Ecotypes: Ecological Gardening with Nature’s Heirloom Seeds
with Sefra Alexandra, founder, The Seed Huntress
Wednesday, September 25, 7-8 p.m. ET
Virtual
$15 AHS members/$20 non-members
This program is approved for 1 CEU with the Association of Professional Landscape Designers.
It all starts with a seed! Join Sefra Alexandra, The Seed Huntress, on a conservation safari into the world of ecotypes— native plants grown from locally wildcrafted seeds. Discover why seed provenance is essential for plant resilience and ecological restoration.Learn how planting the right plants in the right place restores the living seed banks of our soils and strengthens the growing national movement of ecoregional seed networks. Embark on a journey into nature’s heirlooms and transform your garden with ecotypic seeds, the locally adapted treasures of pollinators.
Sefra Alexandra – the Seed Huntress- is the Ecological Health Network Education Coordinator for the Northeast USA Bioregion. She leads The Ecotype Project, teaching smallholder farmers how to produce autochthonous plant material for ecological restoration. These efforts have led to the formation of the farmer-led Northeast Seed Collective, making ecotypic seed commercially available. In 2020 she began BOATanical.org where she guides ‘backyard’ expeditions to plant native plants by boat along riparian corridors, an experience that contributes to a culture of citizen science and ecological stewardship. Alexandra is on the board of the Freed Seed Federation and the steering committee of the Northeast Seed Network. She holds a MAT in agroecological education from Cornell University and is trained in the tradition of seed saving by the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance. She is also a WINGS WorldQuest expedition flag carrier, member of the Explorers Club, former Genebank Impacts Fellow for the Global Crop Diversity Trust, and has helped to fortify community seed banks on island nations with Tactivate- the disaster response company she runs with her twin brother.
