Recent and Coming Events

MARCH 8 (TUESDAY) 2005. Public meeting to summarize the draft recommendations of the Technical Advisory Committee (Birds) for Endangered and Threatened Species in Michigan. The meeting was held 1:00-3:30 PM in the Willy Room, Kellogg Center, on the Michigan State University campus during Agriculture and Natural Resources week. Committee members Michael Hamas and Julie Craves were also available at the meeting. The other members serving on the Technical Advisory Committee were Co-Chair Raymond Adams, David Ewert, David Flaspohler, and Michael Monfils.

OCTOBER 28-30 2004. I attended the Land Trust Alliance annual rally held in Providence RI. I spent Friday on the East Narragansett Bay Refuge Tour (Field trip 8, hosted by the Audubon Society of Rhode Island). Saturday and Sunday I attended workshops. The University Press of New England had a table in the display area at which copies of Conservancy: The Land Trust Movement in America were available for sale along with some of its other books related to conservation, natural history, and environment.

SEPTEMBER 20 (MONDAY) 2004. Talk and Book Signing 7:15-9:15 PM at the September meeting of the Huron Valley chapter of the Michigan Botanical Club. The event was at the Matthaei Botanical Garden of the University of Michigan 1800 N. Dixboro Rd., Ann Arbor MI. The topic was "Nature--What Good Is It?, or, The Ten Best Reasons to Protect Land," concentrating on some of the less well understood reasons why natural lands should be protected. Examples are the value of ecosystem services and the low cost to taxpayers of preserved open space compared with development. Books were available for purchase and signing from 7:15 to 7:45 and again after the talk and question-and-answer session.

JUNE 22 (TUESDAY) 2004. Interview 10:30 AM on WGVU Radio, 88.1 FM. I was interviewed by Kevan Chapman of the Morning Show in the Acting Locally segment of the show which, once a month, deals with environmental issues and concerns.

JUNE 6 (SUNDAY) 2004. Talk and Book Signing 2-4 PM at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, 7000 North Westnedge, Kalamazoo, MI. I signed books in connection with a short talk entitled "Nature--What Good Is It?, or, The Ten Best Reasons to Protect Land."

JUNE 5 (SATURDAY) 2004. I led a 7 AM field trip for the Aububon Society of Kalamazoo to the 80-acre Martha Mott Sanctuary in Van Buren County. The topic was Birds and Ecology and focused not on listing birds but on life histories, population ecology, and community ecology.

MAY 2 (SUNDAY) 2004. I led an afternoon field trip to the Audubon Society of Kalamazoo's Mildred Harris Sanctuary northwest of Kalamazoo, MI. The field trip was under the auspices of the Kalamazoo Chapter of Wild Ones, a national organization promoting the use of native plants in gardening and landscaping. Ecology of the beech-maple forest, especially understory-canopy relations, was emphasized.

APRIL 24 (SATURDAY) 2004. I gave a talk "A Cleaner, Greener Land: What Kalamazoo Ought to Do" and signed copies of Conservancy at the Kalamazoo Earth Day celebration at Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC), Texas Township, Kalamazoo County MI. The talk was in the Theatre, in the Student Commons area at the west end of the main KVCC building. I have posted the talk on this website as Conservation Letter 2.

APRIL 20 (TUESDAY) 2004. The organization Defense of Place hosted a luncheon meeting in San Francisco at which I talked with several invited guests on matters related to land conservation. Defense of Place is a project of the Resource Renewal Institute and functions as a watchdog to see that organizations and agencies that acquire land promising preservation live up to that promise. Jason Kibbey is Director of Defense of Place. The organization was founded by Huey Johnson, who also founded the Trust for Public Land and the Resource Renewal Institute (RRI). Defense of Place and RRI have their offices at Ft. Mason.

APRIL 16 (FRIDAY) 2004. I gave a talk "Can Land Trusts Save the West?" to begin a workshop on conservation land trusts at a conference titled ON THE EDGE: Metropolitan Growth and Western Environments--Past, Present, and Future. The conference was sponsored by the Program for the Study of the North American West at Stanford University, Stanford CA.

FEBRUARY 13-MARCH 3, 2004. My wife and I visited the barrier islands of southern Georgia and northern Florida, seeing Amelia, Cumberland, Jekyll, St. Simon's, and Sapelo islands. We talked with people from two young land trusts of the region, the Camden County Land Trust (St. Marys GA) and the St. Simons Land Trust (St. Simon's Island GA). We also visited the overpass, called the "Land Bridge," across I-75 southwest of Ocala FL. It provides "connectivity" for animals on the two sides of the expressway as well as for humans hiking the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. The Land Bridge, paid for with TEA-21 money, is mentioned on page 257 of Conservancy.

[Land Bridge I-75 Florida]

JANUARY 26 (MONDAY) 2004. Book Signing 7-7:30 PM at the monthly meeting of the Audubon Society of Kalamazoo at Peoples Church (Unitarian-Universalist), 1758 North Tenth Street, Kalamazoo. MI.

JANUARY 21 (WEDNESDAY) 2004. I was interviewed by Ric File for a Vermont-based early morning radio show The Point (WNCS, Montpelier). The interview concerning Conservancy: The Land Trust Movement in America is to be run with an interview of a Vermont Land Trust representative in the next few days.

JANUARY 14 (WEDNESDAY) 2004. Book Signing 4-6 PM in the Edwin and Mary Upjohn Meader Rare Book Room on the third floor of Waldo Library on the Western Michigan University campus, Kalamazoo MI.

DECEMBER 20 (SATURDAY) 2003. The local segments (WMUK-FM) of NPR's Morning Edition at 8:35 and 10:35 AM featured parts of an interview with me by Andy Robins, WMUK news director.

DECEMBER 13 (SATURDAY) 2003. Book Signing 1-3 PM at Athena Book Shop, 154 South Kalamazoo Mall. Parking is free in downtown Kalamazoo on weekends.

NOVEMBER 16 (THURSDAY) 2003. I will have a table with examination copies of Conservancy: The Land Trust Movement in America at a meeting "Preserving Community Character for Future Generations" to be held at Kellogg Biological Station Conference Center, 3700 East Gull Lake Road, Hickory Corners MI. The dinner and meeting is from 5 PM-8:30. My books will be available for perusal from 4-5:45 PM. The meeting is sponsored by several groups including the Lake Michigan Federation and the Kalamazoo Environmental Council. Speakers are Mark Wyckoff and Tanya Cabala.

OCTOBER 17-20 2003. I attended the Land Trust Alliance annual rally held in Sacramento CA. One of the reasons I attended this Rally (this was my fifth) was to have a table in the exhibit hall with an advance copy of Conservancy: The Land Trust Movement in America and some related materials. As far as I could tell, the book was well received. For some of my reactions to the 2003 Rally, click here.

AUGUST 7 2003. At the 2003 annual meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union (held at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana), I presented a paper in the Symposium "The Ornithological Legacy of S. Charles Kendeigh." The paper was titled The Role of Science in Land Conservation by Land Trusts. In it, I noted that until the mid-20th century scientists tended to be involved in the founding and operation of land conservation organizations but that this tradition later declined. Land trusts would benefit from a renewed connection; so also would the scientists, as well as the cause of land conservation .