“Stone Walls as Drylands: Viewing New England’s Landforms as Habitats” with Professor Robert M. Thorson on Friday, November 6, 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Please register in advance through the Marion Natural History Museum’s website: www.marionmuseum.org.
In early New England history, freshwater wetlands were considered miasma to be loathed, drained and converted to more productive use. By the early 1970s, however, the values of freshwater wetlands in New England had been recognized and they began to be protected by state and federal regulations, even though the majority had either been created or altered by agroecology and hydropower development. Much the same can be said about New England’s gridwork of drystone walls estimated at 200,000 linear miles within an area of about 50,000 square miles. What has turned out to be the region’s signature landform resulted from the same human agencies at wetlands. But with respect to wildlife habitat, they are complementary drylands whose ecological functions as volumes, areas and lines enrich habitat diversity in ways that are only just beginning to be investigated. This talk will be a status report on this emerging science.
Robert M. Thorson is a Midwestern native, turned Northwestern geologist, turned Northeastern academic. Currently, he’s a professor of earth sciences at the University of Connecticut with a research focus on the link between New England’s landscape, archaeology, history, ecology and literature. His work as a journalist was recently featured in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Smithsonian. His Thoreau scholarship was recently featured in a three-part Ken Burns-PBS-Ewers Brothers reframing of Henry David Thoreau aired nationwide on March 30 and 31. His most recent book, The Walden Experiments, is upcoming at Princeton University Press. Several others are in the works. This event is a virtual and live presentation at the museum (arranged by the sponsor). Donation of $10 per person. Preregister in advance at www.marionmuseum.org.
Archaeological Collections at the Marion Natural History Museum with Heather Olson, Laboratory and Collections Manager, The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. on Friday, November 13, from 6:00 to 7:00 pm. Please join the Marion Natural History Museum for a presentation on one of Marion’s valuable cultural resources: the museum’s Native American archaeological collections. For more than 154 years, the museum has preserved objects that reflect the natural and cultural heritage of the region, including bird nests, butterflies, minerals, shells and Native American artifacts from Marion and beyond. This program will highlight recent research into the museum’s Native American collections, examining what these artifacts reveal about the area’s past and why they remain important to our understanding of local history today. To register, please go to the museum’s website: www.marionmuseum.org