Restoring Life and Hope: Renewing Biodiversity, Mind, Body, and Spirit
with Jim Kessler, Quaker Earthcare Witness Steering Committee
hosted by State College Friends Meeting Climate Justice working group
Jim will share powerful and inspiring stories, illustrated with colorful photos, of how creating native plant habitat has positively impacted the mental, physical, and spiritual health of our Quaker family. The presentation also describes how songbird, pollinator, and wildlife populations have dramatically increased in response to the introduction of native plants onto the property. His goal is to motivate others to plant butterfly gardens and larger native plant habitats to confront the extinction crisis. Loss of biodiversity can be reversed by the actions of ordinary people. Handouts will be provided for participants that explain how to plan, plant, and maintain publicly acceptable native plant butterfly gardens and habitats.
About Jim: Jim was born on an Iowa farm in 1946 near Oskaloosa to Quaker parents. In 1970 while in graduate school, he read a Sierra Club book – A Moment in the Sun . This new awareness of environmental issues was a turning point. Soon after accepting a position teaching Biology at Newton High School (NHS) in Newton, Iowa in 1972, Jim visited an incredibly beautiful virgin prairie that was plowed a year later. Soon he planted a prairie garden in his backyard and began to manage the NHS prairie. Jim has been married to Kathy Kessler for over 50 years. They have 2 sons and 7 grandchildren. In 1998, they bought bought 30 acres south of Grinnell and restored prairie, oak savanna, wetland, and woodland habitats. In 2017, they donated most of the property to the Bur Oak Land Trust in Iowa City. During the past 8 years, Jim has shared over 100 native planting presentations and workshops with audiences in Iowa and in other states. He taught Biology at NHS from 1972 – 2005 and Environmental Biology at Iowa Valley Community College from 2005 – 2020. Jim and Kathy are members of Grinnell Friends Church in Grinnell, Iowa.
*Please note this event is at 7pm Eastern Time