FORKS — “The Status of Stream Habitat in the Olympic Experimental State Forest: 20 Years After Adopting the Habitat Conservation Plan” will be the topic for the Evening Talk at the Olympic Natural Resources Center tonight.
Teodora Minkova will speak at 7 p.m. in the Hemlock Forest Room at the center at 1455 S. Forks Ave. The lecture is free.
Refreshments will be served, and a potluck of desserts is encouraged.
Minkova, Ph.D., will share results from the state Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) monitoring of streams and stream-adjacent forests in the Olympic Experimental State Forest and explain a long-term monitoring program of the riparian and aquatic habitat in the experimental forest.
The purpose of the program is to evaluate current habitat conditions and changes throughout time in the forest’s watersheds managed by DNR for timber, fish, wildlife habitat and other ecosystem values.
The results will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the riparian conservation strategy in the state land’s Habitat Conservation Plan; to quantify ecological relationships between in-stream, riparian and upland areas; to test assumptions about the effects of natural disturbances and forest management; and to inform future management adjustments.
Minkova is the Olympic Experimental State Forest’s research and monitoring manager for DNR.
She studied at both the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Sofia University and is an affiliate assistant professor at the University of Washington.
Evening Talks at ONRC are funded through the Rosmond Forestry Education Fund, an endowment that honors the contributions of Fred Rosmond and his family to forestry and the Forks community.
For more information, contact Frank Hanson at 360-374-4556 or fsh2@uw.edu.
