Tonight's speaker asserts that gardeners and farmers are optimists, as they plant and tend their land, hoping for the right temperatures at the right time, sufficient rainfall, less destructive storms, manageable pests, good soil, and some luck to give a successful, beautiful, and healthy garden or high crop yields. Unfortunately, while the soil can be locally amended, the weather and climate elements and their impacts are less flexible. Adding to risks, climate change and a growing number and intensity of extreme weather events are predicted to continue to increase challenges for gardeners.
That said, there are practices available that can help to reduce the weather and climate risks for gardens, homes and communities. There also are some potential opportunities to add new species in the garden, as well as gardening strategies to help reduce the greenhouse gases that are feeding climate change. This presentation will highlight the changing extreme weather events in our region and some weather and climate-smart practices to reduce the risks, including other “win-win” sustainable gardening strategies to support biological diversity, pollinators, and protect the environment for the next generations.
Heather Auld is a meteorologist, climatologist and an avid Richmond Hill gardener. Her professional career spans more than 45 years and three retirements. This includes 32 years as a Federal Government weather forecaster and climatologist in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Canadian Forces Trenton and for NORAD, and more than 13 years in the private sector as a consultant. She has developed extreme weather and climate design values for the National Building Code of Canada and other infrastructure standards, has led the development of extreme weather guidance for municipal emergency management across Canada and provided expert testimony to many provincial and national disaster investigations. Heather has been invited to serve on various international expert teams and delegations, including the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, World Meteorological Organization, U.N. Strategy for Disaster Reduction; and she has served on various Canadian delegations to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity.
Heather and her husband, Dave McCulloch, also a meteorologist, endeavor to implement weather and climate smart gardening practices in their garden, considered a popular, "must visit" stop on local Garden Tours.
Tonight's guest speaker is a resident of Richmond Hill and will be participating in-person.
Members: Instructions for participation in this virtual and in-person event will be emailed to members twice - once on the Friday prior to the meeting, and again on Monday. Instructions are also available by logging into our site and checking the "members-only" version of this event.
Visitors: Guests are welcome to participate in this virtual and in-person event at a nominal fee of $5.00 Instructions for participation will be emailed to non-society members who complete the registration process prior to the event start time.
About In-Person Attendance at the McConaghy Centre:
- Doors to the auditorium open at 7:00 pm
- The meeting begins promptly at 7:30 pm
- Please bring a mug or cup if you would like hot coffee or tea
- All attendees are encouraged to register online for inclusion in door prize draws
- Masks are not required, but are encouraged
