Beaverdale Books will join the Izaak Walton League as they host Jim Pease, one of several writers featured in Cornelia Mutel’s award-winning book, Tending Iowa’s Lands.

The public is invited to attend.  Doors open at 5:00 p.m. Dinner at 6:00 with reservation. Program at 6:45. Membership not required.

In the last 200 years, Iowa’s prairies and other wildlands have been transformed into vast agricultural fields. This massive conversion has provided us with food, fiber, and fuel in abundance. But it has also robbed Iowa’s land of its native resilience and created the environmental problems that today challenge our everyday polluted waters, increasing floods, loss and degradation of rich prairie topsoil, compromised natural systems, and now climate change.

In a straightforward, friendly style, Iowa’s premier scientists and experts consider what has happened to our land and outline viable solutions that benefit agriculture as well as the state’s human and wild residents.

Jim Pease is one of those scientists featured in the book.  He has nearly four decades of experience as a front-line interpreter, professor of interpretation, and writer and consultant on many interpretive and environmental education projects. He has taught thousands, from youth through senior citizens, in formal and non-formal settings, written dozens of publications for professionals and lay people alike, and communicated by a regular statewide radio program, TV segments, podcasts, and websites. His experience includes teaching interpretation to undergraduate and graduate students for 24 years, research on impact of interpretive and education strategies, over two decades as an Extension Wildlife Specialist, director of Iowa’s NatureMapping and Master Conservationist programs, and fifteen years in youth development and natural resources.

Jim has taught and conducted projects internationally in Costa Rica, Brazil, Panama, Russia, and Taiwan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the prestigious Master Interpreter from the National Association for Interpretation and Distinguished Science Teacher Award from the Iowa Academy of Science. He is now retired from ISU, has emeritus status in the Natural Resource Ecology and Management Department at Iowa State University and is active speaking, writing, and consulting on numerous projects. He can still be heard on Iowa Public Radio in his monthly wildlife program on “Talk of Iowa” and leads national and international natural history trips to Alaska and Central and South America. He is active and in leadership on many conservation-related boards and groups.

This event is cosponsored by The Greater Des Moines Izaak Walton League.