PICN Conference 2026
The Rhode Island Plant Insect Community Network (RIPICN) hosted its first conference on March 7, 2026. The conference aimed to highlight the biodiversity in Rhode Island and beyond, with a particular focus on insects, native plants, and other organisms connected to the plant-insect network. Thank you to all who attended, participated, and presented at this event!
Our Keynote Speaker was Dr. Avalon Owens, a research fellow at the Rowland Institute at Harvard, who studies the impact of light pollution on organisms and ecosystems. Her talk, titled “Floodlights and fireflies: Environmental sustainability starts in your front yard,” discussed how light pollution is driving insect declines – and how we can make small changes to offer threatened species a brighter future. Click here to watch Dr. Owens’ keynote address!
To read presenter abstracts from this event, view the conference program with the link below.
State of the Network
To raise the profile of Members’ collective efforts and to educate decision makers, the Network issues an annual State of the Pollinators report.
Plant-Insect Coloring Book
Plants and insects are inextricably linked. Learn about some of the relationships between plants and insects with these free-to-download PICN coloring book pages!
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.
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Contact Us
David Gregg
Executive Director
dgregg@rinhs.org
Casey Johnson
Project Coordinator
caseyljohnson@uri.edu
Andrew Medeiros
Webmaster & Designer
andrewmedeirosdesign@icloud.com