Naturalist Nights

Each winter, together with Wilderness Workshop and Roaring Fork Audubon, ACES invites regional experts to explore and share topics of the natural world through slideshows and discussion.

From January to March, this popular series takes place in Aspen at Hallam Lake every Thursday evening at 6PM, and every Wednesday at 6PM in Carbondale at the Third Street Center, providing an educational activity for visitors and locals alike. Tea, donated by Two Leaves Tea Company, and cookies donated by Paradise Bakery, Village Smithy, or Bonfire Coffee are offered. 

Check Out ACES' 2020 Naturalist Nights Line-Up!

Past speakers:

Click presentation titles below to watch video.

Winter 2020
 

• Divas in the Treetops: When and Why Do Female Birds Sing? | Lauryn Benedict, Ph.D., University of Northern Colorado
• Denizens of the Alpine: Breeding Site Selection and Winter Movements of Brown-capped Rosy-Finches | Amy Seglund, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, and Aaron Yappert, Wildlife Biologist
• Disappearing Elk: Loving Our Wild Places to Death | Paul Millhouser, Rocky Mountain Wild
• Maintaining CATCHments, Not waterSHEDS: The Effects of Wildfire | Liz Schnackenberg, U.S. Forest Service
• Too Hot to Trot? Pika Ecology in a Time of Global Change | Johanna Varner, Ph.D., Colorado Mesa University
• Feral Horses in the Western USA: Politics, Controversy, and Science | Kate Schoenecker, Ph.D., U.S. Geological Survey
• No Boundaries for Birds: Saving Tropical Birds in the Roaring Fork Valley | Nic Korte, Grand Valley Audubon Society
• Border Wall Impacts on Wildlife, Wilderness, and Communities: A View from Both Sides* | Myles Traphagen, Wildlands Network, and Mirna Manteca, Profauna (*bilingual presentation)
• Snowmelt to Streamflow: Vulnerability of Mountain Rivers to Climate and Forest Change | Rosemary W. Carroll, Ph.D., Desert Research Institute
• The March 2019 Avalanche Cycle: One for the History Books | Kelly Elder, Ph.D., U.S. Forest Service, and Brian Lazar, Colorado Avalanche Information Center

Winter 2019
 

• Creating an American Nile: The Colorado River's Forgotten Global History | Sara Porterfield, Tributaries Consulting, LLC
• Close-up Stories From The Trinidad Rainforest | Ray Mendez, Asa Wright Nature Center
• The White-tailed Ptarmigan: An Alpine Icon in Colorado | Kathryn Bernier, Colorado Parks & Wildlife
• Greater Sandhill Cranes in Colorado’s High Country | Van K. Graham, Retired from Colorado Parks & Wildlife
• Wildfire: From CATCH-ment, to water-SHED, to CATCH-ment | Liz Schnackenberg, United States Forest Service
• What is the Future of Colorado's Aspen Forests with Climate Change? | Bill Anderegg, Ph.D., University of Utah
• When the Well Runs Dry: Securing Water for People & Nature in the Colorado River Basin | Aaron Derwingson, The Nature Conservancy
• The Deep History of Pueblo People | Mark Varien, Ph.D., Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
• Colorado’s Snowpack: Adventures in Monitoring and What It Means for Our Water Supply | Gigi A. Richard, Ph.D., Fort Lewis College
• How the Changing Climate is Affecting Wildflowers and Pollinators in the Colorado Rocky Mountains | David W. Inouye, Ph.D., Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
   

Winter 2018
 

• The Future of Wildness | John Hausdoerffer, Ph.D., Center for Environment & Sustainability, Western State Colorado University
• Ultimate Fisher: The Osprey | Jasmine Finks, Boulder County Parks and Open Space
• "Nature should be free!" Public Claims to Public Land in the 21st Century | Melanie Armstrong, Ph.D., Master in Environmental Management Program, Western State Colorado University
• Can Rocks Talks? Geology's Story from the Bottom of Glenwood Canyon to the Grottos | Garry Zabel, Colorado Mountain College
• Colorado's Bluebirds and How You Can Help Them | Kevin Corwin, Colorado Bluebird Project, Audubon Society of Greater Denver
• A Biologist's and Senator's Look at Wolf Recovery and Conservation | Sen. Mike Phillips (District 31, Montana), Turner Endangered Species Fund
• Pinyon-Juniper Woodland Response to Global Change: Climate, Management, and Recovery | Miranda Redmond, Ph.D., Colorado State University
• The Natural History of Colorado | David Anderson, Colorado Natural Heritage Program
• Guarding the World's Finest Guano: A Story of Ecology and Economy | Scott A. Taylor, Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder
• Ecosystems of the Colorado Plateau: What Does the Future Hold? | Jayne Belnap, Ph.D., United States Geological Survey

Winter 2017
 

• Mimicking Nature: Engineering for the Environment | April Long, Stormwater Manager, City of Aspen
• Beyond Mastodons & Mammoths: The Latest Scientific Understanding from the Snowmass Ice Age Discovery | Stephanie Lukowski, Paleontologist, Snowmass Ice Age Discovery Center
• Welcome to Subirdia | John Marzluff, Ph.D., Professor of Wildlife Science, University of Washington
• Warmer—But to What End? The Past, Present & Future Climates of the Roaring Fork Valley | Jeff Luckas, Research Integration Specialist, Western Water Assessment
• The Second Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas Project | Lynn Wickersham, Research Associate, Fort Lewis College
• Balancing Outdoor Recreation with Wildlife Conservation in Protected Lands | Sarah Reed, Ph.D., Colorado State University & Sarah Thomas, Ph.D., Sarah Thomas Consulting, LLC
• Energy Development Impacts on Wildlife: Lessons Learned for the Next Energy Boom | George Wittemyer, Associate Professor, Colorado State University
• Public Response to Fire Management: Conventional Wisdom vs. Reality | Sarah M. McCafferty, Ph.D., Research Social Scientist, U.S. Forest Service
• Cutthroat Trout: Conservation through Uncertainty | Kendall Bakich, Fisheries Biologist, Colorado Parks and Wildlife
• Small Mountain Owls | Scott Rashid, Director, Colorado Avian Research and Rehabilitation Institute

