Program Title: Life on the Edge: The Benefits Provided by an Ecological Buffer

Type: Interpreter

Length: Approximately 1 Hour

Presenter: Care Butler*

Venue: Heron Rookery in Bella Vista at Berksdale/ Little Sugar Creek area.

Description: This program provides an opportunity for the participants to view and experience the value of ecological barriers which enable both human, flora and fauna to exist in a mutually beneficial way.

Audience: All ages

Program Title: “Leave No Trace” in an Outdoor Space

Type: Interpreter

Length: Approximately 1 Hour

Presenter: Willie Dodd*

Venue: Accessible Outdoor Setting

Description: Participants learn first-hand best practices to “Leave No Trace” when out in nature.

Audience: All ages

Program Title: Interpreting Local Land Use in Transition

Type: Trail Guide

Venue: Berksdale Golf Course Bella Vista

Length: Approximately 1 Hour

Presenter: Barb Wenger* 

Description: This guided tour incorporates local history into the story of the process of guiding a 40 acre out-of-play golf course into a naturalized area that supports local wildlife. The tour clarifies the maintenance needs of native habitats and the activities of nocturnal and diurnal wildlife.

Audience: All ages

Program Title: The Squirrely Thing About Habitat Fragmentation

Type: Interpreter

Venue: Adaptable for natural/ wooded areas

Length: Approximately 1 Hour

Presenter: Trish Redus*

Description: The presentation demonstrates how important squirrels are to the

forest habitat and the ecological impact of habitat fragmentation in rural and urban areas. The participants will see squirrels as “unsung heroes”.

Audience: All ages

Program Title: Social Impact of Plant Diseases

Type: Speaker

Venue: Lecture/PowerPoint

Length: Approximately 1 Hour

Presenter: Rose Gergerich

Description: Plant diseases have caused devastating epidemics throughout the course of human history. This presentation describes the damaging effects of several plant diseases that greatly impacted human health, food production, and our forest environments.

Audience: Adults

Program Title: Collection and Treatment of Seeds for Growing Native Plants

Type: Speaker

Venue: Lecture/ PowerPoint Presentation

Length: Approximately 1 Hour (or this could be two 45-minute presentations)

Presenter: Rose Gergerich

Description: Training Arkansas Master Naturalists to produce native plants with the eventual goal of disseminating them into the environments of Northwest Arkansas. Topics covered will include collection and storage of seed, seed treatments, seedling transplanting, types of soil mixes, and efforts to use recycled materials in the plant production process.

Audience: Adults

Program Title: Three Easy Projects That Will Bring Native Plants to Life In Your Garden

Type: Speaker

Venue: Northwest Arkansas

Length: Approximately 1 Hour

Presenter: Mariellen Griffith*

Description: This program will present ideas and/or projects for adding native plants to home landscape gardens.

Audience: Adults

Program Title: Restoring Our Glades to Preserve Diversity

Type: Interpreter

Venue: Eureka Springs Parks: Lake Leatherwood

Length: Approximately 1 Hour

Presenter: Scott Miskiel*

Description: Invasive cedars have negatively impacted our regional glades. This program educates and demonstrates the effectiveness and value in restore and preserving the diversity of species in a city part and how restoration of glades is beneficial on private land.

Audience: All ages

Program Title: NWA has Clues that Tell of An Ancient Ocean:

Use Them to Find Out How?

Type: Interpreter/Speaker

Venue: Classroom

Length: 1- 2 Hours

Presenter: Lynne Hehr*

Description: This program engages participants in the science and mystery of finding fossils in NWA and provides fossil clues to create evidence of the ocean that once covered this area. Participants will discover that the present is a key to a mysterious past.

Audience: All ages

Program Title: Meet Migrating Monarchs in Your Yard

Type: Interpreter

Venue: Monarch Waystation

Length: 1 Hour

Presenter: Laura Stilwell*

Description: This is a comprehensive presentation of the life of the butterfly from egg to adult with a bird’s eye view of the egg, caterpillar, and adult at a Monarch Waystation. Participants will also learn about the fall migration of the Monarch and its wintering territories in Mexico.

Audience: All ages

Program Title: Monarch – The Basics

Type: Speaker

Venue: Classroom with audio/visual equipment

Length: Approximately 1 Hour

Presenter: Kitty Sanders

Description: After review of basic monarch biology and conservation concerns, participants will learn how to participate in some citizen science projects designed to help scientists monitor monarch behavior and health.

Audience: Youth and Adults

Program Title: Plants for Monarchs and Other Pollinators

Type: Interpreter

Venue: Classroom or native garden

Length: Approximately 1 – 1.5 hours

Presenter: Kitty Sanders

Description: The information provided will suggest native plantings that are beneficial to monarchs and a discussion of other pollinators who may visit.  In appropriate seasons, this can be held in a native garden. 

Audience: Youth and Adults

Program Title: Paleoclimatology (the study of Earth's climate throughout time)

Type: Speaker

Length: 1-3 Hours

Presenter: John Hehr

Venue: Indoor or online

Description:  Paleoclimatology is the study of Earth's climate during the entire history of the Earth. Paleoclimate research uses geologic and biologic evidence preserved in sediments, rocks, tree rings, corals, and ice sheets to reconstruct past climate in terrestrial and aquatic environments around the world. Paleoclimate reconstructions provide evidence for the baseline level of climate and environmental variability.

Audience: Adults