Reading Innisfree's Forested Landscape with Tom Wessels

About this event

Join renowned forest ecologist and author Tom Wessels for a fascinating interpretive walk through Innisfree on the final day of our 2026 season. Every forest contains clues to its past, and Tom is a master at teaching people how to recognize and interpret them. As we explore the garden’s wooded landscape, he will point out evidence that reveals how the land was used generations ago, including whether an area was once a hayfield, crop field, or pasture. Along the way, we will also examine remarkable plant adaptations and discover some of the intricate, coevolved relationships that connect forest species. This special walk offers a rare opportunity to explore Innisfree with one of the country’s most engaging interpreters of forest history and ecology, and an unforgettable way to experience the garden on its final open day of the season. This is a rain-or-shine event. $25 members, $35 non-members. Tickets are non-refundable and cannot be exchanged for another date. Participation in this early morning walk is limited, and advance registration is required for pre-hours entry to the garden. —Tickets to this program will be available soon— Tom Wessels is a terrestrial ecologist and professor emeritus at Antioch University, where he founded the master’s degree program in Conservation Biology. He is the author of numerous books on ecology, natural history, and sustainability, including the widely acclaimed Reading the Forested Landscape,Forest Forensics, and The Myth of Progress. For more than three decades, he has led workshops throughout the country, helping participants see familiar landscapes with entirely new eyes. Learn more at Thomas Wessels | Antioch University.

Description from innisfreegarden.org