Upcoming Events

The population of Seoul, Korea has reached 10 million. The city’s economic growth has led to increased car ownership. Result: serious traffic congestion, more traffic accidents, widespread air pollution. Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) built additional roads to accommodate cars, but that didn’t improve the situation. So SMG has changed direction, away from cars and toward public transit and pedestrians. Join us as Shinhae Lee, an IURD Visiting Scholar from Seoul, discusses her work as a project manager for the development of Seoul’s Pedestrian Master Plan.

Of the hundreds of species world-wide, only one species of Lithocarpus grows in North America. Tanoak, Lithocarpus densiflorus, is restricted to California and the southwestern corner of Oregon. By focusing on this singular hardwood tree, we will explore American history as it relates to changing attitudes and land use practices affecting forests. This workshop will focus particularly on the environmental history of the Mendocino and Humboldt Coast. We will discuss indigenous use of this evergreen tree and explore the rise and fall of the California tanning industry, which depended on tanoak bark. We will read and discuss excerpts of Willis Linn Jepson's monograph on tanoak written in 1911, which advocated strongly for reform of the tanning industry due to its wasteful bark harvesting practices. Through other primary source materials, we will explore the impacts on tanoak of the early pork industry, the softwood industry, and the nursery trade of garden plants. The latter introduced an exotic pathogen in 1995, sudden oak death, which poses a significant threat to tanoaks even in our national and state parks. An essay on tanoak environmental history from 1850 to 1950 will be distributed prior to the workshop. If linking botany, American history, and political economics sounds fun, this is the workshop for you.

Insects are one of the dominant macroscopic branches of the Tree of Life, with over one million described species present in all terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems worldwide. The first part of this workshop will offer an overview of recent advances and controversies in the systematics of insects and their close relatives, as well as an introduction to the major groups of insects. The second part of this workshop will address one important cause of the staggering diversity of insects and many other organisms, namely codiversification between insects and other branches of the Tree of Life. Phylogenetic perspectives are vital to understanding coevolution and codiversification, and in this workshop we will examine and discuss recent phylogenetic studies of codiversification and coevolution involving insects and other organisms, such as fig trees and their pollinating and non-pollinating fig wasps, seed plants and beetles, lycaenid butterfly caterpillars and their symbiotic ants, and birds and their parasitic lice. We will critically examine what phylogenetics can and cannot tell us about the processes of codiversification and coevolution which are responsible for much of the earth’s biological diversity. Middle and high school teachers are especially encouraged to attend.

Scientists have studied changes in climate and environmental patterns for decades. More recently, the issue has been elevated to a higher public profile. Multiple research projects are tracing patterns of environmental change to climate change and using predictive models to give a glimpse of future rates of change and resultant effects on the vegetation and animals. Yosemite National Park is an area of interest, having elevations of over 9,000 feet, and is also extensively studied with historical records. Within the park, biologists have completed a detailed update of vegetation maps and have recently finished a 100-year resurvey of vertebrates, mapping both the historical and current ranges. When these maps are compared to maps of climate change, it suggests that ranges and climate changes may be linked. In these complex systems, there are several factors affecting distribution and changes in both flora and fauna but climate change is one factor that can be extensively measured. Join our team of high Sierra experts as we explore how the patterns of environmental and biotic changes may be tied to a changing climate and understand how their research affects management decisions. We will examine the Tuolumne Meadows, Tioga Crest, and the Sierra’s eastern slopes to better understand the detected changes. Lectures, examination of regional photo retakes, and field site visits will illustrate how scientists are documenting the role of climate in this environment. Course fee includes accommodations, meals, park fees, and transportation for the duration of the workshop. Camping will be on private property with running water and flush toilets.

The 7th Annual UC/CSU/CCC Sustainability Conference is at Cal Poly this year, from July 31st to August 3rd. This conference is a great opportunity to see what other campuses throughout California are doing to be more sustainable, network with sustainability leaders -- faculty, staff, and students - across the state, attend informational sessions, hear keynote speakers, and have fun. Registration is now open - click on this link to do so. Students: you can get an early-bird discount if you register by May 30th, and you can also apply for a scholarship. UC Berkeley's Building Sustainability @ Cal won Best Student-Led Sustainability Program Award, which will be presented to Lisa Bauer, Laura Moreno and Desirae Early at the conference. This is the third year in a row that UC Berkeley has received this award!

