brave New World for a Coastal Forest
Juliana Barrett, University of 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏecticut Sea Grant College Program
Using the case study of a project to develop a resilient coastal forest on an Avalonia Land Conservancy property in Stonington, CT, Juliana will explore the factors for selecting the right plant for the right place at the right time given our current and future environmental changes.
Rain, Rain, Go Away: Reducing Runoff One Garden at a Time
Nicole Davis, Save the Sound
Rethinking how stormwater can be used as a resource to enhance the landscape and create habitat. Like so many things we do at home— small actions can have lasting impacts, especially as more people start to adopt them. Rain gardens are a simple low maintenance garden, that can easily be used to manage stormwater runoff, and can help to reduce localized flooding, recharge groundwater, reduce the burden on public infrastructure, and reduce pollution reaching our waterways.
Panel Discussion
Tara Mahon Vincenta, Christopher Roddick, Juliana Barrett, Nicole Davis
Panel discussion responding to registrant-submitted questions about specific sites and situations.
