Catalina Island Conservancy annual Symposium goes virtual

AVALON—The Catalina Island Conservancy annual Symposium will be held virtually Nov. 2 through 23. The event features four virtual discussions about the research and work taking place on Catalina Island. The discussions are free to attend but space is limited and registration is required.

The first event, “A Flora Apart: Plants of Catalina Island, Past and Present”, takes place Nov. 2 from noon to 1 p.m. Conservancy Botanist and Native Plant Manager Seth Kauppinen will address the assembly of Catalina’s plant communities, in the context of paleoclimatological trends across western North America.

“Every flora is the product of forces that act over millennia and vast spatial scales; an understanding of those processes lends a deeper sense of place,” the event description states.

The second discussion, “Tropical Paradise or Desert Island? Understanding Precipitation Variability on Catalina Island”, takes place on Nov. 9 from noon to 1 p.m. Conservation Operations Director Laura Minuto will explore long-term precipitation data at multiple locales on the island, and discuss how these datasets help us better understand, and manage, Catalina’s wildlands, which can embody the extremes of a lush, green, tropical paradise or a bleak and desolate wind-swept desert island.

The third event, “Naturalist Training Goes Virtual: Evaluation of Program Impacts and Audience Response”, will be held Nov. 16 from noon to 1 p.m. Education Director Dr. Leah Melber will talk about first quarter data including successes, tweaks, and unexpected findings for the online version of the Naturalist 1 Training since the program’s launch of the online version due to Covid-19.

The final discussion of the annual symposium, “The Bats of Catalina Island”, takes place Nov. 23 from noon to 1 p.m. Bat experts Dr. Patricia Brown and Dr. William Rainey will explore the species occurrence and distribution of bats on Catalina Island, including the detection of two new bat species never before seen on Catalina.

Visit catalinaconservancy.org/index.php?s=support&p=symposium for more information or to register.