EAT, DRINK & LEARN

2023-2024 Speaker Series

Join us for an evening of delicious food and drink, great company, and an engaging presentation!

Thursday, November 16: Beavers & Brews

Beaver Restoration and Coexistence: A Dam Worthy Challenge

Claudia Donegan (Director of the Center for Habitat Restoration and Conservation, Maryland DNR) and Alison Zak (Founder and Director of the Human-Beaver Coexistence Fund) will talk about beaver restoration potential in the Chesapeake region and how and why we can coexist with beavers, despite the problems they may cause.

Claudia Donegan is the Director of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Center for Habitat Restoration and Conservation.  Claudia has been working on water quality restoration outreach and education and ecological restoration projects in the Chesapeake and Maryland Coastal Bays watersheds for over 30 years.

Alison Zak is the Founder & Executive Director of the Human-Beaver Coexistence Fund. She studied human-wildlife conflict in graduate school, then worked for six years in environmental education and outreach before founding HBCF. She is particularly intrigued, inspired, and challenged by human-beaver coexistence work, because few other animals have such an impact on the world around them. Alison jokes that beavers filled the monkey-sized hole in her heart as she transitioned away from primatological research on endangered, crop-feeding macaques. She now enjoys working with human primates and semi-aquatic rodents alike! Alison holds a BA (University of South Florida) and MA (San Diego State University) in Anthropology. She is also a yoga teacher and author of Wild Asana: Animals, Yoga, and Connecting Our Practice to the Natural World.

Time: 6:30-9:00 PM

Location: Irvine Nature Center

Price: $55 Members (Pacesetter Level or above) / $65 Non-Members