SGMF Member Event: “Mountains of Drought”
Presented By: Forest Committee of the Sierra Club-Angeles Chapter
Date: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Place: Eaton Canyon Nature Center, 1750 N. Altadena Dr., Pasadena
About the event, from Forest Committee of the Sierra Club-Angeles Chapter:
We may (or may not) have an El Nino this winter, but the long-range trends are clear: higher temperatures, less rain and more wildfire. As we grapple with issues of water supply and withering vegetation in our communities, we also ask: How Will Climate Change and Mega-Drought Change the San Gabriel and Santa Monica Mountains? Dr. Stephen Davis, Distinguished Professor of Biology at Pepperdine University, will discuss what is likely to happen to our local, chaparral-dominated mountains. What might our mountains be like in 10 years, 50 years or 100 years? The one thing we know for sure is that our mountains — and the plant communities they support — won’t be the same.
Much of Dr. Davis’s research centers on plant physiological ecology, including adaptations of chaparral shrubs to wildfire, drought, and freezing. He has published in such journals as Nature, Ecology, American Journal of Botany, Plant Cell and Environment, Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society, and the International Journal of Plant Science. Dr. Davis earned his Ph.D. in 1974 from Texas A&M University after which he joined the faculty at Pepperdine University in Malibu. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, UCLA, University of Utah, and Baylor University. The recipient of numerous teaching awards, Dr. Davis’ distinctive approach has been to facilitate student scholarship through the completion of research projects, the writing of honors theses, presentation by students of their research findings at regional and national scientific conferences, and finally through student publication of their work in refereed, scientific journals
A social reception at 7 p.m. precedes the 7:30 program sponsored by the Forest Committee of the Sierra Club-Angeles Chapter. The program is free and the public is welcome. For information, email Don Bremner at donbremner@earthlink.net or John Monsen at wildernessjfm@aol.com.
Directions to Eaton Canyon:
From the 210 Freeway in Pasadena, take the Altadena Drive exit (if westbound on the 210, take the Sierra Madre Blvd. off ramp and at the bottom go west another few blocks to Altadena Drive), drive north toward the mountains about a mile, and 500 feet after crossing New York Drive, turn right into Eaton Canyon Park. The Nature Center is on the left from the parking area.
