Update: Cam’s talk was recorded and is now available on YouTube! Visit https://youtu.be/fDuXG6bqHJs to watch her talk.

If you’ve been following our website for a while, you’ve read many posts by Cam Mannino, our amazing stewardship volunteer. Her writing and photos convey her curiosity and excitement for the natural world, and we’re so excited to host Cam for our first stewardship talk of 2024!

Join us next Thursday, February 1, 2024, 6:30 pm at the Paint Creek Cider Mill (4480 Orion Rd, Rochester, MI 48306). Cam will share her talk “Restarting Nature’s Clock: A Volunteer’s Journey Into Natural Areas Stewardship.”

If you’re curious about why so many people are planting native wildflowers, shrubs and trees these days –

or if you want to know why they’re so crucial to nature in general –

or if you would enjoy seeing some rare wildflowers and hear an amazing story about how they survived against daunting odds at the Paint Creek Heritage Area – Wet Prairie along the Paint Creek Trail for over 100 years –

this photo-filled presentation should be interesting and useful for you.

Cam Mannino, former teacher and owner of local bookstore Halfway Down the Stairs, shares the questions she had about native plants when she began volunteering with Oakland Township’s Natural Areas Stewardship program nine years ago – probably the questions you’re asking! The answers she found may make you as enthusiastic about native plants as she is. Cam has written and taken photos for over 225 blogs about Oakland Township Parks for this website since 2015!