By: Phyllis Giffard
Donna Weifenbach, ANPP President in 2022
This month we take advantage of our President Dona Weifenbach’s short hiatus from editing the newsletter to invite a round of applause from y’all. Dona joined ANPP in 2017 soon after she retired from the State’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority as manager of the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System. Her 22-year career as a wetland biologist was a second career after owning a landscaping company for 12 years. She was advocating for natives long before most of us knew how important they are. We are lucky that she kept her license as a landscape contractor and horticulturalist active through the years; her expertise and experience has been a huge help to the propagation team, and her license allows us to procure plants and materials from wholesale sources. Her latest accomplishment was the wonderful native landscaping workshop she spearheaded last week at the Hilltop Arboretum for Landscape Professionals. We also send a special thanks to her spouse Neil Burgard, a master carpenter who has pitched in for everything from greenhouse raising to roof repairs. Dona and Neil live on many acres of gold-level Louisiana Certified habitat in Sunset, which includes a recently restored prairie and this 35 year old native fringe tree in its floral glory this week.
From the April 2022 ANPP Newsletter
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