Join PEEC the week of Aug. 3 for a variety of events. On Tuesday, Aug. 4, Mariana Rivera Freeman will discuss her experiences studying the Gunnison’s prairie dog at Valles Caldera National Preserve. Then, on Friday, Aug. 7, Laura Marseglia will highlight what is coming up in August’s night skies. Both events will begin at 7 p.m. and registration is required at peecnature.org/events. Photo Courtesy
PEEC NEWS
Join the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC) on Tuesday, Aug. 4 and Friday, Aug. 7 at 7 p.m. for two live-streamed talks. On Aug. 4, PEEC’s Field Science Specialist Mariana Rivera Freeman will discuss her experiences studying Gunnison’s prairie dogs at Valles Caldera National Preserve. Then, on Aug. 7, Laura Marseglia will explore August’s night skies and what you might expect to see during the month.
In Tuesday’s talk on prairie dogs, Rivera Freeman will discuss her field experiences studying prairie dogs and what behavioral ecology research on prairie dogs entails. She’ll also share some interesting facts about the Gunnison’s prairie dog, which is the prairie dog species found in the Valles Caldera.
“There are all sorts of sides to prairie dogs. They’re cute, they’re cooperative, but they can also be pretty violent with each other, so that’s fascinating,” Rivera Freeman said. “They have a really fascinating society. The more you know about them, the more fascinating they become. They’re really complex animals, their personalities are all really different.”
On Friday’s astronomy talk, Marseglia will highlight the constellations, nebulas, a meteor shower and planets that we can look up for throughout the month of August. This program is geared toward amateur astronomers who want to learn more about observing the night sky. This program is being co-hosted by Valles Caldera National Preserve!
In addition to these two programs, join PEEC’s vinyasa flow yoga class on Sunday, Aug. 9 with Christa Tyson. This class is held weekly from 10 – 11 a.m. Tyson is the Visitor Services Manager at PEEC and has been teaching yoga since 2003.
All events will be hosted via the live-streaming platform Zoom. Registration is required at peecnature.org/events to receive the meeting link and password. The prairie dog and night sky programs each have a suggested donation of $5 to attend. The yoga class is free for PEEC volunteers, $5 for PEEC members and $7 for non-members. Event registration donations and fees help PEEC be able to continue to offer live-streamed programming while the Los Alamos Nature Center is closed due to COVID-19.