LUCERNE, Calif. – The Lake County Land Trust and the Friends of Marymount California University Lakeside are co-sponsoring a series of programs on the natural environment of Lake County at the Marymount California University (MCU) Lakeside campus in Lucerne.
The third of these programs in the “Distinguished Speakers Series” is being presented on Thursday, April 7, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and will feature local ecologist Catherine Koehler who will talk about the fascinating native grasslands of Lake County.
A $5 donation at the event will benefit a scholarship fund for students attending the Lakeside Campus.
Koehler is an ecologist with a special interest in native grasslands of our region. She is director of the University of California’s McLaughlin Reserve in eastern Lake County and is also the executive director for the Lake County Land Trust.
She has a broad background in the biological sciences, with a Bachelors in Zoology, a Masters in Ecology, and has worked in a range of projects in wildlife biology and plant ecology.
Since moving to Lake County she has delved into grassland restoration and has developed a deep appreciation of how geology, climate, and ecology interact to generate the diverse and often rare and unique ecosystems that comprise the biological hotspot in which Lake County is situated.
In her position as executive director of the Lake County Land Trust, she has rallied enthusiasm amongst the trust’s supporters for the persisting populations of native California bunch grass species at the Land Trust’s Rodman Preserve, which include the California Purple Needle Grass (Stipa pulchra), Squirrel Tail (Elymus elymoides) and California Brome (Bromus carinatus), and is spearheading a small restoration effort to help increase abundance of these grasses at the preserve.
Her presentation will focus on grasslands of the region – their current state, and what they may have been like before the introduction of species from other continents – and will include an overview of the diversity in plant communities of the region, which support the remarkable biological diversity that merits the classification of our region by conservation biologists and ecologists as a “Global Biological Hotspot.”
MCU Lakeside campus is located at 3700 Country Club Drive, Lucerne.
For more information, call 888-991-5253 or 707-262-0707, leave a message and someone will return your call.
Koehler to be featured in April 7 'Distinguished Speakers Series'
- Lake County News reports
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