Talk - "One person's weed is another's wisdom"
Sat, 23 Nov
|Du Buisson Room, Woodbury Village Hall
Talk by ecologist Pete Yeo, re-evaluating invasive species and their significance in times of change - part of the Woodbury Wide Awake exhibition.
Time & Location
23 Nov 2019, 11:30
Du Buisson Room, Woodbury Village Hall, Flower St, Woodbury, Exeter EX5 1LX, UK
About the Event
Ecologist Pete Yeo returns to Woodbury after his recent stimulating talk on the impact of climate change on flora, both wild and cultivated. In this follow-up presentation he invites us to take a perhaps unfamiliar view of so-called 'invasive species' and to re-evaluate the role they play in evolving habitats.
Due to the Channel’s creation 'soon' after the last Ice Age, the British Isles have a relatively small 'native' flora. However, in the millennia since, thousands of plants have been brought to these shores for human utility. The result is one of the world’s largest cultivated floras. Mostly, our gardening nation rejoices in this fact, yet not all our plant immigrants have retained their appeal. Whilst many naturalised species are accepted (e.g. snowdrop), some are now seen as problematic - think ‘invasive aliens.’
Pete Yeo is a reconciliation ecologist and philanthropist from N Devon. He believes that the future, if humans are to have one, will require us to deepen our understanding of and our relationship with this living planet, and particularly its flora – the green foundation for animal life on Earth.
He says of himself, "I’m in my element facilitating connection between people and the wider web of life – flora especially. Plants offer portals to profound insight and wellbeing, and a future to co-exist within."