The Mountain Laurel (Connecticut) Chapter of Wild Ones, based in New London, CT, is sponsored by the Connecticut College Arboretum. It was founded in 2006 by Nancy Livensparger, a Wild Ones member from Ohio, after she moved to Connecticut, together with Kathy Dame, who was at that time the Assistant Director, Connecticut College Arboretum.* The chapter name “mountain laurel” refers to Connecticut’s state flower Kalmia latifolia, a beautiful native species, but we champion all of our native plants! As the oldest Wild Ones chapter in New England, we currently serve the entire state of CT as well as neighboring communities in NY, MA and RI.
Our chapter provides mentorship and learning opportunities for those new to gardening with native plants through educational programming, volunteer opportunities and our human community of native plant enthusiasts. To receive announcements of our public programs, subscribe to our mailing list by emailing [email protected]
During warm weather, field trips and outdoor programs are offered. Most of our programs are free and open to the public although capacity is sometimes limited. Occasionally, dates or venues may change, so subscribe to our listserv or check our Facebook page for the latest information.
*SALT meets Wild Ones – a story about the founding of the Mtn Laurel Chapter (published in Wild Ones Journal in Sep/Oct 2008) https://www.conncoll.edu/media/website-media/green/arbo/arbodocs/article_for_Wild_Ones_Journal_final.pdf
President /Program Co-chair: Lydia Pan
Lydia is a retired pharmaceutical industry scientist turned environmental steward with a focus on sustaining biodiversity. She holds a B.S.in Biology (Yale) and a PhD in Biological Sciences (UC San Diego). Her professional career included more than 20 years in research on musculoskeletal diseases and 7 years in science and public health policy. She became a convert to gardening with native plants after learning about Wild Ones and reading Doug Tallamy’s “Bringing Nature Home,” adding a variety of native forbs, grasses and shrubs to her small suburban lot, many grown from seed. She leads a crew of volunteers to help replace invasive plants with native species and improve wildlife habitat at Coogan Farm. Lydia joined Wild Ones in 2014, began assisting with programming in 2017 and has served as President of the Mountain Laurel Chapter since 2019. Lydia is also a docent at the Connecticut College Arboretum, a Plant Conservation Volunteer with the Native Plant Trust and a member of the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group. She has been a Director on the Board of the Eastern Connecticut Conservation District since 2020.
Lydia lives in Mystic where she enjoys walking, tai chi, and exploring natural areas. In addition to native plants, she grows vegetables and orchids and keeps a small menagerie of snakes. She feels fortunate to share many interests with her husband Mark, also a retired scientist.
Secretary: Sue Augustyniak
After finishing her PhD in Economics at the University of Michigan, Sue relocated with her husband to Norwich, CT and worked for 30 years in various corporate positions throughout Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island. Once she retired she was able to pursue various interests that she previously hadn’t enough time for: traveling, reading, quilting and most of all gardening. After completing the Master Gardeners course in 2019 and the Advanced Master Gardener and Coastal Certificate courses in 2020 and 2021, she developed an interest in native plants, management of rainwater, methods for improving soil, and carbon sequestration. She has spent the last five years mentoring for the Master Gardener program, working in various gardens as a volunteer, designing, implementing and maintaining a garden of largely native plants at the Buckingham Memorial Hall and starting to remove and replace the non-native plants in her own yard. Her current area of focus is on collecting seeds and propagating native plants. She joined Wild Ones in 2020.
Treasurer: Arline Culp
Arline is a graduate of Purdue University with a BS in Agricultural science and a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. Her interest in gardening began at Purdue where she and Jeff lived in married student housing that came with its own garden plot. After moving to CT her interest expanded to native landscaping after she discovered the S.A.L.T. program. Six years later, she attended CT’s very first 2006 Wild Ones meeting and joined the young chapter in 2007.
She and Jeff continue to lose the lawn, leave the leaves, and add more native plants to their property after 25 years, and maintain “Bee Me Up” Apiary.
Arline’s experience in the finance area include serving as treasurer and fundraising chairs for PTA’s in both PA and CT, all throughout her 2 children’s K-12 school years. She has completed the basic course at H&R BLOCK, basic EXCEL course at NL adult ed, and volunteered as Finance Secretary for 6 years at a local church. Arline has been a substitute teacher and currently serves as Head docent, Chair of the Learning and Engagement committee and a member of the Board of Trustees at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum.
Membership Chair: Susan Kinsman
Susan has more than 30 years’ experience as a professional writer and editor and is a (retired) attorney licensed to practice in Connecticut. She has worked in journalism, government communications and policy, academia and nonprofit leadership and management, including grant writing and development. She holds a BA degree in political science from the University of Connecticut and a JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law.
