Save the date!

Restorative relationships: Sustainable responses to ecological challenge

Keynote speaker: Dr. Katharine Suding, CU Boulder

Saturday, March 15, 9am – 3pm

SEEC Building, CU Boulder

Our local public lands face a variety of environmental threats, many exacerbated by anthropogenic climate change. While conservation approaches seek to prevent this degradation in the first place, restoration involves attempts to “repair or otherwise enhance the structure and function of an ecosystem that has been impacted by disturbance or environmental change” (Suding, 2011, p. 466). What have we learned from research and practical projects that respond to environmental threats in a restorative framework? How might such efforts lead to managing public lands in more sustainable ways, and what more do we need to know? We will feature a variety of approaches to restoration ecology on diverse landscapes, such as re-wetting grasslands, restoring overgrazed agricultural lands, mitigating wildfire risks, and managing invasive plants without herbicides. We will think expansively and consider relationships within the land – among species, and with the soil, air and water – as well as relationships among people and organizations working to restore the land.

Suding, K.N. 2011. Toward an era of restoration in ecology: successes, failures, and opportunities ahead. Annual Review Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 42: 465-487.

Past ecosymposia

KGNU Monthly Nature Almanac

Wild Turkeys have been widely reported by the mountain town residents of Lyons, where they’re roosting by the hundreds in the tops of tall cottonwood trees along sheltered areas such as islands in the St. Vrain River. But which tree, exactly, with the turkeys choose for their roost tonight? Listen to Boulder Naturalist Ruth Carol Cushman as she joins two intrepid bird watchers, for a sunset vigil at what they gamble will be gobble of wild turkeys in a very tall cottonwood. But will they succeed? While wild turkeys are increasingly common, they are crafty and elusive when it comes to being recorded. During the last 15 years of the Nature Alamanc, Ruth Carol has tried two times to record wild turkeys . . . and failed. Will this third attempt be a charm?

PHOTO courtesy of Raymond Davis.

Gifts for the Naturalist in Your Life

Look for the BCNA books Butterflies of the Colorado Front Range by Janet Chu and Stephe Jones and Dragonflies of the Colorado Front Range by Ann Cooper books as well as CDs published by BCNA at any of these places:

Special events hosted by BCNA
Locally at the Front Range Birding Company: 5360 Arapahoe Ave, Boulder, and 10146 W. San Juan Way, Littleton
Wild Birds Unlimited: 2720 S. Wadsworth, Denver; 7370 W. 88th Ave., Arvada; and 1520 S. Hover St., Suite D, Longmont 80501
Wild Bear Nature Center Gift Shop in Caribou Village Shopping Center, 20 Lakeview Drive, Nederland
Covered Treasures Bookstore, 105 Second Street, Monument CO
Boulder Audubon Chapter’s annual holiday sale
Amazon: Butterflies of the Colorado Front Range or Dragonflies of the Colorado Front Range
Brigham Distributing
Some Barnes & Noble stores in the Front Range
Butterfly eBooks are available from Amazon, Apple Books (purchase using the Apple Books app), barnesandnoble.com, and kobo.com.