The second annual Oaktoberfest to celebrate and educate on native plants will take place at North Bend’s Meadowbrook Farm on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Terry Pottmeyer, a local who works in nonprofit leadership, organized the event, which runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Multiple organizations will have educational booths, and Wildflowers Northwest and the Washington Native Plant Society will be selling native ferns, shrubs and herbaceous plants. There will also be child-friendly crafts and activities like a bean bag toss competition. Pottmeyer is partnering with 11 organizations for the event, including the Snoqualmie Tribe Ancestral Lands Movement and Snoqualmie Valley Garden Club.

Pottmeyer said she organized the event for the first time last year because she is an avid gardener and is passionate about maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Native plants, she said, are a surefire way to do that. The event is called Oaktoberfest because fall is the best time to plant trees and oaks are the trees that support the highest number of insects, Pottmeyer said.

“I’m very concerned about the loss of birds and plants and bugs and other species that are in the ecosystem,” she said. “I thought, ‘What can I do as one person, to empower people to act?’”

Native plants and wildlife have co-evolved over many years and come to rely on each other, Pottmeyer said. Now, she said, we have to make sure our ecosystem has the right plants available to support it.

“If we want to create an interlocking, healthy ecosystem, we need to empower everybody … to plant plants and support plants that support the ecosystem,” she said.

The mission of Oaktoberfest is to teach people how they, individually, can help. Pottmeyer believes everyone has the power to do so, regardless of gardening level or housing type.

“Sometimes we can get overwhelmed by the news, particularly with climate change impacts,” she said. “But we all have the power to act, and focusing on that hope is really important to me.”