Free Public Program. Learn the fundamentals of permaculture design - a system of assembling the essential components of the human habitat in an integral organic pattern that benefits humans, animals, and plants in a particular region. Please call (510) 642-4111 and refer to EDP 014159 to reserve a space. E-mail landarch@unex.berkeley.edu for more information.

The Rush Family, Juncaceae, is a world-wide group with remarkable diversity in California. This workshop will focus on our California representatives of Juncus and Luzula, including more than a dozen endemics and an undescribed species. With ample fresh material we will learn how to recognize the parts of a rush, distinguish them from similar grass-like plants, and use new identification keys to the California species, prepared for the second edition of The Jepson Manual. A number of species not listed in the Flora of North America North of Mexico will be covered, including some exotics that masquerade as natives and are unintentionally used in "native" wetland restoration. Bring your boots and hand lens; study will include visits to soggy field sites in the Sierra, working with wet and wild populations. Course fee includes lodging, meals, and transportation for the duration of the workshop. Lodging includes dormitory-style twin beds in shared cabins.

Join Horticulturalist Nathan Smith as he shares his experience working around the Garden's numerous mature specimen trees, including detailed discussions of best cultural practices and suitable plants. A lecture wil be followed by a tour of the Garden's oaks and associated plantings.

Significant research interest in the biological sciences is focused on establishing genealogical relationships among the early lineages and "deep nodes" in the green Tree of Life. However, a striking amount of the diversity in the "Tree" is represented by extinct lineages that are unfamiliar to many botanists, especially because most genetic studies, by necessity, work primarily with taxa of modern crown groups. To have a comprehensive understanding of the relationships among the major lineages of extant plants, it is necessary to be familiar with the extinct ancestors that gave rise to this diversity. This lecture/laboratory workshop will make use of the UCB Museum of Paleontology's extensive fossil plant collections to provide an introduction to key major lineages of plants known only from the fossil record. Participants will see first-hand the evidence for these extinct groups that include the first tracheophytes, progymnosperms (seed plant ancestors), pteridosperms (the earliest seed plants), cordaites (earliest conifer-like plants), and the enigmatic cycad/flowering plant-like bennettitaleans (cycadeoids). Participants will also be introduced to extinct members of extant plant lineages that have survived hundreds of millions of years, such as the lycophytes, horsetails, ferns, gnetophytes, and angiosperms, groups whose extant members in many cases represent only a small portion of the overall diversity, but whose extinct members are key to understanding the evolutionary history of the groups.

Dear BEAN Members and Friends - You are invited to our Summer Networking Event at the Alumni House on Wednesday evening , June 11 from 6:30 to 9:00 PM. This is a great opportunity to catch up with fellow alumni including recent grads, and environmental leaders on campus and the greater UC Community. We have a lot to share with each other -- ranging from career opportunities, to the latest news on green initiatives on campus. Do you plan to attend? If so, please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=LfIYao09nxBypGbRNhHVkA_3d_3d to RSVP. We look forward to seeing you there. Jim Perich-Anderson, President BEAN (510)406-8105

5:30pm: Walk and display viewing 6:30pm - 8pm: Film Screening Come to the film screening of 'In the Company of Wild Butterflies'. See live butterfly specimens and walk through the California Area with caterpillar lady and Garden docent Sally Levinson. We'll begin the screening with a 15 minute film on the life-cycle of butterflies.

Meet College of Engineering Dean S. Shankar Sastry, hear a faculty lecture by Jasmina L. Vujic, Department Chair, Nuclear Engineering and network with fellow Berkeley Engineering alumni on Monday, June 9 in Los Angeles. Jasmina Vujic (right) is leading efforts to improve the safety and waste storage of nuclear reactors, a source of carbon-free energy that can satisfy large-scale demand. Her research interests include numerical methods in reactor design and analysis, radiation shielding, and medical applications of radiation. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1989 and joined the Berkeley faculty in 1992. Professor Vujic’s talk will assess nuclear power as a key component in the global campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She will discuss one promising option in particular: producing hydrogen using nuclear energy, to substitute for natural gas and oil in industrial and transportation applications. 5:15 - 6:00 p.m. = Refreshments and check-in 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. = Dean's welcome and faculty lecture 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. = Light hors d'oeuvres, wine and networking Sponsored by UC Berkeley, College of Engineering, College Relations and UC Berkeley Engineering Alumni (SoCal).

