On Wednesday, August 13, at 7:30 p.m. the Polly Hill Arboretum welcomes Ellie Altman as guest speaker for the 11th annual David H. Smith Memorial Lecture. Her lecture, Gardening Earth’s Green Mantle, focuses on land stewardship practices that foster a healthier and more beautiful world for all living things. She expands the definition of gardening to embrace conservation concerns: ecological restoration, land development, agriculture, and habitat protection to inspire the adoption of a land ethic.

While the heightened awareness of mankind’s impact on the planet emphasizes loss and deterioration, Ms. Altman focuses on nature’s resilience and the human desire to understand and celebrate nature. She holds graduate degrees in landscape architecture and education; since 1977 she has served as executive director of Adkins Arboretum, a native garden dedicated to the conservation of mid-Atlantic coastal plain plants on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Ms. Altman’s message of conservation and land stewardship is a most appropriate topic for the David H. Smith memorial lecture. Dr. Smith, a distinguished doctor, scientist and conservationist, was the driving force behind the establishment of an arboretum on Polly’s property as well as other land conservation on the Island. He had a passionate belief in the ability of science to solve real problems, and was an early advocate of conservation science as a tool to identify properties to protect for the preservation of biodiversity.

The cost for tomorrow’s talk is $8, or $5 for arboretum members.