June 20 - 22, 2025
Pollinator Celebration Weekend Events
Enjoy a weekend of Nature along the West Coast Of Wisconsin and hear from Melinda Myers, nationally known gardening expert, TV/radio host, author & columnist. Melinda Myers has 35+ years of horticulture experience and has written 20+ gardening books, including Midwest Gardener's Handbook. She hosts the “Melinda’s Garden Moment” radio program and “How to Grow Anything” instant video/DVD series. The venue is located in a wonderful part of the Driftless Region offering unique Lodging, Dining and Shopping experiences.
June 20, 2025
Friday Events
Friday, June 20, 2025
Keynote Speaker Melinda Myers
Ticketed Event
Vino In The Valley
Maiden Rock, WI
11:30 AM Check-in
12:00 PM Lunch
1:00 PM Keynote Speaker, Melinda Myers
2:30 PM - 4:30 PM Book Signing, Socializing & Wagon Rides
Early-bird Tickets are $95, after June 1, 2025 tickets are $125
Saturday & Sunday Daily Free Events
Experience & Explore
10am - 5pm Saturday and Sunday
All events are held at Rustic Road Gallery unless otherwise noted.
Directions to Rustic Road Gallery
Garden & Habitat Tour
Enjoy this self-guided driving tour
Honey Tasting
Honey from around the world
Native Plant Sale
Bring home native pollinator plants
Nature Trail Open
Enjoy Rustic Road and Pine Creek
June 21, 2025
Free Saturday Events
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Landscape & Gardens Native Plants
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Amy Staffen is a Conservation Biologist with the Wisconsin DNR Natural Heritage Conservation Program. She has a Master’s Degree from UW-Madison in Landscape Architecture (Restoration Ecology focus). Amy’s natural resources career has been diverse, working for the Wisconsin DNR, The Nature Conservancy, and The Prairie Enthusiasts doing on-the-ground management of natural areas across the state, technical and grant writing, outreach and education. In her current job, she conducts plant, natural community and bird surveys, promotes landscaping with native plants, and facilitates climate adaptation in natural areas through her collaboration with the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts.
Saturday, June 21, 2025
What's the Buzz About Native Bees
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Heather Holm is a pollinator conservationist and award-winning author of four books: Pollinators of Native Plants (2014), Bees (2017), Wasps (2021), and Common Native Bees of the Eastern United States (2022). Both Bees and Wasp shave won multiple book awards including the American Horticultural Society Book Award (2018 and 2022 respectively). Heather’s expertise includes the interactions between native pollinators and native plants, and the natural history and biology of native bees and predatory wasps. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and many local publications. Heather is also an accomplished photographer and her pollinator photos are frequently featured in print and electronic publications.
Heather serves on the boards of the following non-profits: Friends of Cullen Nature Preserve and Bird Sanctuary, Friends of Minnetonka Parks, and the new Minnesota Oak Savanna Chapter of The Prairie Enthusiasts. In her spare time, she is an active community supporter, writing grants, and coordinating and participating in volunteer ecological landscape restoration projects. The latest project is a 13-acre oak savanna restoration that will provide thriving habitat for pollinators, birds, mammals, and passive, nature-based opportunities for people.
June 22, 2025
Free Sunday Events
Sunday, June 22, 2025
Gardening & Habitat Workshop
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Details to be announced
Sunday, June 22, 2025
Moth & Butterfly Experience
1:30PM - 3:00PM
Kevyn Juneau, Ph.D. is an associate professor of conservation and environmental science at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls where he teaches and researches ecological restoration (https://students.uwrf.edu/pes/ecological-restoration-institute). Kevyn has graduate degrees in entomology and forest science. His current research looks at how pollinator populations (bees, butterflies, and flower flies) communities respond to prairie strip establishment in agricultural fields. Each year, he also takes a group of UWRF undergraduate students to the Bahamas, where they help the Bahamas Forestry Division with forest restoration efforts to improve habitat for biodiversity, including the Atala butterfly. In this workshop we will discuss the biology and natural history of moths and butterflies (what’s the difference between the two groups!?), learn about the needs for pollinator conservation, and consider what you can do at home to support butterfly and moth biodiversity locally. Depending on the weather, we will go on a butterfly walk to document the butterfly diversity at the Rustic Road Gallery and Nature Center.
Conservation Partners
If you are interested in becoming a Pollinator Celebration Partner at the Conservation level, please contact us.
Habitat Partners
