Popular Science Magazine is doing an article on the 10 coolest college classes in the country. One of their selections was Canopy Ecology with CanopyMeg. Canopy ecology has been taught at New College (FL) for 7 years, but will be taught at North Carolina State University (NC) in the next few years. So, hopefully canopy students can take flight to all different types of forests in USA.
Photos of our demonstration — with students — in Myakka River State Park, FL are below.

 

Students in pictures include: Christine McCormick, Taylor Jamrok, Meghan McAvoy, Sun, Ling

Danté Fenolio was part of the science team for the latest expedition to the canopy walkway in the Amazon with the New College students. He has two recent blog posts that contain some great images taken during the trip.  His blog posts are here:

• The ACTS Canopy Walkway
• More Bioluminescence

Below are links to news stories about the 5th International Canopy Conference 2009:

• Meet on forest canopy (Deccon Herald)
• ‘Rapid changes in ecology’ (Deccon Herald)
• Calling attention to canopies (Times of India)
• Himalayas are in danger (Bangalore Mirror)

Video provided by Dr. Phil Wittman of http://canopyquest.com:

How to Identify Invasive Reptiles in SW Florida Power Point slideshow compiled by Ecology students at New College of Florida.

Invasive reptiles covered in this guide:

• Black Spiny-Tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura similis)
• Brown Basilisk (Basiliscus vittatis)
• Burmese Python (Python molurus bivittatus)
• Nile Monitor (Varanus niloticus or Varanus niloticus ornatus)
• Savannah Monitor (Varanus exanthematicus)

Video segment from SNN about the problem with invasive reptiles locally, with footage from the recent Invasive Reptile Workshop organized by Dr. Lowman here in Sarasota.  TREE Foundation was a sponsor of the workshop and provided lunch for the scientists, educators, and students in attendance. Photos and videos of the workshop can be found here.

In 2007, Dr. Lowman was featured on the May 31st episode of A Gulf Coast Journal on PBS.  Here is that segment:

You can watch the full episode online here.  From Google Video:

Treetop Traveler: Most of her career has been up in the air–and with good reason. Meg Lowman—a.k.a. Canopy Meg—is a pioneer tree canopy scientist. For 20 years, Meg has traveled the world climbing trees to study the health of our environment from above. Meet this amazing author, educator, adventurer and single mom who helped design Myakka River State Park’s scenic canopy walkway so others can see nature from her point of view.

ABC 7 News did a segment about Ricardo’s visit to Sarasota and the Earth Day festival in April 2008.  (Read more)

Photos from the Amazon Rainforest Workshop led by Meg Lowman on June 24 - July 2, 2008 are available here.

New College research interns for TREE Foundation studying herbivory and Ethnobotany in the canopies of the Peruvian Amazon. The Wings World Quest exploration society bestowed an expedition flag upon the team of students, to be hung at 125 feet in the canopy of this emergent tree, Cedralinga sp. (Fabaceae).

“CanopyMeg” Lowman has climbed thousands of trees over her thirty-year career as an arbornaut and canopy biologist. Meg’s undergraduate students at New College edited some of her numerous videos from television and educational programming, to create a synopsis of “best climbs”. Enjoy!