Clark’s Nutcracker: the Bird that Builds Forests, by Dr. Diana Tomback
The presentation will cover Clark’s Nutcrackers as keystone seed dispersers, and thus forest builders, for many conifers across the montane west but with the focus on nutcrackers and whitebark pine. With the decline in whitebark pine, now a federally threatened species, there is a concern about a decline in nutcracker populations. I will include some data from our work on nutcracker forest community use, annual abundance, and home range size in Yellowstone National Park.
Diana F. Tomback is Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of Colorado Denver with expertise in forest ecology and conservation biology. She received a B.A. and M.A. at UCLA and Ph.D. at the University of California Santa Barbara. Author of more than 150 publications and essays, she has conducted research on high elevation and treeline ecosystems, including pioneering studies of the keystone seed disperser Clark’s nutcracker, whitebark pine, and related five-needle white pines in parks and forests across the U.S. and Canada. In 2001, Tomback and colleagues started the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation (WPEF) http://www.whitebarkfound.org, a science-based 501 (c)3 non-profit to advocate for whitebark pine restoration. She was science lead on the National Whitebark Pine Restoration Plan, a multi-agency strategy in partnership with American Forest and advised by the Washington Office of the USDA Forest Service. She now serves on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Whitebark Pine Recovery Team.
You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Feb 17, 2025 07:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
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Please register before 6 p.m. on the 17th.
