October 6 - Ft. Lauderdale Florida – Lecture to the Explorers Club, Southern Florida chapter

October 18 - Cipriani, New York City – Board of Directors host for Lowell Thomas Awards dinner, Exploring Climate Change

October 19 - The Explorers Club headquarters, New York City – Moderator for Panel on Climate Change

October 25 – Moab, Utah – Utah Environmental Educators Society – Keynote lecture at annual conference

November 3 – Sarasota Reading Festival

November 7 – The Explorers Club, New York City – book launch for They Lived to Tell the Tale (25 explorers’ write their collective tales of exploration)

November 14 – Elizabethtown College, PA – Convocation speaker

November 28 – Concord College, WV – Invited Science Address

November 29 – New College of FL – Sustainability and Environmental Landscapes in Florida Symposium

December 2 – Tropical Ecology Congress 2007, Dehradun India – invited speaker

From Earth & Sky:

Mom-scientist juggles family and career from treetops

Program #5325 of the Earth & Sky Radio Series
with hosts Deborah Byrd, Joel Block, and Jorge Salazar

Taking children into nature can be a bonding experience for families, and it can make for some good adventures.

Margaret Lowman is an acclaimed tree canopy ecologist at New College of Florida. She and her two sons, Edward and James, are the co-authors of “It’s a Jungle Up There.” It’s their account of growing up together doing rigorous science research high up in the trees.

Earth & Sky Interview with Meg Lowman

Earth & Sky Clear Voices interview with Meg Lowman

On July 30, Meg Lowman was on The Leonard Lopate Show.

Eight years after the publication of Life in the Treetops, globetrotting rainforest biologist and single mother Margaret Lowman is here in the urban jungle with her son and co-author Edward Burgess. They’ll share their new collection of stories filled with science and adventure from Peru to Samoa.

Here is a slideshow of photos from the Meg Lowman Treetops Camp in Elmira New York. The camp earmarks young women who do not have extensive opportunity and inspires them to seek careers in field biology.

From Newswise Science News:

Now ecological scientists—well positioned because of their field of study—are stepping up to do their part in getting children back to nature. The Symposium “No child left indoors: Ecologists linking young people with nature” will be held during the joint meeting of ESA and the Society for Ecological Restoration.

Read the full article

Dr. Margaret Lowman, International Canopy Researcher, to speak at

Garrett College
McHenry, MD
Saturday, May 19th, 2007
7:00 pm

Dr. Lowman will be at the Discovery Center at Deep Creek Lake State Park from 3:00 – 4:30 pm for a book signing and community social.

Please come join us for this unique opportunity!

For directions to the book signing at the Discovery Center at Deep Creek Lake State Park, see:
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/deepcreeklake.html

For directions to Garrett College visit:
http://www.garrettcollege.edu/about/directions.html

The Forest Canopy Walkway is a project by the Western Garrett County State Park Volunteers in partnership with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Park Service and Forest Service.To find out more about the project, visit:
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/dcldcbrochure.pdf

Additional info on Dr. Lowman:

Meg Lowman (aka Canopymeg) is the Director of Environmental Initiatives at New College, the premier honors college for the State of Florida, with professorships in biology and environmental studies. Meg has developed an expertise for the use of different canopy access techniques, including ropes, walkways, hot air balloons, construction cranes, and combinations of these methods. She frequently speaks about her jungle adventures and about rain forest conservation to educational groups, ranging from elementary classes to corporate executives to international conferences. She received the Margaret Douglas Medal for Achievement in Conservation Education from the Garden Club of America (1999), The Eugene Odum Prize for Excellence in Ecology Education from the Ecological Society of America (2002), election to Leadership Florida (1997), serves on Board of Directors for the Explorers Club, and is part of the senior management team of NEON for the National Science Foundation. Carolyn Shoemaker of the US Dept of the Interior named an asteroid after her (2003). She co-chaired the First and Second International Conferences on Forest Canopies (1994, 1998), and was chief scientist for the Jason Project in Education (1995,1999, 2004).

Dr. Lowman has authored several books about her research and experiences including “Forest Canopies”, “Life in the Treetops” and “It’s a Jungle Up There: More Tales from the Treetops”.

“No Child Left Indoors” Proclamation

This proclamation was crafted for Sarasota (Florida) county and city
commissioners, but any other readers are welcome to use it for their
Earth Week celebrations. Enjoy!

Meg mentioned in Wired News article:

Will forests slow global warming - or speed it up?

Everyone knows that forests are good for the environment. By removing carbon dioxide - the principal cause of global warming - from the air, trees grow. And the bigger and more plentiful the trees, the more CO2 they sequester. This makes forests a helpful bulwark against climate change. But despite the best carbon-eating action of our flora, the planet is heating up. This raises the specter of a future in which, paradoxically, forests don’t reduce climate change but - as they are destroyed - make it worse.

We don’t know which way it will go, because we know so little about forests themselves. Scientists estimate that up to 50 percent of all species live in forest canopies - three-dimensional labyrinths largely invisible from the ground - but virtually no one can tell you what lives in any given cubic meter of canopy, at any height, anywhere in the world. We don’t even have names for the most common species of trees in the Amazon.

But scientists can readily foresee the way in which these carbon killers instead become dangerous carbon spewers. As the climate warms, many forests will become drier, putting the trees under stress. Typically, this sets the stage for huge outbreaks of insects, which can strip trees of their leaves, killing large numbers of them. Once dead, trees release their carbon into the air - already roughly 25 percent of the greenhouse gases pouring into the atmosphere come from forests that are burned or cut down. Further, if they no longer exist, forests can’t absorb CO2 anymore, and the bare ground that is exposed heats up faster - forests are like giant swamp coolers for the planet. Will this happen? Hard to say. If we don’t know which insects are eating the leaves now, we can’t gauge how global warming will affect them or how they in turn might affect forests. “You can’t possibly answer more general questions about forests until you at least know what lives there,” says Margaret Lowman, canopy scientist at New College of Florida. “It’s more than just giving names to things. We need to know what’s common and what’s rare, and what these species are doing, before we can go to the next level, which is to try to see the interaction between forests and Earth’s climate.”

Meg Lowman will be speaking on “It’s a Jungle Up There: More Tales From the Treetops” at Evening Tide Talks at The Florida Aquarium on Jan. 31, 2007.

Complimentary Reception 5:45 PM and Featured Presentation Begins 6:15 PM. Entry is through the Florida Aquarium’s Business entrance.

For more information and to R.S.V.P call: 813-273-4568

Click here to view printable flyer

Dr. Meg Lowman will speak at Venice High School on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007 at 7 PM. The talk is open to the public. $5 for adults and $2 for students. Proceeds will go to the Venice High School Zoology Club Conservation Project.

More Info

Article in Herald-Tribune