Cottonwood restoration subject of Fisheries & Wildlife Seminar - 2009-08-31

Biologist to launch fall speaker series at Paul Smith’s College on Friday, Sept. 4

CONTACT: Kenneth Aaron, Director of Communications, (518) 327-6297

A conservation biologist working on efforts to restore cottonwood trees to California’s Central Valley will speak at Paul Smith’s College on Friday, Sept. 4.

Dr. Elizabeth Harper will launch the fall installment of the college’s Fisheries and Wildlife Seminar Series with a talk called “Predicting the Future of Cottonwood Stands in California’s Central Valley.”

Harper is a one-time Watson Fellow who has worked on field guides to amphibians in Thailand, Australia, Tanzania and Venezuela. She is currently conducting post-doctoral research on California cottonwood populations with the State University of New York College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry and the University of Idaho.

In addition to that work, Harper will teach at Paul Smith’s College this fall.

Harper is the first of three speakers scheduled for this fall’s seminar series. Dr. James Gibbs, a professor at SUNY-ESF, will give a lecture on the ecology, evolution and conservation of giant Galapagos tortoises” on Friday, Oct. 2, and Dr. Jenn Bishop of Union College in Schenectady will discuss fertility of migratory tropical birds on Friday, Nov. 6.

The seminars meet in the Pine Room of the Joan Weill Student Center from 10:10 a.m. to 11 a.m. All talks are free and open to the public.

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