Winter Wildlands Alliance presents Backcountry Film Festival: Celebrating the Human Powered Experience The Backcountry Film Festival promotes the work of grassroots filmakers who tell compelling and entertaining stories of backcountry, non-motorized recreation and environmental preservation. Watch clips from the film festival here. $10 suggested donation at the door. Proceeds for this event benefit Colorado Mountain Club.
4/04/2012 Hallam Lake
7:30 PM
Hallam Lake, behind the post office in Aspen

Jessica Metcalf, PhD
Jessica will share information on how her team sequenced DNA from cutthroat trout that were collected across Colorado and New Mexico between 1857 and 1889. The goal of their project was to describe the historic diversity and distribution of Colorado’s cutthroat trout. Jessica Metcalf PhD, Biologist and ancient DNA sleuth Jessica is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado, where she specializes in getting DNA out of deceased materials. Jessica uses ancient DNA techniques to answer questions in ecology, evolution, conservation and forensics.
Assorted teas, donated by Two Leaves Tea Company, and Paradise Bakery cookies will be offered during lecture. Naturalist Nights are brought to you through a partnership between Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, Wilderness Workshop and Roaring Fork Audubon.
Free Members Free Non Members
1/10/2013 Hallam Lake
7:30 PM

Kim Potter
Kim Potter was raised on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and earned a BA in Biology. After getting side-tracked and skiing in Vail for a few years she jumped back into science at a medical lab in Denver that specialized in transplants. After completing Wildlife Management classes from Oregon State University, Kim became a field biologist with the Forest Service. In her lecture Kim will lead us into the world of Black Swifts. Black swifts undergo an extraordinary migrational journey; twice a year thery travel thousands of miles between their breeding grounds in North America and their winter habitat in the Neotropics. Black Swifts are a bird of conservation concern, and knowing where they breed and where they winter is essential to conserving the habitats upon which they depend. We are fortunate to have these birds breed in the Roaring Fork Valley. With funding help from Roaring Fork Audubon, Kim outfitted swifts with transmitters which enabled her to follow them on their migration. We now have information about where they winter, which can be as far away as the Andes of Peru, something not known until this study.
Kim Potter will also be presenting in Carbondale at the Third Street Center at 5:30pm. Tea, donated from Two Leaves and a Bud, will be offered during lecture. Naturalist Nights are brought to you through a partnership between The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, Wilderness Workshop and Roaring Fork Audubon.
Free Members Free Non Members
2/09/2012 Hallam Lake
7:30 PM
Hallam Lake, behind the post office in Aspen

Neal Beidleman
This presentation will be short on words and heavy on images from a 2011 spring trip to the summit of the top of the world. This trip was attended by a few Aspentites including Neal Beidleman. Neal is a seasoned climber, photographer and Aspen local.
Free Members $5 Non Members
2/08/2012 Hallam Lake
7:30 PM
Hallam Lake, behind the post office in Aspen

PBS Documentary
Wolverines are among the most elusive creatures on the planet. They seek out the toughest terrain – the most rugged, remote and fiercely raw – and they’ve always been scarce to begin with. So they’re hard to find. They weigh only about 30 pounds, but they have a ton of attitude and a reputation to match. They eat everything, dead or alive, warm or frozen, and will climb anything, even mountains. It’s impossible for humans to keep up with them. They’re built to travel long distances with minimum effort across deep snow or up the sides of sheer cliffs. They roam an enormous territory of about 500 square miles – a home turf larger than an average grizzly bear’s. And they share it only with their immediate family. It’s “no trespassing” for everybody else. Few researchers have observed wolverines in the wild, though some have tried, for years on end. Most must settle for capturing their images on remote cameras, tracking them from a distance, and getting to know them from their DNA. Those that study them become completely captivated by them, full of admiration and respect for these totally outrageous and independent creatures. Yet there is one man whose experience with wolverines has been completely different. Wildlife filmmaker Steve Kroschel has spent 25 years with wolverines, and has even shared his home with them. Caring for injured and orphaned animals on a sixty-acre refuge in Alaska, he is one of the few men in the world to raise wolverines in captivity. The two orphans he has cared for since their birth have become his lifelong responsibility – and they are a handful! But he remains their committed and devoted advocate, a more than willing substitute parent to these remarkable animals he has come to love. Click here to watch the trailer!
Free Members Free Non Members
3/31/2011
7:30pm - 8:30pm

Presenter: Dr. Ken Logan
Mountain lions are the top carnivore of Colorado’s rich mountains and foothills habitats. Dr. Ken Logan, Mammals Researcher for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, will speak about mountain lion natural history and his current research on the Uncompahgre Plateau in western Colorado.
Free Members Free Non Members
3/24/2011
7:30pm - 8:30pm

Presenter: Dr. Ian Miller
This presentation will cover the evolution of elevation and climate in the Colorado Rockies over the last 100 million years as we understand it through the window of the truly exceptional fossils found throughout Colorado. Included will be some 80 million year old fossils from the Roaring Fork Valley but focus mostly on 70-50 million year old fossils in the Park Basins of Colorado and along the Front Range. This will all tie in to the Snowmass discovery and serve as an appropriate foreshadow to Kirk’s Johnsons kick-off lecture on the Snowmass discovery on March 22nd.
Dr. Ian Miller is a paleontologist who uses fossil leaves to interpret past climates, fossil ecosystems, and how western North America, particularly in terms of its mountains and basins, has changed over the last 100 million years. These data help us understand climate change and the evolution of life on earth.
http://www.dmns.org/science/museum-scientists/ian-miller
Free Members Free Non Members
3/10/2011 Hallam Lake
7:30pm - 8:30pm

Presenters: Jordan White, Caleb Wray, Anton Sponar
This presentation will center around skiing and climbing in a couple of different locations. Jordan, Caleb, and Anton will talk a little bit about their ski descent of Aconcagua, Denali, Elbrus, some peaks in Mongolia, and two volcanoes in Mexico. They will share pictures, stories, and jokes about what it is like to be on expeditions and climbing with friends.
Free Members $5 Non Members
3/30/2011 Hallam Lake
7:30pm - 8:30pm
Together with Wilderness Workshop and Roaring Fork Audubon, ACES invites wildlife experts and ecologists to explore and share topics of the natural world through slideshows and discussion during the Naturalist Nights Series. Besides insightful discussions, hot drinks and cookies will warm up these winter evenings. From January through March, this speaker series takes place in Aspen every Thursday evening at 7:30pm and in Carbondale every other Wednesday at 7:30pm. We hope to see you there!
Do you want a glimpse into the trips Aspen locals take around the world? Come to our Potbelly Perspectives slide show series featuring Aspen locals or visitors who'll share their exciting accounts of world travel and adventure through images, and stories. The Potbelly Perspectives series runs each winter from January through March.

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