Keeping It Green
Our landscapes have many functions; they add beauty to our surroundings, provide a place to recreate, reduce stress, and clean and cool the surrounding environment. They also provide pollen and nectar for pollinators and provide habitat for birds. Keeping It Green is a weekly podcast in which Penn State extension educators talk with ornamental plant professionals and enthusiasts who add beauty and function to our landscapes. Topics will range from design, installation and maintenance, plant selection, pests, and other current horticulture topics.
Keeping It Green
Season 3 Episode 6 –with Wendy Leuenberger, graduate student at Michigan State University’s Zipkin Quantitative Ecology Lab
Wendy’s journey into entomology began with outdoor adventures alongside her dad—hunting, fishing, and exploring nature. That foundation deepened during a unique high school program located inside a zoo. That experience sparked a growing interest in insects, which she carried through undergraduate into graduate school at Michigan State University to a quantitative ecology lab rich with butterfly data. In this episode, she explores how volunteers—many trained through grassroots efforts—have contributed tens of thousands of hours to monitoring butterfly species, helping build one of the most comprehensive insect datasets in the country. The conversation touches on population trends, habitat needs, and the role of land use in shaping insect communities.
Episode Hosts/Speakers:
Margaret Pickoff, Penn State Extension (host)
Tom Butzler, Penn State Extension (host)
Tim Abbey, Penn State Extension (host)
Wendy Leuenberger, graduate student at Michigan State University’s Zipkin Quantitative Ecology Lab
Photo caption – butterfly on Aesculus parviflora (bottlebrush buckeye), photo Tom Butzler
Keeping It Green has an email: keepingitgreen@psu.edu
Do you have a suggestion for a future episode? Want more information on something we talked about? Send us your questions and comments, or just say hello! We would love to hear from you!
Check out Penn State Extension's Green Industry Team website!