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Journey Santa Fe Conversation: Forest Changes in Northern New Mexico: Past, Present & Climate-Driven Future

  • Collected Works Bookstore 202 Galisteo Street Santa Fe, NM, 87501 United States (map)

Forest Changes in Northern New Mexico: Past, Present & Climate-Driven Future

With Dr. Craig D. Allen, Research Ecologist and Hannah Riseley-White, NM Interstate Stream Commission / Pecos River Basin Manager

At Collected Works Bookstore

Sunday Nov, 10th at 11:00 am

https://www.journeysantafe.com/nov-10-2019-sunday-11am/

This talk highlights the dynamic ecological history and recent trends of our forests here in the Jemez and Sangre de Cristo mountains, drawing from abundant and diverse local ecological research studies to document forest responses to changes in climate, fire, and human land uses through time. Past forest changes, from 500,000 years ago to 40 years ago, are reconstructed from paleo-environmental evidence including pollen and charcoal in lake and bog sediments, packrat middens, soils, tree-rings, and historical photographs & records. Recent and presently occurring forest changes are well-documented by extraordinary amounts of long-term local ecological research in recent decades, illustrating historically unprecedented increases in the extent and severity of multiple forest disturbance processes (drought & heat stress, insect outbreaks, fire, post-fire floods & debris flows) in response to hotter drought conditions over the past 20 years. Finally, current research will be presented on the anticipated effects of ongoing and projected climate changes on forests in New Mexico (and globally), with implications for forest ecosystem services valued by local communities. 

 

Craig D. Allen has engaged in ecological field research since 1981 in the mountains of northern New Mexico, continuously here since 1986 as a place-based research ecologist for US DOI, and since 1993 as station leader of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) New Mexico Landscapes Field Station (formerly the Jemez Mountains Field Station). Craig’s core research work includes diverse long-term studies on the ecology and environmental history of local New Mexico forest landscapes, and the responses of Western mountain ecosystems and forests globally to climate change, collaborating with many colleagues near and far. For more information, visit www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/craig-d-allen.

 

Hannah Riseley-White is a native Santa Fean who recently returned after 20 years mostly working for New York City-based nonprofits, supporting community designed and implemented green space. She has a certificate in Ecological Horticulture from UC Santa Cruz, and a masters degree in Environmental Science and Management from UC Santa Barbara. She currently serves as the Pecos River Bureau Chief for the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission.

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FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Earlier Event: October 15
Uno de los Nuestros, film showing and panel discussion with Spanish firefighters
Later Event: November 13
Fire in your Neighborhood, Simtable Wildfire Modeling
The GSFFC is a coalition of public and private organizations. The GSFFC is not a subdivision of the State of New Mexico, as defined in the state’s Open Meetings Act, §§ 10-15-1 to 10-15-4 NMSA 1978. Although federal agencies participate in the GSFFC, the Coalition is not a federal advisory board and was not created by a federal agency, as defined by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5.U.S.C. app. 2, §§ 1 to 16 (2012). The GSFFC operates informally to support its partners, and is not incorporated as a non-profit, 501(C)(3), partnership, or other legal status.