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April 10, Wednesday. 7:30 pm “From Bees to Hummingbirds: Convergent Evolution in Penstemon Flowers.” Among penstemons, hummingbird pollination has evolved from bee pollination over a dozen times. Retired ecology and evolution professor Paul Wilson will discuss these two pollination syndromes involving color, nectar rewards, and dispensing of pollen, and he will explore the rate … [Read more...] about From Bees to Hummingbirds: Convergent Evolution in Penstemon Flowers

Wednesday, March 13 Reversing the effects of invasive cordgrass and beachgrass at Ocean Ranch Unit of the Eel River Wildlife Area was the task tackled by California Department of Fish and Wildlife and partners. Ecological restorationist Kelsey McDonald will tell us how they did it and, after one year, "Is it working?" Reversing the effects of lack of disturbance on the nearby … [Read more...] about Restoring Dunes and Salt Marsh at Ocean Ranch and Coastal Prairie on Table Bluff

Wednesday – February 14 The desert areas of California include the northwestern portion of the Sonoran Desert, the largest part of the Mojave Desert, and the western margin of the Great Basin. Michael Kauffmann, co-author of California Desert Plants (Backcountry Press 2022) will take us on a journey to explore these vast and intimate desert landscapes through their … [Read more...] about California Desert Plants: Ecology and Diversity

A recently graduated Master's student at Cal Poly Humboldt, Sean Stewart, will present his findings on the difficult life of Applegate's milkvetch (Astragalus applegatei). Once believed extinct, A. applegatei, was rediscovered in the 1980s in and around Klamath Falls, Oregon despite massive changes to its historical habitat. While little is known about this plant, the … [Read more...] about How to Use Natural History and Population Modeling to Save an Endangered Milkvetch, and other Similar Species