Keynote Speaker and Welcome Speaker for 2013

Tickets for speaking events below can be purchased without the online registration fee.
Dinner Tickets may be purchased in advance in Sierra Vista at We Frame It on Fry Boulevard.
Keynote $35.00
Welcome Address Dinner 25.00

Keynote Address Dinner with Scott Weidensaul

Saturday, August 3rd at 6:30 pm On Saturday night our Keynote Address Dinner will feature Scott Weidensaul.

Of a Feather: A (Brief) History of American Birding
From the moment Europeans arrived in North America, they were awestruck by a continent awash with birds – great flocks of wild pigeons, woodlands alive with brilliantly colored songbirds. Join naturalist and author Scott Weidensaul as he traces the unpredictable history of bird study in America, from frontier ornithologists (one of whom barely escaped pursuing Apaches with a precious hawk egg hidden in his mouth) to society matrons who organized the first effective conservation movement; from luminaries like Alexander Wilson (a convicted blackmailer) and Audubon (an accomplished liar) to modern geniuses like Roger Tory Peterson. Based on his new book Of a Feather, this whirlwind history shows how ornithology and birding grew from eccentric hobbies into something so completely mainstream they're now (almost) cool.

Weidensaul has written more than two dozen books, including his widely acclaimed Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds (North Point 1999), which was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize.

His newest book, The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery and Endurance in Early America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2012) tells the ambitious story of the earliest contacts between Natives and Europeans along the Eastern seaboard - two and half centuries of conflict and coexistence that forever shaped what would become America.

Weidensaul's writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including Audubon (for which he is a contributing editor), Nature Conservancy and National Wildlife, among many others. He lectures widely on conservation and nature, and directs the ornithological programs for National Audubon's famed Hog Island Center on the coast of Maine.

In addition to writing about wildlife, Weidensaul is an active field researcher whose work focuses on bird migration. Besides banding hawks each fall (something he's done for nearly 25 years), he directs a major effort to study the movements of northern saw-whet owls, one of the smallest and least-understood raptors in North America. He is also part of a continental effort to understand the rapid evolution, by several species of western hummingbirds, of a new migratory route and wintering range in the East.

Learn more about Scott at his website.

Welcome Address Dinner will feature Jessica Lamberton-Moreno - Wildlife Linkages Program Coordinator for the Sky Island Alliance.

Thursday, August 1st at 6:00 pm $25 - On Thursday night Our Welcome Address Dinner will feature Jessica Lamberton-Moreno, Jessica will speak on Where Black Bears and Jaguars Meet: Sky Island Carnivores

Southwest Arizona makes up nearly half of a world renown biological hotspot called the Sky Islands – home to carnivores such as black bears, bobcats, jaguars, mountain lions, ocelots, coyotes, and wolves. Complemented with beautiful photos and videos from the region, this presentation will take a look at the natural history and behavior of these animals, how they interact together and with their environment, and some of the myths and fears surrounding them.

Wildlife biologist Jessica Moreno attended The University of Arizona in Natural Resources, receiving a Bachelors degree in Wildlife, Watershed and Rangeland Management. Since them Jessica has attained training and experience in wildlife research, with emphasis in non-invasive remote camera monitoring and wildlife tracking techniques. Jessica spent four years as the Field Biologist and Volunteer Coordinator for The University of Arizona Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center, combining citizen science and community outreach with local mountain lion and urban bobcat monitoring projects. With Sky Island Alliance, Jessica has served as a volunteer for ocelot and jaguar monitoring and tracking instruction since 2004, and with grassroots organizing and outreach as the Conservation Associate for Protected Lands. She became Sky Island Alliance's Wildlife Linkages Program Coordinator in 2010, where she trains and engages volunteer naturalists in wildlife monitoring research, informs public policy, and advocates to protect, connect and restore wildlife movement corridors in the Sky Island region. Jessica is Track & Sign II certified through CyberTracker Conservation International.