PICN Conference 2026

The Rhode Island Plant Insect Community Network (RIPICN) will be hosting a one-day conference on March 7, 2026 (10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.) at the Quonset ‘O’ Club in North Kingstown, RI. The conference aims to highlight Rhode Island’s biodiversity, with a particular focus on insects, native plants, and organisms connected to the plant-insect network. This is a RI Natural History Survey Science Conference, made possible by a generous grant from the One Hive Foundation. 

Our Keynote Speaker is Dr. Avalon Owens, a research fellow at the Rowland Institute at Harvard. Her research group studies the impact of light pollution on organisms and ecosystems, with a focus on firefly conservation and moth evolution. Her talk, titled “Floodlights and fireflies: Environmental sustainability starts in your front yard,” will discuss how light pollution is driving insect declines – and how we can make small changes to offer threatened species a brighter future.” Click here to learn more about the Owens Lab!

Download the Registration Announcement or Conference Schedule below for our complete list of speakers.  

~ PRE-REGISTRATION is REQUIRED ~

Registration CLOSES at 5:00 pm Monday, March 2, 2026.

Register Now!

Conference registration will open mid-January.

Field Trips & Outings

Network members are invited to attend various events each year. Some field trips are Network-facing, bringing together the creativity and resources of members to address a particular research question. Other outings are public-facing, bringing Network members together to exchange knowledge about the plant-insect network with the public.

To learn about upcoming events, please refer to the Network’s social media accounts.