The Nature Research Center, an 80,000-square-foot wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences currently under construction, will bring research scientists and their work into the public eye, help demystify an often intimidating field of study, better prepare science educators and students, and inspire a new generation of young scientists. The cornerstone of the NRC will be the SECU Daily Planet, an immersive, three-story multimedia space that will host live programming on current science issues and feature nature films on a giant screen. Other highlights include a 10,000-gallon aquarium with lionfish, bonnethead sharks and Atlantic stingrays, and Investigate Labs, where visitors can perform scientific experiments designed and led by Museum researchers and educators.

Mark your calendars … the public is invited to a 24-hour opening celebration from 5 p.m. on Friday, April 20 through 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 21, 2012.

Dates & Times:
24 Hour Opening; 4/20/12 at 5pm to 4/21/12 at 5pm

Cost:
Free admission

FOR MORE INFO
URL: http://naturalsciences.org/nature-research-center
Phone Number: 919-733-7450

The naming opportunity for our new species of bark beetle (Cyclorhipidion “Your Name Here”) was “sold” for a five-figure sum to a couple who believe strongly in global forest conversation efforts.

Thanks to them, the remaining forests of Ethiopia will gain new expanses of stone walls to safeguard all the ecosystem services derived from these forests: native seed sources, honey medicines, freshwater springs, shade, soil conservation, biodiversity, spiritual sanctuary for millions of Christian Orthodox or Coptic followers in Ethiopia.

Stay tuned, as TREE Foundation works with entomologists around the world to process our collections, earmark the new species, and “auction” the naming rights in exchange for saving critical habitat.

A big thanks to: Betsy Cole for drawing the beetle, Jiri Hulcr for his classification efforts, and Andrea Lucky for finding it!

UPDATE 2/10/2012: New image of the Bark Beetle below (click for larger image):

Dr. Meg Lowman will be appearing at the “Rainforest Rendezvous: So Much Yet to Discover” to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Bolz Conservatory. Details are below. For more info visit olbrich.org.

“CANOPY MEG” PRESENTATIONS

Saturday, November 12

Monkeys, Millipedes, and Medicine – Meet “Canopy Meg”

How would you get to the top of a really tall tree? “Canopy Meg” uses hot air balloons, rope ladders, bridges, blimps, and cranes to study rainforest canopies.

Scientists like Meg work as detectives to find all the things hiding in a forest canopy – like millions of beetles! Tropical rainforests are not only home to monkeys, millipedes, and many, many insects, but they also produce important things we use in our everyday lives – medicines, foods, construction materials, fabrics, and oxygen, are just a few.

“Visit” some of the world’s most special rainforests with Meg to find out what it’s like to work in the tops of thos tropical trees and why so many creatures live way up there. Book signing will follow the presentation. For grades 3 and up with an adult; each attendee pays the registration fee. Advanced registration required. Call 608-246-4550 to register.

Saturday, November 12, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Registration Deadline: Drop-ins welcome; pre-registration preferred
$10/$8 Olbrich member

Out on a Limb – Exploring Tropical Rainforest Canopies

Adults can meet scientist Meg Lowman, one of the world’s first “arbornauts,” who uses all sorts of structures to explore tropical treetops, home to approximately half of planet Earth’s biodiversity. This exploration has demonstrated that forest canopies provide ecological services to all of use – climate regulation, medicines, food, fresh water cycling, and cultrual heritage are just a few. New ways to get into the treetops have also inspired ecotourism, as well as the sustainable harvest of fruits, medicines, and other products.

Lowman, also known as “Canopy Meg,” pioneered the field of canopy research while raising two boys in the rainforest. She continues her work to “map” the canopy and to champion forest conservation around the world. Book signing after the presentation. Advanced registration required. Call 608-246-4550 to register.

Saturday, November 12, 1:30 – 3:15 p.m.
Registration Deadline: Drop-ins welcome; pre-registration preferred
$15/$12 Olbrich member

PROGRAM FEATURES
“This is a non-stop workshop full of once-in-a-lifetime experiences.”