Winter 2016
 

• Should Wolves Be Restored to Colorado? | Delia Malone, Wildlife Team Chairperson, Sierra Club, Rocky Mountain Chapter
• The Challenges of Advocating for Mountain Lion Conservation | Wendy Keefover, Native Carnivore Protection Manager, The Humane Society of the US
• The Red Fox: Naturalist History & Winter Ecology | Patrick McGee, Ph.D., Director of Thorton Biology Research Program, Western State Colorado University
• The Hungry Bird: What Birds Eat | David Leatherman, Former Forest Entomologist, Colorado State Forest Service & Author of "The Hungry Bird" column, Colorado Birds
• Neonicitinoid Pesticides & Their Impact on Honeybees & Other Pollinators | Ed Colby, Beekeeper & Aspen Mountain Ski Patrol
• The Biggest Global Change You've Never Heard Of: How Nitrogen is Affecting Colorado's High Country | Jill Baron, Ph.D., Research Ecologist, United State Geological Survey & Senior Research Scientist, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University
• Do Spruce Beetles Make Forest Fires More Severe? Field Evidence from the San Juan Mountains, CO | Robbie Andrus, Ph.D. student, Biogeography Lab, University of Colorado at Boulder
• The Gold King Spill: Impacts on the Animas River | Marcie Demmy Bidwell, Executive Director & Scott Roberts, Water Program Director, Mountain Studies Institute
• From Cottonwoods to Cut Banks: Is River Restoration Working in the Desert Southwest? | Shannon Hatch, Restoration Coordinator, Tamarisk Coalition
• Good Fire, Bad Fire & the State of Our Landscapes & Communities Without Fire | Jim Genung, Prescribed Fire & Fuels Specialist, White River National Forest

Winter 2015
 

• How Bears Make a Living Off Salmon in Kodiak, Alaska | Will Deacy, graduate student, University of Montana
• DamNation | Film screening
• Capturing Glacial Change Through 3D Time-lapse Photography on the Helheim Glacier, Greenland | Adam LeWinter, Ph.D., Research Physical Scientist, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
• Adapting to Extremes: Life in Alaska's Arctic | Andre Wille, Teacher, PolarTREC & Aspen High School
• Wilderness in Peril: Overuse in the Maroon Bells Snowmass Wilderness | Karen Schroyer, Aspen-Sopris Ranger District, White River National Forest
• Ordinary Extraordinary Junco: Remarkable Biology From a Backyard Bird | Film screening
• Wilderness Pecha Kucha | Slideshow & performances by local artists & Wilderness seekers
• Lessons in Protecting Wildlands from Oil & Gas Development | Peter Aengst, Senior Director Northern Rockies Region, The Wilderness Society
• Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo: Colorado's Newest Threatened Species | Jason Beason, Special Monitoring Projects Coordinator, Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory
• A Fire History of Hunter Creek Valley | Jason Sibold, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Geography, Colorado State University

Winter 2014
 

• Wildlife at the End of the Earth: Antarctic Birds & Animals | Dick Filby
• Moose of Western Colorado | Stephanie Duckett
• A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet | Film screening
• Songbirds as Indicators of Healthy Riparian Ecosystems | Dee Malone
• Laser Mapping of Mountain Snowpacks: NASA's Airborne Snow Observatory | Jeff Deems, Ph.D.
• Response of the Alpine Treeline to Climate Change: Detailed Analysis from Pikes Peak | Miroslav Kummel, Ph.D.
• Pecha Kucha: A Fast-Paced Storytelling for the Thompson Divide | The Pecha Kucha Troop
• The Wilderness Act in an Era of Global Climate Change | Greg Aplet, Ph.D. 
• A Fire History of the Hunter Creek Valley | Jason Sibold, Ph.D
• Forests During the Time of the Mastodons: Ziegler Reservoir Fossil Site | Dane Miller

Winter 2012
 

• Beaver: Nuisance of Opportunity? | Sherri Tippy
• The Meaning of Wilderness and the Rights of Nature | Rod Nash
• "The Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for our Time" | Film screening
• Taking Science to the Extreme: Arctic Research Adventures | Susy Ellison
• Black Swifts: The 'Coolest' Bird | Kim Potter
• The Colorado River: Flowing Through Conflict | Pete McBride
• War on the West: How the Oil Industry is Carving up our Last Best Places | Eric Molvar
• Beetles, Dust, and Climate: Changing Hydrology in the CO River Headwaters | Jeff Deems
• The Science Behind Forecasting Powder and Other Weather Fun | Joel Gratz
• The Future Forest: How Science Informs our Understanding of Forests and Efforts to Protect Them | Tony Chang
• Climate Change and Our Future in the Rocky Mountains | Ian Billick
• Pikas and Climate in the American West | Liesl Erb
• American Dipper as an Indicator of River Health | Dee Malone