Environmental lecture series begins March 5

"2020 Vision for the Catskills," a series of three environmentally-themed lectures, begins Thursday, Mar. 5 at SUNY Oneonta with a talk on the invasive northern snakehead fish discovered last year in the lower Hudson Valley.

The talk, by Michael Flaherty, regional fisheries manager for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Region 3, begins at 4:30 p.m. at 116 Science I on the SUNY Oneonta campus. The public is welcome.

Coordinated by the Catskill Institute for the Environment (CIE), the series is a continuation of a dialog on environmental issues and human interactions confronting the Catskills in the coming decade. The lectures continue the discussion on issues presented in the fall of 2008 when DEC and CIE hosted the first "Catskills Environment and Economy Day" at Belleayre Mountain.

The upcoming lectures present local examples affecting the Catskill region: invasive species management, climate change, and technological information and research tools. The lectures will be presented to students and interested members of the public at local colleges, and, if circumstances permit, teleconferenced to other remote locations.

The other two lectures in the series will be held Tuesday, Mar. 31 at SUNY Sullivan, Loch Sheldrake when Susan Hoskins, Institute for Resource Information Services at Cornell University, speaks on "Geospatial Tools- A New View of New York (and your own backyard)"; and Thursday, Apr. 16 at SUNY Ulster, Stone Ridge, where Benjamin I. Cook, a NOAA Postdoctoral Scholar at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory addresses the topic "Climate Change at Mohonk Lake."

All talks start at 4:30 p.m. and are free.

The CIE, established in 1998, is a consortium of representatives of colleges, institutions and individuals that encourages, through symposia and research, environmental awareness, education and cooperation in the Catskill region. For more information, contact Dr. Morton (Sam) Adams, chairman, madams@mail.nysed.gov.