Fred Elser First Sunday Science: Natural History of Stone Walls
Sunday, July 7, 2024, 2–3:00 PM
Rounded stones, eroded from mountains of the north, were carried to Connecticut by ice sheets flowing south during the last ice age. The ice melted, leaving the stones behind, and soil gradually cover them. Much later, the stones were an annoyance to farmers, who piled them up at the edges of their fields. The farmers are largely gone, but the stone fences remain. This is their story.
This program is free of charge. No beach pass is required if you are attending the Fred Elser First Sunday Science. Please let them know at the gate you are attending the Bruce museum seaside center lecture. First Sunday Science programs take place at the Floren Family Environmental Center at Innis Arden Cottage, Greenwich Point Park, Old Greenwich, CT.
Biographical info for Mitch Wagener
Dr. Mitch Wagener has been teaching ecology and climate change courses, and related courses at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury since 1996. In 2019, he received the Aquarion Environmental Champion Award, Individual Communication category. That same year Dr. Wagener received an official citation from the Connecticut General Assembly for his efforts in climate change education and community service. His research interests include the impact of historical events—such as the Industrial Revolution—on the environment.
Mitch began life in the Ozarks and attending high school in Branson, Missouri. After spending a year as an exchange student in Chiang Mai, Thailand, he attended the University of Missouri, where he completed an undergrad degree in Fisheries and Wildlife. After college he moved to Fairbanks, Alaska to attend graduate school. Mitch received a masters degree in Stream Ecology and a doctorate in Soil Ecology during his 13 years in Alaska. There too, he met the lovely Rita Kabali, a native of Uganda, East Africa, to whom he has now been married 40 years. They have two lively daughters, Rohanna (a history teacher in New Haven) and Danika (a operate theater nurse in Boston). They also have a grandson, Leon, who is six years old, and Soraya, a granddaughter five months old.
Mitch enjoys—among other things—watching his grandkids grow up and explaining climate change to the public.
Ph.D. Soil Ecology. August 1995. University of Alaska Fairbanks.
M.S. Stream Ecology. December, 1984. University of Alaska Fairbanks.
B.S. cum laude. Fisheries and Wildlife. May, 1981. University of Missouri, Columbia.
