Professor of Environmental Science and Resource Management (ESRM) Dr.
Emily Fairfax will visit the Ojai Library at 1pm on Saturday, October 12, 2019, to
deliver a presentation titled “Smokey the Beaver: Can Beavers Prevent
Wildfires?” Dr. Fairfax comes to us from CSU Channel Islands (CI) as part of this
season’s CI Library Lecture Series.
Beavers are native to California—from the high Sierras all the way down to the
coast. Beaver dams also play a key role in protecting ecosystems during drought
and in regulating the spread of wildfire. Unfortunately, the European fur trade
decimated their population and by the early 1900s very few beavers remained in
California.
Today, beaver populations are on the rebound—just in time to help us deal with
increasingly intense wildfire seasons. And thanks to recent conservation initiatives,
we may start seeing a lot more beaver dams in our local watersheds. So what
exactly do beavers do, how do they protect us from wildfire, and what is the
current state of beaver policy in California? Come to this talk and find out—it'll be a
dam good time!
CSU Channel Islands hosts dozens of free public lectures at libraries throughout
Ventura County as part of this program. The lecturers are experts from numerous
departments at CI, including Biology, History, English, Computer Science, Political
Science, Performing Arts, and Sociology to name a few.
This event is free and open to the public. For additional information, contact Ron
Solórzano, Regional Librarian, at (805) 218-9146.
