2021 Stories from the Field Virtual Webinar Series

In lieu of our annual Stories from the Field fundraiser event, we have a lineup of exciting guest speakers to present, free of charge, to our supporters.  THIS SERIES HAS ENDED, but recordings are linked below. Questions? Shoot us an email at [email protected].Webinar 2021 lineup and recordings:

February 25, 7 pm  – Coping With Climate: How our changing environment is affecting native plants and habitat restoration in the Pacific Northwest and beyond
Dr. Tom Kaye, Institute for Applied Ecology

Meeting Recording:
https://zoom.us/rec/share/Str-QKkAfU8KcqppLPvkZ2GMBi3nmDLCQrUJ4VlmClNB7XmtqasgiILnWXzkjF6L.fJlxK87KbyQ4SuX7Access Passcode: H6Wz+CH2

Description: How will a shifting climate affect native plants, and how can we plan for the coming changes? Dr. Tom Kaye, Executive Director of the Institute for Applied Ecology, will discuss the ways in which climate change in Oregon may affect our state’s vegetation, including endangered species, and ways in which we can help our flora and habitats be more resilient to these changes.

March 25, 7 pm –  Wildfire Moneyball: Can Risk Analytics Facilitate Adaptation to our 21st Century Wildfire Reality?
Dr. Chris Dunn, Oregon State College of Forestry

Description: The year 2020 was exceptional for many reasons, and hindsight will clarify this in the coming years. For some, 2020 will be remembered as the year of wildfire, and hopefully the year we embraced a different relationship with fire. Join us for a presentation describing the historical context of the human-fire relationship and a vision for adapting ourselves to a future with more fire. A vision grounded in analytics, and integrated with expert judgement, as we look for ways to learn to live with wildfire.

Meeting Recording:
https://zoom.us/rec/share/tHjNghCCjIvQu1KlCtv5CctEFIJk2PHzTsYiZjtQK3-zf2Xuxqbkwel3BT-3jn2q.MhY8bCkK8ipo1iV1

Access Passcode: G8ZeU46^

April 29, 7 pm  – Click to REGISTER*
Webinar Title: Ecosystem Disturbances: Some Uncommon Views
Dr. Fred Swanson, retired Research Geologist with the Pacific Northwest Research Station of the US Forest ServiceDescription: Disturbance events are frequent and essential components of forests and rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Reflections on the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, the Forest Wars over old-growth, the 1996 flood, and the 2020 wildfires reveal common properties of these “big-change events.” They each created big change in our thinking and humans just don’t deal with change well; disturbance science helps place abrupt, unexpected events in historical context; interesting discoveries (“aha moments”) can occur in the midst of the events themselves; and the resulting landscapes may be disheartening, fascinating, and even beautiful.

Meeting Recording:
https://zoom.us/rec/share/cfmQ9MkWV7ep5mV63YgIuhc2qSdItPYBTcsIyY2mIBt62Yg_CWd1r98opSJsTA4f.EmjbTmSeZQ28D6o6

Access Passcode: ud8v#M+r

May 28, 7 pm – Click to REGISTER*
Webinar Title: Windows on biodiversity: an entomological tour.
David Cappaert, Institute for Applied Ecology

Description: The presentation will explore the lives of the utterly common, and strikingly beautiful insects that inhabit backyards and vacant spaces.

Meeting Recording:
https://zoom.us/rec/share/A1-vBWrtigVtPbE-1GN87yzfx6y3C87Z5pIQJtg9fafK–Y40Pl6ypbct-PpCQL1.fIHHIhgvRsKKntMm

Access Passcode: P9dr&9Gd

June 24, 7 pm – Plants, Pollinators, Native Prairies, and Conservation
Dr. Susan Waters, Quamash EcoResearch

No RecordingDescription: Restoration of Willamette Valley/Puget Trough prairies has been highly successful in reestablishing native plant communities that look beautiful and diverse to a human eye. Yet we still have relatively little understanding of how the non-plant members of the community respond to restoration. This is an important gap in conservation science, since these prairies host a number of rare species, including insect species that depend directly on specialized relationships with key plants. Our program uses plant-pollinator networks to examine the effects of restoration on pollinating insect communities and the interactions that feed back to affect rare plant and insect species. We will present results of a study of pollination interactions that affect Willamette daisy (Erigeron decumbens), a rare native forb of the Willamette Valley prairies, as well as insights into how restoration reorganizes plant-pollinator communities.