A resident of East Haddam, she has a lifelong interest in the natural world, especially plants, rocks and marine life. She became a certified Master Gardener in 2020 and was awarded Advanced Master Gardener and Coastal Certificate Program certification in 2021. She has been a member of Wild Ones, the Wild Seed Project and Native Plant Trust since 2020. She formerly served the Mt. Laurel Chapter as newsletter editor. She is a member of the East Haddam Planning & Zoning Commission (alternate), the East Haddam Land Trust, the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group; trail monitor with the East Haddam Conservation Commission and is an officer of First Church of Christ Congregational in East Haddam where she is former chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Her own organic garden is a rewilding work in progress. The lawn is largely gone and with years of leaf mulch adding to the soil, native plants have happily reclaimed the space. Susan’s contribution is replacing some non-native plants each year with native trees, woodies and perennials and doing non-chemical battle with the stubborn invasives that refuse to leave without a fight, and move back in whenever given the opportunity.
Director: Sue Stark
Sue is a self-employed horticulturist based in Madison, CT. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Lafayette College, a Master of Liberal Arts in Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and a certificate in Arboretum Studies from the Barnes Foundation in Merion, PA. She is also an Accredited Organic Land Care Professional through CT NOFA since 2014. After working for years as a researcher in immunology and endocrinology, she discovered that her true passion was horticulture. Since then, she has worked at Anderson’s La Costa Nursery in Encinitas, CA and J. Franklin Styer Nurseries in Concordville, PA. In 1999, Sue joined the staff of the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College where she worked as a gardener and volunteer coordinator until relocating to Connecticut with her family in 2011.
Sue has been active in Wild Ones since 2007, when she joined the Philadelphia area chapter, Habitat Resource Network of Southeast PA. This was a dual mission chapter, also promoting the National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Wildlife Habitat program. Soon after taking their intensive homeowner certification class to plan a wildlife friendly backyard for her new home, Sue joined the board of HRN and was active there until leaving for Connecticut. She has been a member of the CT Mountain Laurel Wild Ones chapter since then. When not gardening, Sue enjoys spending time with her family and two dogs, hiking, kayaking and watching wildlife in their own backyard. She also volunteers with Urbanscapes Native Plant Nursery in New Haven, CT, helping to grow, maintain and sell ecotypic plants for Ecoregion 59. Working with Madison’s Pollinator Pathway group, Sue also enjoys helping to promote native plantings in public spaces around Madison.
Director: Gail Reynolds
Gail Reynolds graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Biology and a M.F.S. in Forest Ecology. She had a long career as an Information Security Professional, earning five industry certifications. Gail has worked for UConn Extension as Master Gardener Coordinator and Master Composter Coordinator. Gail and her husband Dan currently own Reynolds Forestry Services LLC. Gail is longtime Chair of the Haddam Conservation Commision, an officer for both the Haddam Land Trust and the Lower Connecticut River Land Trust, a Haddam Inland Wetlands Commissioner, and on the Haddam Sustainability Commission. In addition, she serves on the Board of the Connecticut Botanical Society, conducts interviews of prospective Yale students for the Yale Alumni Association, and on the Salmon River Commission. Gail’s passions are plants, technology, and fitness. She has been a native plant gardener since she purchased her house in 1986.
Director: Robin Parsons
Robin has a long and varied history of hands-on gardening and landscaping over many years in several states. Born in Brooklyn, NY, and having spent her formative years there, and in Westchester County (NY) at a time when her part of Westchester was still mostly rural, she developed a perspective on ecology that focuses on the need to foster connections between communities and healthy natural systems, especially in heavily altered built environments.
A lifetime member of the J. C. Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, NC, Robin attended Cooper Union for Architecture and has an undergraduate degree in English. She and her architect husband have renovated multiple houses, both independently and together. After 30 years in North Carolina, she made a permanent move to the Connecticut shoreline in 2014. She introduced and led the Sustainable CT initiative for West Haven, achieved Bronze certification, then started the West Haven Native Plant Initiative. West Haven’s NPI has designed, prepped, and planted nearly a dozen separate native plant installations in public open space since 2020.
Robin’s principal interests now lie at the intersection of native plant landscape design and sustainability, especially as they relate to municipal public land management and urban ecology. When it comes to her own yard, Robin approaches gardening as a kind of conversation between gardener and plants —albeit sometimes a bit of an argument, in which bringing an open-minded aesthetic sense to the exchange frequently leads to mutually satisfying outcomes. Working with native plants in Connecticut has broadened and deepened that conversation for her. She is a member of CT-NOFA, the West Haven Land Trust, the Ecological Landscape Alliance, and the Society for Ecological Restoration.
Director: Jim Sirch
Jim recently retired as Education Coordinator at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Jim is past president and currently on the board of the Hamden Land Conservation Trust. A certified CT Master Gardener, Jim gives talks throughout the state on gardening for pollinators and growing native plants from seed and is dedicated to helping improve backyard biodiversity. He co-founded the Hamden Public Library’s seed library, with a focus on native seed to attract pollinators. He is a member of the CT Native Plant Working Group, a statewide task force encouraging citizens to use local native plants, and is Vice President of the Connecticut Horticultural Society. Jim was featured in the Members Making a Difference section of the Summer 2016 issue of the American Horticultural Society’s American Gardener magazine. Jim also authors a nature blog called Beyond Your Back Door at www.beyondyourbackdoor.net.
