Event Description:
On October 25th, the Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council welcomes Michael P. Nelson, PhD., Oregon State University Professor of Environmental Philosophy and Ethics, to Cottage Grove for our October 2016 Science Pub presentation entitled How Will We Live with Wolves? From Isle Royale to Oregon, from Science to Ethics (seriously, folks, how are we going to do this?). Finding ways to live in the world without wreckin’ the place is perhaps the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced in the history of the world. Learning to live with wolves offers a both a particularly challenging example of this larger challenge, but might also provide some glimpses of a path forward. How can we combine what we know scientifically about wolves with philosophy and ethics to begin the walk down that path? Michael Paul Nelson is an environmental scholar, writer, teacher, speaker, consultant and professor of environmental ethics and philosophy. He holds the Ruth H. Spaniol Chair of Renewable Resources and serves as the Lead Principal Investigator for the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest Long-Term Ecological Research program at Oregon State University. Michael holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Lancaster University, England. He is the philosopher in residence of the Isle Royale Wolf-Moose Project, the longest continuous study of a predator-prey system in the world. Michael is the co-founder and co-director of the Conservation Ethics Group and serves as a senior fellow for the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word. He is the author or editor of four books, along with many professional and popular articles. For the full list of his publications, visit http://www.michaelpnelson.com/. Michael is called upon regularly by various government agencies and conservation organizations to assist with understanding the ethical implications of natural resource management decisions. The Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council hosts a free monthly public meeting series called the Coast Fork Science Pub on the fourth Tuesday of each month, with the exception of December 2016, from 5-7pm at the Axe & Fiddle, 657 E. Main Street in Cottage Grove. The event begins with informal socializing, trivia, prizes and updates about the watershed and watershed council during the first hour. Then our formal science pub presentation begins at 6pm. Participants are encouraged to support the Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council by ordering food & drinks from 5-7:30pm, as 10% of the sales from evening sales will benefit the Watershed Council. The event is free to the public and all ages are welcome. For further information, visit Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council on Facebook and www.coastfork.org. “… different from most philosophers. He’s funny and irreverent and worried about the world, and especially about wolves” – Kathleen Dean Moore, Great Tide Rising