Our Keynote Speaker...           

presents on

Klamath-Siskiyou Plant Diversity: Patterns, Causes, and a Historical Perspective 

biography 

Susan Harrison is a professor at U.C. Davis, Department of Science and Policy.  She studies plant communities associated with serpentine geology.  Her research has led into a major role of developing and managing the 3,100 hectare McLaughlin UC Natural Reserve, which is a key resource for studying plant ecology & evolution, wildlife ecology, soils, geology, and related environmental subjects.  

She is a board member of the Napa County Land Trust and is on the steering committee for the Blue Ridge-Berryessa Natural Area Conservation Partnership.  She consults on conservation issues (particularly on serpentine plants & ecosystems) to the California Department of Fish & Game, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S Fish and Wildlife Service.  Susan serves on the science advisory board of the Siskiyou Field Institute (SFI), a non-profit environmental education organized in the underserved Josephine County, Oregon.  Her National Science Foundation-funded research has employed and trained multiple students, community members, and K-12 teachers.  She teaches short courses on climate change and plant ecology at SFI. 

Our Banquet Speaker...

This fascinating talk will take us behind the scenes of the nation’s only full-service wildlife forensics laboratory, which is located in Ashland, Oregon.  With specialists in pathology, genetics, chemistry, ballistics, herpetology, mammalogy, and ornithology, the Forensics Lab provides scientific support to federal wildlife crime investigations, both in the U.S. and internationally.  Dr. Trail’s talk will provide a review of the dimensions of wildlife crime, an introduction to the Lab’s capabilities, and a series of case studies illustrating how Lab scientists use both classical methods and cutting-edge technologies to solve challenging cases. 

biography

Dr. Pepper Trail is an Ornithologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Forensics Laboratory.   Since 1998, he has identified over 40,000 pieces of evidence, ranging from the feathers belonging to birds of paradise to the decomposed remains of birds recovered from oil pits.  His work as a “feather detective” is featured in the current issue of Audubon magazine.