Exploring & Preserving Maryland's Natural Treasures
Arctic tundra ecosystems rely heavily on small mammals such as lemmings, voles, and shrew. These species undergo boom‑and‑bust population cycles, which shape vegetation, nutrient flow, and the entire food web. Curator of Mammalogy, Steve Sheffield, will introduce these foundational animals and highlight how their predators, from foxes to raptors, must navigate not only dramatic 3- […]
Cost: $0-5
Debbie Saylor is an anthropologist/archaeologist, museum curator, educator, and historian with more than 20 years of experience in archaeology and the interpretation of Native American history and material culture in the Lower Susquehanna region. She serves as Curator of Indian Steps Museum and Blue Rock Heritage Center and is actively involved as Education Director with the […]
Cost: $0-0
Maryland’s soft‑shell clam (Mya arenaria) has shaped coastal communities for generations, yet its future now depends on new science and smarter stewardship. In this talk, Dr. Liu will share the story of Maryland’s soft‑shell clam from its historic fishery to the new science shaping its future. Learn how this species grows and lives, why it […]
Cost: $0-5
In the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais in 1840, the Danish paleontologist Peter Wilhelm Lund (1801–1880) became the first naturalist to discover human remains in the same stratum as extinct megafauna (e.g., the Megatherium). These findings traced the origins of humankind back into deep time and refuted the quasi-biblical catastrophism of the French natural historian Georges […]
Cost: $0-0
Grasshopper sparrows (Ammodramus savannarum) are small, ground‑dwelling songbirds with an insect‑like buzz that breed in Maryland. As a species of conservation concern, their breeding success is tightly linked to vegetation structure, disturbance regimes, and the acoustic challenges of low, grassy habitats. In this talk, Dr. Bernie Lohr, a bioacoustics and auditory sensory ecology researcher at UMBC, […]
Cost: $0-5
Maryland is home to 17 types of turtles. Of those, 12 species are threatened by habitat loss, and 9 are experiencing population decline. All 4 sea turtle species found in Maryland are protected by the Endangered Species Act. In this presentation, you’ll learn how to tell turtles apart, the dangers they face, native species and […]
Cost: $10-30
In the traditional Japanese gyotaku process, fish are printed on paper immediately after being caught, using black ink, or sumi, then washed in the sea and eaten. The result is a gyotaku, a term derived from the Japanese words for fish (gyo) and print (taku). In this workshop, the process involves printing with colorful inks and thin […]
Cost: $60-75
Species are not distributed equally throughout their ranges. They occupy a mosaic of habitat patches, and the populations within those patches range from well connected to nearly isolated. Genomic surveys, paired with analytical tools drawn from artificial intelligence, let biologists map where populations actually occur, measure how connected and how healthy they are, and forecast […]
Cost: $0-5