About Jim McCormac
Our 2024 Gardening For Life Celebration Keynote Speaker
Jim McCormac is a botanist specializing in wildlife diversity projects, a conservationist, a renowned photographer and an in-demand speaker.
He worked for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for 31 years as a botanist, with a specialty focus on birds. He has authored or coauthored six books, including Birds of Ohio (Lone Pine 2004); and Wild Ohio: The Best of Our Natural Heritage (Kent State University Press 2009). The latter won the 2010 Ohioana Book award. He is a coauthor of the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II book. His latest book, coauthored with Chelsea Gottfried, is Gardening for Moths (Ohio University Press 2023).
Jim writes a column, Nature, for the Columbus Dispatch, and regularly publishes a natural history blog. He has written numerous articles in a variety of publications, and has delivered hundreds of presentations throughout the eastern United States. He was named 2015 Conservation Communicator of the Year by the Ohio League of Sportsmen. Jim is an avid photographer, shooting a range of natural history subjects. He has had hundreds of photos published in various forums. His photography can be sampled at https://www.jimmccormac.com/
Note: The stunning banner image on this page is a Jim McCormac original!
“We love our beautiful butterflies, but we could love our moths, too, if we fully appreciated their essential role in nature. Moths and their caterpillars transfer more energy from plants to other animals than any other herbivores. A landscape without moths is a landscape without birds and many other animals. In Gardening for Moths, Jim McCormac and Chelsea Gottfried tell us how to bring these wonderful creatures into our landscapes and into our lives.”
Butterflies tend to get all the glory when it comes to conversations about beneficial insects in our yards and neighborhoods. With Gardening for Moths, Jim McCormac and Chelsea Gottfried spotlight the vital environmental role moths play. As an indicator species, the health and abundance of moths reflects the health of local ecosystems.
Whether you are a gardener, a bird watcher, a bat enthusiast or an all round nature lover, this books presents stunning images and fascinating information.
Did you know …?
Moth diversity is nine times that of butterflies and while there are 17,500 species of butterflies, there are more than 150,000 species of moths.
It is estimated that over 75% of U.S. homeowners garden. (We’d venture a guess that very few of these families are gardening with moths in mind.)
In North Carolina alone there are approximately 100 moth species listed as of special concern
Moths serve many important roles in the ecological food web from pollinator, to predator of invasive insects, to providing a valuable food source, and more.
