Pollinator Pathway and Controlling Invasive Plants on Fishers Island

Illustrated talk by Pollinator Pathway organizer and Nix the Knotweed founder Suzanne Thompson and natural & organic landscaper Petie Reed offering timely gardening advice on how to attract pollinators and combat Knotweed and other invasive plants crowding out our natural ecosystems.

Time: Thursday, July 6, 2023 @ 4:00 – 5:00 P.M.
Place: In person only at the Museum, 2nd Floor

Suzanne Thompson grew up gardening on a Kansas farm where amber waves of grain were the closest she got to the sea. She has been on the East Coast since 1981 and settled in Old Lyme, CT, in 2002. After hosting an outdoorsy radio talk show and writing gardening columns for 14 years, in 2020, she launched Nix the Knotweed, a social media campaign to promote chemical-free controls of Knotweed and other invasive plants. She is co-leader of Old Lyme’s Pollinator Pathway initiative. Suzanne has BS degrees in Urban Horticulture and Journalism and after working for a decade in the pesticide industry she now works in environmental and conservation fields.

Founder of Perennial Harmony in 2002, Petie Reed has been honing the organic carbohydrate deprivation method to control invasive Knotweed for over a decade. She is a CT NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional.

The original Pollinator Pathway initiative was started by Sarah Bergmann over a decade ago in Seattle, Washington as participatory art, design and ecology social sculpture. In 2017, four women organized Pollinator Pathway in Wilton, CT to establish pollinator-friend habitat and food sources for bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators along a series of continuous corridors. Conservation groups and communities were encouraged to join in and today over 300 Pathways have been established in 11 states. In 2021, Pollinator Pathway became a 501c3 nonprofit organization, see pollinator-pathway.org for tips, tools and How to “Bee” Part of the Pollinator Pathway.

Nix the Knotweed is a grassroots campaign using social media to share advice and compare results in following organic carbohydrate deprivation practices to combat invasive Knotweed. Organizers are seeking collaborators and grant funding to expand this citizen-scientist effort. For more information, please visit facebook.com/NixtheKnotweed and youtube.com/@nixtheknotweed9869