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Since the dawn of recorded history, humans have wanted to fly like the birds. Although many studied the secret of avian flight during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, it was not until the Industrial Revolution that the technological tools for humanity to fly became available. By the mid and late 1800s, spurred on by the science of bird flight, dozens of people, and the Wright Brothers were not the first, were attempting to master human flight. This culminated in the early 20th century with pioneering aviators on both sides of the Atlantic, and the Pacific as well, joining the birds in the air. 

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Larry is a retired high school English teacher who currently teaches for the Osher Adult Continuing  Education Program at Fresno State. He has been a member of Fresno Audubon for over 30 years, and was its president during the 1990s. He currently leads field trips for both Audubon and the San Joaquin River Parkway, and is also involved in the Parkway’s  environmental education program for elementary school students. He has also had a longtime interest in the space program and aviation, which led him to tonight’s presentation.

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A critical challenge for this century is transitioning towards sustainable farming systems that simultaneously produce food and conserve wildlife. Yet conservation scientists and practitioners have traditionally fixated on protected areas and overlooked opportunities for conserving wildlife alongside us in working landscapes. Daniel uses ecological research to develop strategies for co-managing agriculture for bird conservation, crop production, and food-safety outcomes, both in the tropics and here in California. For this talk, Daniel will first discuss how climate change and habitat conversion are affecting tropical bird communities, and how shifts in farming practices may mitigate their combined impacts. Then, Daniel will shift his focus to California agricultural systems, where birds play multiple roles on farms, not only consuming crops and spreading foodborne diseases, but also consuming crop pests. Daniel will outline his lab’s work striving to find ways to manage California birds and take advantage of the benefits they can provide farmers, while minimizing harms to food production. 

Biography: 

Daniel Karp is an associate professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at UC Davis. Daniel completed his Ph.D. in 2013 and undergraduate studies in 2009 at Stanford University’s Department of Biology. Following his graduate studies, Daniel became an inaugural NatureNet postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and the Nature Conservancy. He then received a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct research at The University of British Colombia, before beginning his position at UC Davis in 2017. 

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