Join Mills College Professor of Biology and Conservationist Bruce Pavlik, as he speaks to current issues of desert conservation.

Discover how a tree is different from other plants, how they adapt to their environments, make food from sunlight, grow and reproduce.

After completion of this free public course, students will be able to intelligently discuss the various influences and stages of the Organic School, and critically analyze the various patterns, geometries, and motifs taken from nature. Please call (510) 642-4111 and refer to EDP 014423 to reserve a space. E-mail landarch@unex.berkeley.edu for more information.

Hastings Reserve, in the upper Carmel Valley, has been the site of numerous scientific field studies during the past 60 years. As a consequence, a great deal is known about the flora and fauna of this site. We will take advantage of this knowledge as we examine selected aspects of the pollination ecology of the Reserve's spring wildflowers. Several field exercises are planned to demonstrate how and when flowers make their pollen and nectar rewards available to pollinators and how pollinators use their behavioral, morphological, and physiological adaptations to extract floral resources. Much of our attention will be focused on the rich variety of solitary bee species (200-250 species) and the flowers they visit at Hastings. Various bee groups will be examined under magnification to observe relevant morphological adaptations. Participants will be instructed on the wide variety of methods that are used to study pollination relationships. During the evenings, talks will be presented on the topics of pollination syndromes in plants, bee diversity, global pollinator decline, and encouraging pollinators in your backyard environment. Course fee includes lodging, meals, and transportation for the duration of the workshop. Most participants will be accommodated in twin or bunk-style beds. Space outside the bunkhouse is also available for camping.

The Sierra Valley, encompassing over 200 square miles on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada, is the largest alpine valley in North America. The valley is an ancient lake bed with a flora shaped by temperature and water availability. The valley has areas of rocky high desert, conifer forests, vernal pools, and marshlands and receives spring moisture from snow melt falling from the Sierran peaks above. The harsh environmental conditions combined with a diversity of habitats and the merging of floristic provinces, have led to a great botanical diversity of over 1,000 species on the valley floor and surrounding mountain slopes. During this workshop, we will focus on the identification of both common and rare species. Although most of Sierra Valley is private land, we will access a number of sites that highlight the habitat diversity in order to visit botanical treasures like Ivesia aperta var. aperta. Course fee includes camping fees, meals, and transportation for the duration of the workshop. Camping fees include the use of double occupancy tents with platform twin beds and mattresses and bathrooms with running water and flush toilets. Participants may choose to bring their own tents.

Will Climate Change Land Use? What does climate change mean for where and how we live in the Bay Area? Where will the sea level rise to? Will food be grown in cities? How do we respond in a socially equitable manner? What are some smart, financially feasible development solutions? Please join us the morning of May 28th for a stimulating dialog on how climate change will impact how we plan and develop our communities. You will also learn about current policies and programs which are addressing these issues head-on, and ways to get involved. Panelists: * Climate Change and Land Use Connections * Autumn Bernstein, Climate Plan * Making Climate Friendly Development a Financial Reality * Jim Heid, President, UrbanGreen * Urban Agriculture * Sibella Kraus, President, SAGE * Socially Equitable Land Use * Adapting to Rising Sea Levels and Scurrying Animals * Bay Conservation and Development Commission or Association of Bay Area Governments (tbd)

California is a treasure-trove of medicinal plant species. Many famous medicinal species from cultures around the world grow wild in California, and others are commonly cultivated as ornamentals. Many species of European herbs such as Arnica, valerian, Angelica, and gentian are common and native to the Sierra Nevada. The herbs Grindelia (gum plant), yerba santa, and coffeeberry were official drugs in the U.S. Pharmacopeia in the early 20th century. About 60% of the major herbs in the Chinese materia medica are available in nurseries and are commonly grown as garden plants and street trees, such as privet, jujube, star jasmine, and honeysuckle. This experiential class will provide an introduction to the biology, chemistry, and conservation of some important medicinal species found in Northern California. Historical and modern clinical uses of many locally available species will be emphasized. There will be demonstrations of traditional methods of herb harvest, drying, processing, and extraction. Commercial tinctures and extracts, as well as homemade products, will be available to sample. A highlight of the class will be a half-day plant walk at the UC Botanical Garden on Sunday to meet many medicinal species in person. Course fee includes garden entrance fee.