Science Pub

Description

On June 28^th, the Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council welcomes Amanda Stamper, Oregon Fire Management Officer with the Nature Conservancy, to Cottage Grove for our June 2016 Science Pub presentation. Her talk entitled Burning for Butterflies, Birds and Blooms: Prescribed Fire in the Willamette Valley will explain the role of fire in the Willamette Valley. She will dive into the history and foundation of fire’s role in the ecology of the Valley and then take you inside a controlled fire being used to restore and conserve native species and habitats.

For thousands of years, fires provided countless benefits to Oregon’s landscapes and peoples. Some of these fires were ignited by lightning, while others, particularly those in the Willamette Valley, were started by people. Many of the cultural plants relied upon by peoples from the Kalapuyan language family, who inhabited the valley prior to settlement, responded favorably to fire, as did many other plants and animals. With settlement and agricultural development came the demise of fire and the diverse species that depended upon it. Today, many of those species are listed as sensitive, endangered, or threatened.

Amanda started her career in fire management as a member of a 20-person handcrew in 1999. In 2001, after finishing her BA in Philosophy at the University of Oregon, she returned to fire management, working on hotshot crews, handcrews, and engines; as a fuels technician on the Deschutes National Forest; and assistant fire management officer in fuels management on the Ochoco National Forest and Crooked River National Grassland. She studied Natural Resources at Oregon State University and completed a Masters in Natural Resources, Fire Ecology, and Management at the University of Idaho in 2012. She has since worked for the Bureau of Land Management in Prineville as a natural resource specialist coordinating post-fire emergency stabilization and rehabilitation; as invasives program manager for the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests and Crooked River National Grassland; co-founder and chair of the Oregon Prescribed Fire Council; and fire management officer for The Nature Conservancy’s Oregon Chapter. Amanda is a fourth-generation Oregonian whose family settled in the Willamette Valley in the late 1800’s.

The Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council hosts a free monthly public meeting series called the Coast Fork Science Pub on the fourth Tuesday of each month from 5-7pm at the Axe & Fiddle, 657 E. Main Street in Cottage Grove. The event begins with informal socializing, trivia, prizes and updates about the watershed and watershed council during the first hour. Then our formal science pub presentation begins at 6pm. Participants are encouraged to support the Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council by ordering food & drinks from 5-7:30pm, as 10% of the sales from evening sales will benefit the Watershed Council. The event is free and the public of all ages are welcome.

“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community.”
-Aldo Leopold, a Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There