Ashland University Associate Professor of Biology and Director of the environmental science program, Dr. Patricia Saunders stopped by the WRDL Studios for the Center for the Arts (CAS) Spotlight on The Early Bird’s Word. Dr. Saunders previewed the Environmental Lecture series, which will focus on science projects that include work by trained volunteers throughout Ohio. Projects will focus in turn on bees, butterflies and dragonflies.

The first event of the series is “Engaging Ohio’s Citizens in Bee Conservation Research,” at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 25 in Ronk Lecture Hall of the Schar College of Education. All events in the series are free and open to the public.

The other two events are as scheduled:

Jan. 24 – Dr. Sarah Diamond, George B. Mayer Chair in Urban and Environmental Studies & Assistant Professor of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, speaking on the topic of “How humans redistribute butterflies in space and time: surprises and novel insights from long-term citizen science monitoring.”

March 21 – MaLisa Spring, state coordinator for the Ohio Dragonfly Survey, Ohio Biodiversity Conservation Partnership, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, speaking on the topic of “Ohio Citizens and Dragons: Documenting threatened species with iNaturalist.”