2019 Cottrell-Baldwin Environmental Lecture Series (Hillsborough)
Cottrell-Baldwin Lecture Series 2019 – From the Ground Up
Join us for the 2019 Cottrell-Baldwin Environmental Lecture Series at the Henry I. Baldwin Environmental Center at Fox Forest in Hillsborough. This year’s series explores topics from the bedrock that underlies the hillsides of the Granite State upward to the original forests that covered them, to the loons whose haunting voice echo across our spring time waters and dragons and delicate damsels that dance through the summer air.
Join us for this series of four evening lectures beginning Tuesday March 19th through Tuesday April 9, 2019 at the Caroline A Fox Research and Demonstration Forest in Hillsborough. Come for one presentation or all four. We hope you'll join us! Pre-registration is not required.
Directions: From the traffic lights at the junction of West Main St. and Rt. 149 in downtown Hillsborough go north on School Street (which becomes Center Road after the school). Fox Forest is approximately 2 miles on the right.
Dragons and Damsels of New Hampshire
Tuesday March 19, 7 pm
Speaker: Dr. Pamela Hunt, Avian Conservation Biologist, NH Audubon
Welcome to the fascinating world of the insect order Odonata! You may be familiar with the dragonflies buzzing over your yard in the summer, or the damselflies that land on your kayak, but what do you REALLY know about these ancient insects? Pamela provides an overview of the biology and ecology of dragonflies and damselflies, from their amazing life cycle (content alert: some pretty crazy reproductive behavior is involved!) to their incredible diversity. She will reveal highlights a few of NH's notable species and their stories, and provide some results from the “NH Dragonfly Survey,” a five year volunteer-based project to document the distribution of these insects across the state.
The Original Forests of New Hampshire
Tuesday March 26, 7pm
Speaker: Charles Cogbill, forest ecologist and co-author of The Changing Nature of the Maine Woods.
Charles will provide a fascinating introduction to the forests of New Hampshire from the emergence of the forests 12,000 years ago at the end of the Ice Age to the time of European arrival. We will learn about the latest in scientific research that helps explain how the forests have changed over time to what we have today. Charles will also discuss (the role of) key ecological forces such as climate change, insects, disease and wind storms and other agents of forest change.
Tuesday April 2, 7 pm
Speaker: Harry Vogel, Senior Biologist/Executive Director of the Loon Preservation Committee
The Loon Preservation Committee was formed in 1975 with its mission to restore and maintain a healthy population of loons throughout New Hampshire; to monitor the health and productivity of loon populations as sentinels of environmental quality; and to promote a greater understanding of loons and the larger natural world. Come learn more about loon natural history, challenges facing loons, and LPC’s activities in support of loons in New Hampshire.
More than Granite… an introduction to New Hampshire’s geology
Tuesday April 9, 7pm
Speaker: Frederick “Rick” Chormann, New Hampshire State Geologist
People always think it’s all about granite in New Hampshire – the “Granite State” identity dates back to the early nineteenth century, even before the First Geological Survey was authorized by the state legislature in 1839. Although the nickname is well-deserved given the widespread occurrence of granite and early importance of granite quarries as local, then commercial, sources of building stone, it fails to convey the true complexity of the geology that is found here. Learn more about the State’s glaciated landscape (and what lies beneath it) from our State Geologist and Director of the NH Geological Survey.