Glenn Harris will present “Climate and Vegetation” on Friday, March 28, at
6:30 PM.
Climate change seems to be a hot topic recently. With projections ranging from a crispy
burned-up earth to an impending ice age. The earth has gone through several climate
swings in the past and from these we can learn how plants have responded. The
presentation will include a quick tutorial on the glacial periods, theories as to their
cause, the climate of the current Holocene epoch, and how civilizations have reacted to
temperature changes of the epoch. The discussion will include information on
vegetation at the end of the last major glaciation. This will be compared to current
vegetation. The author will discuss what we have learned and how we can project
future trends. The author has spent most of his life observing natural ecosystems. For
the last nearly 50 years he has been working in the region. His illustrated talk will
include tables, maps, illustrations, and photographs of many plants and landscapes.
Glenn is familiar with the desert area having worked in the region for over 45 years, 39
of them for BLM. He is currently chairman of the Kern County Weed Management Area
group. He also serves as a volunteer with the BLM and a docent with the Maturango
Museum. With the museum, he takes environmental education into the classroom and
public groups giving talks on Geology, earthquakes, volcanoes, and insects. He has
worked with the Annual Wildflower Show as both a collector and Taxonomist identifying
collected specimens for many years. He has been a volunteer for the Sand Canyon
Environmental Education Program (SEEP) since its beginning working both the plant
and aquatics stations.
