Lucerne >> Starting in February, a series of programs on the natural environment of Lake County will be presented at the Marymount California University (MCU) Lakeside campus. The first program, featuring Harry Lyons, will be on Feb. 4, from 6 – 7:30 p.m.
The programs are co-sponsored by the Friends of MCU Lakeside and the Lake County Land Trust and will be the first in a “Distinguished Speakers Series,” offered by the
Friends of MCU and other community organizations in order to help introduce the four-year university to the community.
Starting at 5 p.m. short, informal tours of the university building, also known as “The Castle,” will be presented, along with refreshments. A $5 donation will benefit a scholarship fund for students attending the MCU Lakeside campus located at 3700 Country Club Drive in Lucerne. For more information, call (888) 991-5253 or (707) 262-0707, leave a message and someone will return your call.
For the first topic in the series, Lyons, Yuba College biology professor, will present a program titled, “Lessons from Green Water,” in which he weaves the stories of two nutrient-rich aquatic ecosystems, the Hudson River and Clear Lake, in addressing the problems and promises of such rich biological communities.
Although differing in their geological and hydrologic histories, the two systems face similar problems with over-enrichment and mercury contamination. Most feel the biological condition of the Hudson has improved; some feel the biological condition of Clear Lake has not. Can the political action taken on behalf of the Hudson River serve as a model for pushing improvement of water quality in Clear Lake? How is the chance of success through political action dependent on the type of pollution and its causes?
Lyons grew up swimming and fishing in the Hudson. His lifelong interest in water led him to pursue his Ph.D. in oceanography from the Scripps Institution of the University of California after academic work at Rutgers and Stanford. He has lived by, sampled from and swum in Clear Lake for more than 35 years. His talks are always peppered with the spirit of relevant songs.
The next scheduled speaker will be Dr. John Parker on March 3, who will use artifacts and a PowerPoint presentation to take you through the cultural, environmental, and technological changes that occurred in Lake County during the past 20,000 years and introduce you to the relationship between Lake County’s Native American inhabitants and their environment in his program titled, “Cultural and Environmental changes over 20,000 years.”
The series will conclude on April 7 and will feature Catherine Koehler, an ecologist with a special interest in native grasslands of our region, who will present a program titled, “Native Grasslands of Lake County.” She is Director of the University of California’s McLaughlin Reserve in eastern Lake County and the Executive Director for the Lake County Land Trust. She has a broad background in the biological sciences, with a Bachelors in Zoology, a Master’s in Ecology, and has worked in a range of projects in wildlife biology and plant ecology.
The public is invited to these presentations and encouraged to learn more about Lake County’s new four-year university. The Friends of MCU Lakeside campus is a recently formed group that developed out of what started as the MCU Lakeside campus Advisory Council. Many original advisory council members have continued on with the Friends of MCU group in order to provide scholarship support for students.
