10 am: Kit Miller, Gandhi Institute

What does Nonviolence have to do with the environment?

Kit, the director of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Rochester, New York since 2009, will give us that answer. Kit teaches and works on community projects related to restorative justice, sustainability, and anti-racism in Rochester, as well as in hundreds of cities world-wide. She has spoken at the United Nations several times in recent years about nonviolence with youth in the 21st century.

10:30 AM: Jackie Ebner, Rochester Area Interfaith Climate Action

Engaging faith communities in saving creation

Jackie Holmes Ebner, co-founder of RAICA https://www.raica.net/ is running a Climate Summit the day after the Pittsford Village and Town events, April 26, from 2 to 5 pm at the Irondequoit United Church of Christ at 644 Titus Avenue, 14617. IN SPITE OF THIS Jackie has courageously agreed to be part of our Nature Symposium. She will talk about gathering groups of individuals and organizations of ALL faiths in the Rochester metropolitan area seeking to create a meaningful response to Climate Change. Congregations share resources, leverage strengths and magnifyi positive impact with their common conviction to care for the earth and its people.

11 AM: Pat Wartinger, Pachamama

Reversing global warming by 2050

Pachamama Alliance’s mission is to create a world which is environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just, based on principles of indigenous peoples practices of gratitude for all of Pachamama, or Mother Earth. Reversing Global Warming: Introduction to Drawdown invites participants to see both the possibility of reversing global warming and the important role each has to play in that process. One hundred solutions encompass the energy we use, the food we eat, and the cities we live in, and could actually reverse global warming by 2050. Pat Wartinger is always smiling, so you know she loves what she does.

11:30 AM: Patty Love, Barefoot Permaculture

Frog and Pollinator Friendly Gardening

Patty is a permaculture designer, teacher, and researcher based in the Genesee River Valley (Rochester, NY). She studies and practices regenerative design, permaculture, and edible forest gardening. Her work is informed from her education, reading, time in nature, parenting, and spiritual pursuits. She holds two Permaculture Design Certificates in addition to traditional BS and MALS Degrees. She will be giving a power point presentation on gardening for pollinators without pesticides.

12 PM: Robert Putney, Impact Earth

Zero Waste in your own home, place of work, travel corridors

Robert, founder of Impact Earth, https://impactearthroc.com/ he has had enough success to inspire his wife Elizabeth Carey to work with him, and his daughter Emily to open a whole new branch of the business in Chicago, Illinois. The family works to haul appropriate waste from restaurants, offices, school buildings and homes and return it as rich compost suitable for prize winning gardens. Impact Earth runs school programs, and plans and implements proposals, educating and empowering all of us to live in a zero waste environment.

12:30 PM: Margot Fass, A Frog House

Break for Lunch and Q and A Conversation

1 PM: Sandra Frankel, The Genesee Land Trust

Legal interventions and activism to stop Wetlands destruction

Over the course of her 20 year tenure as Supervisor of the Town of Brighton, Sandra Frankel led her local government in partnership with residents to create a town-wide park system of 500+ acres for active and passive recreation, protection of sensitive environmental features, and improvement of quality of life for residents and visitors alike. The land now known as the Sandra L. Frankel Nature Park was dedicated on June 29, 2016, and named in recognition of her efforts to transform the community’s vision for open space preservation, parkland, and environmental protection into reality with a town-wide park system. She is a member of the Genesee Land Trust Advisory Council. The Genesee Land Trust assisted the Town of Brighton in negotiating the acquisition of the land for a public park. She is a member of the Genesee Land Trust Advisory Council. The Genesee Land Trust assisted the Town of Brighton in negotiating the acquisition of the Corbett’s Glen property for a public park.

1:30 PM: William Smith and Robert Corby, Town and Village of Pittsford

Action and Plans for Erie Canal Nature Preserve and surrounding lands

Action and Plans for Erie Canal Arboretum

As Pittsford Town Supervisor since 2014, and previously as town councilman, Bill Smith has advocated for strong community environmental policies. A servant to the residents of Pittsford, his top priorities have always been carried out in a fiscally responsible way. He helped implement Pittsford’s Greenprint Plan, preserving two thirds of remaining farmland from development, and led the designation of the town as a New York State Clean Energy Community. Solar energy installation by homeowners is easier and less expensive because he helped usher in a unified solar permitting process. Taking advantage of a grant obtained from NY state, soon Pittsford will be the proud proprietors of the 23 acre Erie Canal Nature Preserve, with newly designed and constructed trails for all to enjoy.

Rob Corby has been mayor of the Village of Pittsford since 1993. He brings to us rich knowledge of the region and the drive to preserve the character of the village, area wetlands and green space. As an architect, historian, and urban planner, he has collaborated with state and regional governments to assure only the most thoughtful and inventive revival of the village’s historic waterfront mill district. His vision is to integrate preservation into the village’s planning policies, and enhance the village’s public realm. The successful results of Corby’s leadership have garnered numerous awards for the Village. In 2014, the City Mayors Foundation of London named Corby a “Mayor of the Month.” The village is moving toward funding, planning, and developing an Arboretum in the Northwest Quadrant adjacent to the Erie Canal Nature Preserve.

2 PM: Robert Corby, Town and Village of Pittsford

Virtual walk in the Erie Canal Nature Preserve and future arboreteum