About Trecia E. Neal
Trecia was a biologist at Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta for thirty years, retiring in 2017. Her areas of expertise are ornithology, environmental education, and designing outdoor classrooms and wildlife gardens. Trecia has a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in science education with an emphasis in animal behavior. In 2015 Trecia received the Outstanding Biology Teacher Award for Georgia from the National Association of Biology Teachers in recognition of her career’s work in environmental education.
Upon retirement, Trecia formed Green Gardens Education and Designs LLC and is now using her expertise and talents to design wildlife gardens for homeowners to help transform their barren lawns to living landscapes full of pollinators, birds and wildlife.
Trecia is a Monarch Watch Conservation Specialist for the University of Kansas, and serves on the Board of Monarch’s Across Georgia as the Pollinator Certification Committee Co-Chair. She is in demand as a public speaker for a variety of topics that include composting, vermicomposting, monarch butterfly ecology and biology, and gardening for pollinators and birds.
Trecia was also the project director for the School Master Gardener program that trained over 300 Master Gardeners from 75 different schools across DeKalb County. She was instrumental in helping design gardens for these schools that were used as outdoor classrooms.
Her most recent accomplishments include collaboration in the design and sourcing of plants for 63 raised pollinator beds for all of the Georgia State Parks. These beds were registered as Monarch Waystations to promote the planting of milkweed and good nectar sources for monarchs on their migration.
Trecia is a skilled grant writer and recently wrote and received a $10,000 grant for Henderson Park Native Plant and Wildlife Walk from the Audubon Society.