The Tree Foundation is fortunate enough to have four fabulous summer interns working diligently — and virtually — on researching and creating shareable resources to help us all become activists for forest conservation and environmental justice. Please join us Wednesday July 29 — 5:30-6;30 PM EST — when TREE Executive Director and abornaut Dr. Margaret Lowman, aka “Canopy Meg,” will be joined by our interns who will present their amazing in-depth findings from a summer of virtual research. This webinar is provided thanks to the generous support of Williams College. (Ready to register? Click here!)
“Our four college interns have worked tirelessly on diverse projects which contribute to local and global forest conservation and environmental justice,” Dr. Lowman says. “Their talents collectively helped to ramp up our new initiative, Mission Green, which is focused on sponsoring ten canopy walkways in the highest biodiversity forests of the world, providing stewardship from a unique combination of education, economy and ecology.” Mission Green not only creates education and research sites for future students, but will provide employment to indigenous people from ecotourism instead of logging.
The Mission Green program had its genesis with the construction of the Williams College canopy walkway in 1991 (the first one in North America), and was followed up in 1999 by the first public canopy walkway in Myakka River State Park outside Sarasota, Florida. These two models are now deployed around the world for application to conservation and environmental justice.
The interns presenting on July 29 are:
EVA CASTAGNA ’22 (Williams College) has been using her time to create an interactive map of the canopy walkways of the world. She’ll discuss her research and the resources she has created will ultimately be distributed to conservation and ecotourism organizations globally.
LILIA ROBINOWITZ ’22 (Williams College) has focused her summer research on sloths — an engaging occupant of the Amazon canopy. Lilia will shared what she’s learned and present an educational brochure that will help visitors and potential visitors worldwide gain an understanding of the extraordinary importance of the Amazon canopy walkway.
EVAN WRIGHT ’21 (Williams College) has been surveying NGOs in-depth to compile a list of the 10 most important actions we all must take now(!) for forest conservation and to save rainforest canopies. He will talk with us about the “top 10” list and help us understand what we can do today to make tomorrow better for our planet.
MERRY MOORE (University of Southern California has been busy conducting a review compilation of all the citizen science data amassed at the Amazon canopy walkway during Dr. Lowman’s 25 years of leading trips to that forest canopy. She will share intriguing takeaways from this quarter-century of observation.
To attend, you must register by clicking this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SEdQe1ZTSUOAa2jGAOSrew
You’ll receive an email from Williams College with all the details you’ll need on how to connect and attend this webinar on July 29. Join us for an amazing hour of learning and sharing!