This Thursday 2/19 from 4:30-6:00 PM in 112 Hilgard will be our first meeting and seminar of the semester! Ratha Lai, Conservation Program Coordinator for the Sierra Club's bay area office, will be speaking about community organizing for clean air in the Bay Area; pollution by local rail shipping operations; and community choice aggregation as a tool to transition to clean energy. Following the talk there will be a Q&A. This talk is part of our "Meeting Conservation" seminar series, which brings conservation professionals to campus to speak about conservation work outside of academia. Please note the time change from last semester: the seminar will begin at 5:00 PM.
Before the seminar, at 4:30, Jeremy Andersen will be leading a discussion on the possible delisting of the endangered Coastal California Gnatcatcher. Following a recently published study suggesting that this subspecies of California gnatcatcher may not be genetically distinct from the non-threatened interior subspecies, The California Building Industry Association has petitioned the US Fish & Wildlife Service to delist it from the Endangered Species Act. Jeremy is concerned that the this interpretation of this study is overzealous and may set a bad precedent for future delistings whose habitats conflict with development pressures, and is interested in creating a working group to draft a letter advising the Fish & Wildlife Service. If you're interested in the politics of science & the ESA, and especially if you're well versed genetics and the designation of subspecies or evolutionary significant units (ESUs), please attend!
Silver Pizza, vegan snacks, and refreshments will be served! We hope to see you there!
This event is sponsored by the Graduate Assembly and open to all UCB students and the public.