Middletown's Jonah Center Upcoming Events

Dear Jonah Center Friends,

I want to let you know about the exciting Jonah Center Upcoming Events we have lined up for early 2015 (see below).

But first, I need to alert you to a critically important meeting of Middletown’s Common Council on Jan. 5, at 7 p.m. (Questions to Directors session begins at 6 p.m.) Public attendance and expressions of interest and concern (either through testimony or simply by your presence) is very important. It’s a moment when the environmental community can really make a difference.

These matters under consideration by the Common Council are:

The Purchase of the Pierce Property on Mt. Higby &
The Need to Re-Fund the Position of Environmental Planner.

Details on these matters can be found on the Jonah Center website News page at http://thejonahcenter.org/?cat=5 You are invited and encouraged to comment on these items. (Registration is required for comments). You will also see how to email members of the Common Council.

Upcoming Jonah Center Events -- Mark Your Calendars!
A Presentation by Liv Baker, PhD

College of the Environment, Wesleyan University Tuesday, February 10, 7 – 8:30 p.m. At The deKoven House, 27 Washington Street, Middletown.

Some wildlife inhabit and even thrive in our urban and suburban neighborhoods. We easily enjoy them, as long as they keep their distance from our gardens, shrubs, and enclosed places. When they come too close, our feelings change to the view that they are invading our space. When that happens, our wonder, affection, and empathy can quickly give way to annoyance, fear, and an impulse to kill them.

Can we adjust our perspective and become more compassionate and less violent in our approach to wildlife in our midst? Aren’t we the over-populated ones, after all? What if we (re)designed our communities – our buildings, our roads, our personal and communal behaviors – to include the needs and wants of the wildlife that already share our urban and suburban environments?

Liv Baker will challenge the current approach to wildlife management in two key ways: 1) by scrutinizing the science behind common policies and practices, and 2) by using concepts of animal welfare science to suggest a more compassionate, individual, and animal-based approach to mitigate wildlife-human conflicts.

Middletown 200 million Years Ago
A Presentation by Dana Royer
Professor of Earth and Environmental Science, Wesleyan University, Tuesday, March 10, 2014, 7 – 8:30 p.m. At The deKoven House, 27 Washington Street, Middletown.

You may know something about the human history of Middletown, but what about our region’s geologic history? Our city and its surrounding towns have a very interesting tale to tell, one that spans several hundred million years. Professor Dana Royer will tell us about one waypoint along this journey: 200 million years ago.

At this time, the supercontinent Pangea was breaking apart right here in the Connecticut River valley, bringing fresh lava to the surface. With this lava came many gases, including greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which caused severe global climate change and one of Earth’s largest mass extinctions. This led to the 135 million-year-long domination by dinosaurs (whose footprints are preserved throughout the valley). This lava cooled to form basalt rock, whose remnants we still see and enjoy in the trap rock ridges of Mt. Higby. The sediments that weathered from the basalt 200 million years ago turned into our beloved brownstone, for which Portland and its quarries became famous.
John Hall

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