Gila River, Mogollon view. (Photo courtesy of Mary Harner)On Friday, April 21, 2023, at 7:00 pm, the Gila Native Plant Society will sponsor an online presentation entitled “Tales of Three Rivers” by Mary Harner of the University of Nebraska at Kearney. As always, the public is welcome. Anyone interested in attending the Zoom presentation may request a link from gilanative@gmail.com.
Mary explains: “As interconnected systems, rivers reflect landscape modifications and are influenced profoundly by human activities and ecological change. This presentation describes different approaches, such as use of time-lapse photography, repeat photography, and soundscape recordings, to document and convey riverine landscape change and biodiversity."
Rio Grande, Sandia view (Photo by Mary Harner)"The talk features multi-media content with examples from the Platte River in Nebraska and Middle Rio Grande and Gila River in New Mexico. Collectively this presentation seeks to share science and stories about rivers that connect us, as well as to encourage conversations about human relationships to rivers and visions for future conditions.”
Mary Harner has spent a lifetime living along, exploring, and studying rivers and floodplains. She is an ecosystem ecologist at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She earned a doctorate in Biology from the University of New Mexico where she studied the Middle Rio Grande bosque. She is fond of cottonwood trees and often seeks connections to ecological systems and human communities that thrive alongside these trees. To see examples of projects, please visit: WitnessingWatersheds.com.
Platte River from the Crane Trust (Photo courtesy of Mary Harner)The Gila Native Plant Society is committed to promoting education, research and appreciation of the native flora of the Southwest; encouraging the preservation of rare and endangered plant species; and supporting the use of suitable native plants in landscaping. For information on programs, publications and membership, please visit www.gilanps.org.