Unique, active, and fun! This expedition is an eye-opening introduction to the environmental and cultural aspects of the Amazon Rainforest and river system in the Amazon basin of Northern Peru. The program is safe, comfortable, and accessible, offering the opportunity for many intercultural interactions, plus science and service field experiences:

• Work side-by-side with scientists on research in of one of the most biologically diverse environments on the planet.
• Ascend over 115 feet on a 1/4-mile Rainforest Canopy Walkway, one of the few of its kind in the New World.
• Interact with indigenous people and see how they use the forest for medicine, food, and shelter.
• Contribute to a Community Service Project to benefit people who live in a village along the Amazon River.
• Use hand lenses, binoculars, maps, taxonomic keys for identification, and simple field equipment with the help of our experienced Naturalist Guides to learn about:
• Insect Camouflage & Mimicry
• Neotropical Butterflies
• Rainforest Canopy Research
• Reptiles and Amphibians
• Medicinal Plants
• Orchids & Bromeliads
• Amazon River System
• Neotropical Birds & Migration

Dr. Meg Lowman will speak from noon to 1 p.m. Friday (7/22/2011) at the Meg Lowman Treetops Camp for at-risk girls at Tanglewood Nature Center & Museum, 443 Coleman Ave. in Big Flats.

Lowman will talk about her career and latest adventures.

Admission is $10 for the public, $5 for members and free to Meg Lowman campers and their guests.

From Carleton News:

Margaret “Meg” Lowman, PhD, an author, adventurer, educator, and ecologist with 30 years of experience exploring the unseen world of biodiversity that exists in rainforest canopies, will deliver Carleton College’s weekly convocation address on Friday, April 22 at 10:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. Entitled “Life in the Treetops: Conservation of the World’s Rain Forests,” Lowman’s presentation is free and open to the public.

More information: http://apps.carleton.edu/news/news/?story_id=727855

AMAZON RAINFOREST WORKSHOP
Group Leader – Dr. Meg Lowman, NC Museum of Natural Sciences
with Dr. Phil Wittman, Canopy Quest and D.C. Randle, St. Francis High School
JULY 5-14, 2011 door-to-door

PROGRAM FEATURES
“This is a non-stop workshop full of once-in-a-lifetime experiences.”
Unique, active, and fun! This expedition is an eye-opening introduction to the environmental and cultural aspects of the Amazon Rainforest and river system in the Amazon basin of Northern Peru. The program is safe, comfortable, and accessible, offering the opportunity for many intercultural interactions, plus science and service field experiences:

• Work side-by-side with scientists in of one of the most biologically diverse environments on the planet.
• Ascend over 115 feet on a 1/4-mile Rainforest Canopy Walkway, one of the few of its kind in the New World.
• Interact with indigenous people and see how they use the forest for medicine, food, and shelter.
• Contribute to a Community Service Project to benefit people who live in a village along the Amazon River.
• Use hand lenses, binoculars, maps, taxonomic keys for identification, and simple field equipment with the help of our experienced

  Naturalist Guides to learn about:
  Insect Camouflage & Mimicry • Neotropical Butterflies • Rainforest Canopy Research • Reptiles and Amphibians • Medicinal Plants • Orchids & Bromeliads • Amazon River System • Neotropical Birds & Migration

More information: http://www.travel2learn.com/2011canopymeg.htm

Flyer:

Download (PDF, 919.74KB)

Dr. Meg Lowman will now have an occasional nature column in the Charlotte Observer. Read her first article below or at charlotteobserver.com

The early blooms of yellow trout lilies welcome walkers in springtime. COURTESY OF MEG LOWMAN

“The earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Spring inspires growth, energy and love.

Temperate plants, with their vernal patterns of flowering, fruiting and leafing, serve as a reliable calendar for nature’s renewal. Like spring fever in humans, light and warmth serve as environmental triggers that awaken plants.

In the botanical world, nothing is more exhilarating than the arrival of “spring ephemerals.” This fancy terminology refers to the early spring wildflowers that bloom on the forest floor before the tree canopies leaf out and cast their deep shade.

Spring ephemerals represent a unique ecological strategy. These forest-floor occupants take advantage of early spring light to undergo photosynthesis and reproduction. Spring ephemerals are hardy. They may experience a late frost, or get chewed by hungry rabbits when no other foliage is available.

For residents of North Carolina, spring ephemerals are synonymous with playing hooky from school, spring fever and planting early crops. At Hemlock Bluff Nature Preserve in Cary, yellow trout lilies create a golden carpet to welcome weekend walkers. Other Piedmont spring ephemerals to watch for include: hepatica, spring beauty, meadow violet, trailing arbutus and Jack-in-the-pulpit. Careful observations might also reveal the gorgeous white Atamasco lily, an elegant yet less-common forest floor denizen.

