Wednesday, February 8, 2012 -
Tacoma 7pm
"Environmental Stewardship from Our Next Generation of Leaders"
- Luis Yanez
The Washington Conservation Corps works with young adults to restore
Washington’s natural areas, improve its trails, parks, and train the next
generation of leaders. The program operates under the Department of Ecology
with grant support from AmeriCorps and the Gates Foundation. WCC employs
18-25 year olds in environmental stewardship jobs and provides formal and on
the job training. This talk will give a history of the WCC and will discuss
the work performed by the boots-on-the-ground and the importance of
field-based learning.
Luis Yañez is a Washington Conservation
Corps supervisor for the city of Tacoma. He has worked for the Department of
Ecology for 3 years and served as an AmeriCorps member in the Conservation
Corps for 2 years. Luis took part in the early restoration efforts of the
Nisqually delta. As part of the WCC, he has responded to natural disasters
in Mississippi, Lewis County, and Spokane, WA. In addition, Luis is a Pierce
county volunteer search and rescue responder, a UW Rare Care volunteer, and
an amateur rock climber. He received his undergraduate degree from the
University of Oregon.
Monday, February 13, 2012 - Olympia 7pm
"Green Fire, Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic For Our Time"
Join us for a screening of the 73 minute
film, Green Fire! See the first full-length, high-definition
documentary film ever made about legendary conservationist Aldo Leopold and
his environmental legacy! Green Fire shares highlights from his
extraordinary career, explaining how he shaped conservation and the modern
environmental movement. It also illustrates how Leopold's vision of a
community that cares about both people and land continues to inform and
inspire people across the country and around the world, highlighting modern
projects that put Leopold’s land ethic in action in a multitude of ways.
Monday, March 12, 2012 - Olympia 7pm
"Mount St. Helens 1980-2011: Survival and Revival of Life after a Major
Volcanic Eruption" - Charlie
Crisafulli
The 1980
eruption of Mount St. Helens dramatically altered forest, meadow, riverine,
and lake environments over a 250 square-mile area. The explosive eruption
reconfigured the landscape and killed or greatly reduced the types and
numbers of plants and animals that had been present before the eruption.
Charlie’s
talk will show how over the past 30+ years, Mount St. Helens has
clearly demonstrated the remarkable resiliency of life as a diverse
assemblage of plants, animals, and fungi has successfully colonized the once
barren, gray landscape. He will show the various and unexpected ways in
which numerous plants and animals survived the big blast, describe the pace
and pattern that organisms invaded the new landscape, and discuss the
complex ecological interactions that developed among species.
Charlie Crisafulli is a Research
Ecologist with the USDA, Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station,
Olympia Forestry Sciences Laboratory. He has been studying the ecology of
animals and plants in the Mount St. Helens volcanic landscape and in
adjacent old-growth forests for 31 years. His primary research themes are
processes of succession (dispersal, establishment, population dynamics,
community structure, and species interactions), and expanding lessons from
Mount St. Helens to volcanoes in other regions of the world such as South
America and Asia.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - Tacoma 7pm
"Green Fire, Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic For Our Time"
Join us for a screening of the 73 minute
film, Green Fire! See the first full-length, high-definition
documentary film ever made about legendary conservationist Aldo Leopold and
his environmental legacy! Green Fire shares highlights from his
extraordinary career, explaining how he shaped conservation and the modern
environmental movement. It also illustrates how Leopold's vision of a
community that cares about both people and land continues to inform and
inspire people across the country and around the world, highlighting modern
projects that put Leopold’s land ethic in action in a multitude of ways.
Monday,
April 9, 2012 - Olympia 7pm
"Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge Estuary Restoration: The Continuing
Evolution of the Nisqually Estuary" -
Jesse Barham
The Refuge, working with
key partners, Ducks Unlimited and the Nisqually Indian Tribe, restored tidal
waters and natural processes to 762 acres of the Nisqually Estuary in 2009
by completely removing 4.5 miles of the 100 year old Brown Farm Dike. Over
the two plus years since the restoration of the tides, the site has been in
a state of transition. This talk will cover various aspects of restoration
implementation; fish, wildlife, and ecosystem response; and highlight the
tidally-influenced floodplain forest restoration, salt marsh vegetation
response, and factors influencing vegetation community development in the
restoration area.
Jesse Barham
has been a Restoration Biologist at Nisqually NWR since the spring of 2009;
working on the estuary restoration project, boardwalk construction, and
management of freshwater wetlands. Prior to coming to the Refuge he worked
as a Restoration Biologist with the Nisqually Indian Tribe and has 10 years
of experience working on wetland restoration projects. He is a graduate of
The Evergreen State College here in Olympia.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - Tacoma 7pm
"Campanulas in Washington State and Beyond" -
Rosemarie Haberle
Campanulas
comprise a genus containing over 500 different species of which 6 are native
to Washington state. From the visual to the molecular level, Dr. Rosemarie (Romey)
Haberle will discuss the variations and relationships among species of this
genus of flowers, commonly call bellflowers.
Romey
Haberle is an assistant professor of biology at Pacific Lutheran University
where her areas of emphasis are plant systematics and evolution. She
received her PH.D. in Botany at the University of Texas in 2006.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012 - Tacoma 7pm
"Fore! Native and Non-native on the Golf
Course" - Carol White
Carol R.C.
White has 8 years experience in various fields of the horticulture industry,
and is the current horticulturalist for The Golf Club at Newcastle, WA. The
reach of her responsibilities on the property varies from houseplants to
annuals, to a native plant garden. She will share with us the successes
(and sometimes failures) of landscape projects for the club, and learning to
balance “aesthetics with conscience.” Also, to be discussed is the
accomplishment of the golf club becoming a certified bird sanctuary through
Audubon International, and Carol’s role in the process. To round-out the
evening, she will touch on steps the club is taking to lessen its impact on
the local environment.
Monday,
May 14, 2012 - Olympia 7pm
"Wild Flowers of the Italian Alps" -
Kevin Head
In summer
months the northern Italian Alps are filled with wildflowers. Italy has
preserved its high meadows and craggy peaks in national parks and nature
preserves. Come see photographs and learn about the unique ecology of this
area. Kevin Head will present slides from his 2011 walking tour of the
Dolomites, the Rhaetian Alps, and the Graian Alps.
Kevin is a
South Sound Native Plant enthusiast having led trips for the chapter for
nine years. He has hiked extensively through the mountain west and desert
southwest and has explored wildflower meadows in Norway, the UK and Greece.
He is a teacher for the North Thurston Public Schools working in his 24rd
year at the District’s Alternative High School.
evin Head
Meeting Locations:
OLYMPIA
Washington State Capitol Museum Coach House
211 21st Avenue SW
Olympia, WA 98501
360.753.2580
Directions to the Washington State Capital Museum: From Interstate 5 in Olympia, take Exit 105, following the "State
Capital/City Center" route. Go through a tunnel, (get in the left hand lane)
and turn left on Capital Way. Follow the brown and white "State Capital
Museum" signs to 21st Avenue. Turn right on 21st
Avenue and proceed two blocks. The museum is on the left in a stucco
mansion. We meet in the carriage house in back of the mansion.
TACOMA
Tacoma Nature
Center
1919 South Tyler Street
Tacoma, WA 98405
253.591.6439
Directions to the Tacoma Nature Center: From Interstate 5, take State
Highway 16 towards Gig Harbor. Look for the 19th Street EAST,
exit and take it, which puts you onto South 19th Street. Travel
to the first light, turn right on South Tyler, and then left into the first
driveway at the Tacoma Nature Center.
