“Raleigh’s New World” highlights 24 Days of Deals and a Trip to the Amazon in celebration of the opening of The Nature Research Center, an innovative 80,000-square-foot wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. This new museum will bring research scientists and their work into the public eye. The 24-hour opening celebration begins at 5:00 p.m. on April 20, 2012.
RALEIGH, NC – Although it’s personal day job news, I’m certain this announcement will be of interest to all of our PLoS readers and others in the science communications community.
Meg Lowman has found that one way to stir interest in the new wing at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences is to hang out up in the trees.
Lowman was doing just that Wednesday on the campus of Salem College, dangling in a harness affixed to a stately maple tree.
The purpose of the treetop stop was to promote the Raleigh museum’s Nature Research Center, an 80,000-square-foot wing that opens April 20.
“The museum will focus on how we know what we know,” explained Lowman, the director of the Nature Research Center. “Most museums focus on what we know. They show you their snakes and other collections. We will focus on how we study treetops and how you look at DNA. This is what we hope will produce the next generation of scientists.”
On Wednesday, Lowman, known as “Canopy Meg” for her groundbreaking work in tree canopy ecology, visited Salem College as part of the center’s statewide marketing campaign. The crew has also gone up trees in Charlotte and Wilmington.
At each stop, Lowman has invited small groups to go up trees and examine the creatures milling about the trunk and branches, high above the world.
Meg Lowman, director of the Nature Resource Center — the new wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, is traveling across the state this week, meeting with different school groups to raise awareness about the 24-hour opening of the new wing April 20-21.
Earlier this week, she was at Tryon Palace, visiting with elementary school students from Craven County.
Her trip is meant to instill a love for science in the state’s youth.
Lowman is a pioneer in the science of canopy research and has written two books on her experiences in treetops around the world.
“The whole goal of the Nature Resource Center is to show the public how we know what we know about science,” she said.
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Some kids spent the day learning outside. Their classroom? A large oak tree.
“It was really fun,” student Hope Honaker said. “We just got to learn how to gather bugs and stuff.”
A handful of students from the Friends School of Wilmington got to explore the treetops of Airlie Gardens. The event was part of a statewide tour to celebrate the opening of the new Nature Research Center in Raleigh.
Dr. Meg Lowman gave the students a bird’s eye view of what is living in our trees.
“Over half of the biodiversity on this planet lives in the tops of trees, and probably 90 percent of them have never been discovered,” Lowman said. “So if one of these kids turns into a scientist after this day, we might have done our job.”
The Nature Research Center is a new wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Its grand opening is April 20.
Dr. “CanopyMeg” Lowman was a guest on “Community — The TV Show” hosted by Annette Scherman on February 3, 2012. Appearing with Dr. Lowman was New College student Michael Long.
Meg Lowman talks about her recent travels and adventures including travel to Africa to help save the Church Forests of Ethiopia, forest conservation in India, and her work on the Nature Research Center (NRC), the new 80000 square-foot wing at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
Photos were displayed of the wall construction in Ethiopia that was accomplished with the help of Sarasota’s own TREE Foundation. The TREE Foundation is auctioning off the naming rights of new species of beetles and other organisms in Ethiopia. These funds go toward saving the last remaining fragments of forest in Ethiopia.
Dr. Lowman brings some art work and other interesting objects she has collected from her travels for some “show-and-tell” with Annette.
Michael Long talks about Meg’s influence on his decision to attend New College of Florida and his current studies which focus on bridging science with policy.
Dr. Lowman’s latest Nature’s Secrets column in newsobserver.com:
What do a young Philippine clothing designer, an American social networker, an Indian medic, an Ethiopian teacher and a Nigerian farmer have in common?
They are all winners of the first-ever Rolex Young Laureates Awards for Enterprise (http://young.rolexawards.com). Though best known for their watches, Rolex also funds creative and innovative global environmental leaders, and they recently honored the emerging generation (also known as Generation Z).
Ethiopian government is advised to actively promote protection of church forests. See below:
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Re-Greening the Horn
The international community and national governments are advised to invest in re-greening the Horn, through improved water and soil conservation, agro-forestry and reforestation projects. Governments are also advised to strengthen their forest protection mechanisms. In particular, church forests in Northern Ethiopia offer great opportunities for the conservation of biodiversity. The government of Ethiopia is advised to actively promote the establishment of corridors for the protection of (church) forests’ genetic diversity. Remaining forest estates in the Horn may benefit from the REDD+ financial provisions currently being developed. As the global community wants to ensure that it gets what it pays for, a reliable and transparent monitoring system has to be put in place (see first recommendation above).
