12th Annual Dr. Mary Bowerman Science & Research Colloquium

Please join us for the 12th Annual Dr. Mary Bowerman Science and Research Colloquium!

Dr. Mary Leolin Bowerman co-founded Save Mount Diablo in 1971. Mary was a botanist and a student of the flora of Mount Diablo for over 70 years. In her honor, Save Mount Diablo established the Mary Bowerman Science and Research Program in 2013.

In addition to facilitating research on and around the mountain by offering micro-grant awards, one of the goals of the program is to share valuable findings and management implications for Mount Diablo’s natural resources with the public.

Save Mount Diablo will be hosting the 12th annual Dr. Mary Bowerman Science and Research Colloquium on Friday, December 5th, 2025 at the in downtown Berkeley. The Colloquium will inform other scientists, researchers, and the general public about ongoing projects and discoveries in the Diablo Range.

The colloquium will be held in the Tamalpais Room at the David Brower Center.

The David Brower Center is one block away from the Downtown Berkeley BART Station.

There is also a parking garage on the same block (the Oxford Garage) for $2/hr and metered street parking available.

Join us for light refreshments before the presentations and lunch afterwards.

Doors Open & Light Refreshments: 8:30 AM - 9:00 AM

Presentations: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Reception: 12:00 – 12:30 PM

Welcome

• Sean Burke (Land Programs Director, Save Mount Diablo)

Introduction

• Seth Adams (Land Conservation Director, Save Mount Diablo)

Fifteen Years of Northwestern Pond Turtle Mark-Recapture Study in a Livestock Pond Subject to Drought in Central California

• David "Doc Quack" Riensche (Wildlife Biologist & Senior Ecologist)

Preparing a Flora of the East Bay, California

• Barbara Leitner (Co-President, California Native Plant Society, East Bay Chapter )

Ecological Ripple Effects: Squirrel Survival and Behavior Following a Vole Population Boom

• Dr Sonja Wild (Postdoctoral Researcher affiliated with University of California, Davis)

Saving the "Valley Dragons": Fresno Chaffee Zoo's Blunt-nosed Leopard Lizard Recovery Program in the Diablo Range

• Rory Telemeco (PhD, Research Director at Fresno Chaffee Zoo)

BREAK

The Ecology of Scorpions of the Diablo Range With a Focus on Paruroctonus variabilis

• Prakrit Jain (Student Researcher at University of California, Berkeley)

Disease Dynamics in the Northern Population of the Western Spadefoot

• Jakob Woodall (M.S. Student, Vredenburg Lab)

Nest Site Selection in a Population of Northwestern Pond Turtles on a Managaed Livestock Rangeland

• Madie Stein (Sonoma State University Masters Student)

Boxed In: Tule Elk in the Diablo Range

• Rick Lanman (President of the Institute for Historical Ecology)

Closing Remarks

• Malcolm Sproul (Science and Research Committee Chair, Save Mount Diablo)