“With my passion for teaching others about the importance of improving and restoring biodiversity in Connecticut’s backyards and open spaces, I feel I can further extend my reach by becoming a board member of the Wild Ones Mountain Laurel chapter, thereby extending Wild Ones’ education outreach.”
Director: Rebecca Hayes
With a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Secondary Education from Salve Regina University and a master’s degree in Sustainable Natural Resource Management from Unity College, Rebecca has always enjoyed learning about nature as much as experiencing it. Growing up in Voluntown meant enjoying the state forests that comprise most of the town and learning basic gardening with her mom. She currently lives in Preston with her husband and two children, where she is working on controlling invasive ornamentals from previous owners and introducing more native plants into her yard. She serves as a member and recording secretary on the town’s Conservation and Agricultural Commission and a member of the Inland Wetland and Watercourses Commission. She is also the secretary of the school’s PTO.
She started learning more about native plants and Wild Ones while volunteering with Lydia’s Habitat Restoration Team at Coogan Farm in 2022, while completing the Master Gardener program. She has since become an Advanced Master Gardener and will complete the Master Woodland Manager program in July of 2025. She enjoys connecting with others and continuing to learn more about how to best support the natural environment. Her current outreach project is a work-in-progress native pollinator garden at the Preston Public Library, along with a native plant scavenger hunt and pollinator board housed in the library after it was used for Science Night at her son’s elementary school. She teaches middle school science part-time and is teaching a group of students about winter sowing native seeds during an enrichment exploration period.
This past summer, Rebecca took over the role of Webmaster for the chapter. She will also take on the supplemental responsibility of Secretary alternate.
Director: Maggie Dobbins
Maggie has only been a member of Wild Ones for a year but finds the organization to be an invaluable resource as she seeks to restore a degraded 4.5-acre property in Fairfield. She is now retired after 20 years of working in the tech industry, and as the founder and head of a historical real estate restoration company in California. Her restoration passion has now been refocused on her current property.
While in the tech industry, she was the Account Executive in charge of selling and overseeing large tech projects including the worldwide installation of computers to run a massive ATM network for a large financial institution and a giant customer database for a very large bank. After 20 years, she retired from the tech sector and started a firm focused on the historical renovation of homes and apartment buildings throughout California. Maggie also served on the board of a non-profit theatre company in San Francisco as its Marketing Director for five years prior to moving to Connecticut in 2021. She oversaw the website, advertising, branding, ticket sales and all patron communication. (www.CTASF.org). She is currently involved with Impact Fairfield County (www.Impactffc.org) and creates a weekly newsletter highlighting successes of past grantees that goes out as an email to subscribers as part of the 10th Anniversary celebration.
“I would like to be considered for a Director at Large position on the Mountain Laurel Chapter Board to represent Fairfield County. I believe my broad background in marketing, communications, project management and tech can be useful to Wild Ones as the chapter grapples with membership growth and rapidly changing technologies. I excel at creating events and believe there are many interesting native gardens in southwestern CT that would be interesting for Wild Ones members to tour. I am comfortable working with a broad range of software tools, and at ease learning ones I am not familiar with. I would be willing to help, for example, with managing mail and creating a FAQ for the organization.”
Director: Dee Salomon
Dee Salomon began clearing invasives from her 15-acre property in West Cornwall over a dozen years ago through which she developed a passion for protecting and restoring native habitats. Dee writes a monthly column on the topic for the Lakeville Journal which also appears on her website, TheUngardener.com. She has been a guest lecturer at Hollister House, the Boston Back Bay Garden club and several libraries in Litchfield County. Dee’s advocacy extends to hosting workshops and working one-on-one with people interested in doing similar restoration work on their properties. She is a founding member of the Cornwall Garden Club board where she programs events promoting native planting and invasive removal.
Dee’s work experience spans brand marketing, business development, digital media and creative ideation/execution. Most recently she worked for the strategic advisory firm MediaLink, leading engagements with Fortune 100’s, global media and emerging technology companies specializing in marketing strategy, process and the technology that underpins it all. Before joining MediaLink, Dee ran the digital media sales group for Condé Nast’s digital properties as SVP, sales and marketing, where she was responsible for the revenue of 26 websites including Style.com, Epicurious.com, Glamour.com, and VanityFair.com.
Prior to working at Condé Nast, Dee held key marketing positions in the fashion/retail industry including SVP of creative services and advertising at Donna Karan International where she oversaw global marketing for wholesale, retail, and licensed operations. Happily retired, Dee spends much of her days in the woods and in her garden which was featured in the November 2022 issue of Architectural Digest.