Yard Ark: Transforming Your Yard Into an Ark of Biodiversity at The Church

On Saturday, August 16, at 4 p.m., The Church in Sag Harbor will host landscape designer Edwina von Gal, artist April Gornik and environmentalist Frank Quevedo in “Yard Ark: Transforming your Yard Into an Ark of Biodiversity,” a discussion about how to transform a landscape into a welcoming home for biodiversity. The conversation is designed to uncover simple ways to cultivate healthy eco-systems in backyards.

A leading voice in sustainable gardening and landscape design, Edwina von Gal founded Perfect Earth Project in 2013 to promote ecological, toxic-free land care for the health of people, their pets and the planet. As principal of her eponymous landscape design firm, von Gal created landscapes with a focus on simplicity, sustainability and beauty for private and public clients around the world. She has served on boards and committees for a number of horticultural organizations and currently serves on the board of What Is Missing, Maya Lin’s multifaceted media artwork about the loss of biodiversity, Longue Vue’s National Council, and is a member of the Native Plant Trust’s Council.

Frank Quevedo has been the executive director of the South Fork Natural History Museum (SOFO) in Bridgehampton since 2010. He previously worked for the Town of East Hampton for 12 years as a bay management specialist restoring and enhancing shellfish populations on the East End. Quevedo is passionate about sustaining the natural environment and educating people on becoming stewards of the planet. He also writes nature articles for local publications and enjoys wildlife photography. He is a co-founder and board member of the South Fork Sea Farmers Organization, advocating and educating the community on sustainable shellfish farming.

A co-founder of The Church, artist April Gornik’s paintings and drawings of land, sky and sea are anchored in observed reality and a world synthesized, abstracted, remembered and imagined. They offer the viewer an opportunity to explore dichotomies between past and present, expanse and its circumscription, intimacy in immensity, stillness and the inexorable momentum of atmospheric change.

The August 16 event is free, but reservations are required at thechurchsagharbor.org. The Church is at 48 Madison Street in Sag Harbor.