Attendees from across the Hudson Valley came together for a deep dive into native seed collection techniques in the classroom and the field.

It was a beautiful July afternoon in Gallatin, New York when Claudia Knab-Vispo and Kyle Bradford arrived for a scouting walk in the meadow where they’d be leading a walk later that evening. The site, a family-owned property managed by Eli Arnow and Avalon Bunge, is in the process of being converted to a native biodiversity hotspot. After two years without mowers in the fields, native plants were evident in every direction, and bees and butterflies floated among them.