Pollinators and insects that feed on the spring wildflowers are also synchronized to appear early, followed soon after by the leafing of the tree canopy: oaks, maples, beech and many others.

Project Budburst (www.BudBurst.org) is a national network for citizens to monitor the seasonality of local plants, especially budburst and leafing in the spring. Phenological dates are logged into numeric bases, which provide important information about how nature adapts to environmental conditions.

At the new Nature Research Center in downtown Raleigh, this information will be visualized as part of exhibits where the public can be engaged. When the NRC opens in 2012, join our teams of North Carolina citizen-scientists to monitor phenology, including spring ephemerals.

From Talks@ATREE:

Speaker: Dr. Margaret D. Lowman
Date: January 28, 2011
Time: 4 pm
Venue: ATREE Auditorium in Bangalore, India
Title: UN Year of the Forest – inspiring new stakeholders to reverse deforestation

Abstract:
Rates of tropical deforestation continue to accelerate, and yet the United Nations has declared 2011 as the International Year of the Forest. Our conventional mechanisms of conservation have not been effective over the past several decades, so new and innovative solutions to reverse forest degradation are required. As a canopy biologist with over 30 years of experience, I discuss ways to leverage research and education outreach for conservation purposes. First, partnerships with non-traditional stakeholders are an emerging mechanism for success i.e., religious leaders, corporate and business partners, and engaging women in science are illustrated by case studies. Second, the inclusion of education and broader science communication as an essential component of my research – in particular the involvement of children as future stakeholders and increasing use of social media – have proven effective. The field of canopy science, with its creative toolkit of walkways and ropes that also foster ecotourism, can enhance forest conservation through the integration of economics and ecology to a growing diversity of stakeholders.

Affiliation:
Dr. Lowman is the Director of the Nature Research Centre at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and Professor at North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC. She also serves as Vice President of The Explorers Club; Vice President of the Ecological Society of America; Executive Director of Florida’s TREE Foundation; and Cluster Chair for the Sarasota Economic Development Corporation.

The Pygmy three-toed sloth is on the list of one of the world’s most endangered animals. TREE Foundation has supported the training of canopy students by Meg Lowman,
who in turn taught Bryson Voirin, who in turn has been a long-standing TREE research associate and devoted much of his research career to sloth ecology. At popular request, TREE Foundation has established a special fund to support canopy research on sloths, and this fund is launched with a special music DVD (see below) with all proceeds dedicated to sloth research and conservation.

Stay tuned for updates on sloth research and conservation on this site!

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“MOOZIKK” COLLABORATION OF MUSICIANS TO RAISE FUNDS AND AWARENESS FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE PYGMY THREE TOED SLOTH

PRESS RELEASE

Martin Roberts (frontman of south UK unsigned indie dream-pop band PowderedCows) is an unsigned musician from Christchurch UK who makes music influenced by animals, birds, the outdoors, and his voluntary conservation work he gets involved with, such as otter surveying and looking after rescued bats.

All proceeds from sales of PowderedCows music go to various animal conservation charities. PowderedCows last album ‘attack of pipastrelles’ raised money for the UK’s Bat Conservation Trust.

Martin has recently started getting musicians he knows and is a fan of to submit tracks of them playing acoustic (just guitar and vocals) and then he has been adding his sound and instruments over the top. Martin will then put all the tracks onto a CD to raise money for conservation and awareness of the critically endangered three toed sloth.

“This is our last chance to save the pygmy three toed sloth – it’s like a living version of the sad story of the dodo, but, now we have a chance to do something to stop it becoming extinct, and we must take this chance now before it’s too late” [Martin Roberts]

Martin already has various musicians from the UK and USA (such as Jason Lytle from the band ‘Grandaddy’) submitting music for this album, and awaiting to hear back from more musicians, media, and like minded people..

This album is not going to be on any label, and all proceeds will go to help The Tree Foundation fund sloth expert Bryson Voirin help save the pygmy three toed sloth. Bryson works closely with The Tree Foundation who work hard on conservation projects such as helping this sloth species.

Here’s more about Bryson
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0316-hance_fs_pygmythree.html

Facebook group page for more details about “Moozikk”:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Moozikk/117586218314545

Thanks very much for your time and consideration

Martin Roberts (of the band PowderedCows www.myspace.com/powderedcows)

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