Join the INPS Southern Chapter for an evening of science, socializing, and sips of local brews! 2 presentations by local experts will be provided!
Debbie Newman
Title: SW IL Old-growth Treasures: Our Strategies and Opportunities to save 8000-Year-Old Hill Prairies and their rare plants
Bio: Debbie Scott Newman has worked 29 years as a Natural Areas Preservation Specialist with the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission in SW IL. She is also the primary author of Creating Habitats and Homes for Illinois Wildlife. She loves working to protect and steward all the rare natural communities in our region but has a special passion for the hill prairies that dot the bluffs landscapes.
Cullen Makenzie
Title: Not Your Dad’s Lawn Grass! Research and Conservation focused on Southern Illinois’s Imperiled Tall Grass Prairie Communities
Bio: Hello! My name is Cullen Mackenzie, a PhD student in the Zoology department at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Native plants have always been very dear to my heart as both a hobbyist and researcher. Growing up in Seattle Washington, I loved hiking in the temperate rainforests, admiring the trees, mosses and ferns that reside in them. As I grew up, I realized my interest and passion in plants and animals could be the focus of my career, getting my BS in
ecology at Western Washington University and MSc in Conservation Biology at Antioch University New England. I have had the pleasure to work in various plant communities including deserts in Southeastern Oregon, neo-tropical rainforests in Paraguay, wetlands in New Hampshire, kelp estuaries in Massachusetts and now tall grass prairie communities in Southern Illinois. My current research project is focused on investigating prescribed burn management on tall grass prairie communities, including plant diversity, arthropods, birds, mammals and snakes.
My home and hobbies are not exempt from my research interests, where I have many planted terrariums housing a variety of poison dart frogs, fish, shrimp and a snake. As a part of my free time, I love to hike in the Shawnee National Forest, lap swim at the SIU rec center, ride my bike, go out dancing and play strategy board games with friends. I am very excited to be talking about tall grass prairie ecosystems at the Science on Tap community with the Southern Illinois
community!
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