Internationally acclaimed crow and raven researcher John Marzluff will present “In Search of Meadowlarks” Oct. 20 —  an upbeat Adopt A Stream Foundation Streamkeeper Academy Zoom event.

The event is at 7 p.m. and costs $5 for AASF members and $7 non-members. Attendees can register by calling 425-316-8592 or online here.

Marzluff is one of the foundation’s Streamkeeper Academy “adjunct professors,” said Adopt A Stream Foundation Director Tom Murdoch.

“He makes the complex world of birds and other wildlife easy to understand,” Murdoch said.

Marzluff is a professor of Wildlife Science at the University of Washington and has written five books and edited several others. His most recent is In Search of Meadowlarks, which connects agriculture and diets to the conservation of birds and other wildlife.

“As a wildlife scientist and birder I think about our relationship with, and effects on, nature,” Marzluff said. “As I searched for meadowlarks and other open country birds among farms and ranches, I learned how these species flee the plow and how many farmers adjust their actions to lessen this exodus. I birded and talked with farmers on their lands from Nebraska to California to Costa Rica.”

In his presentation, Marzluff plans to bring news from these farms that show how some birds are extirpated while others evolve to live among the crops needed for sustenance. Focus will be on the actions of many farmers that coexist with nature because “it is the right thing to do,” he said.

During the “In Search of the Meadowlarks” event, attendees will also learn about wine producers that welcome barn owls to their vineyards to help control rodents, organic producers that follow some land each year to the benefit of yellowthroats, ranchers that employ intensive, rotational grazing to coexist with predators and trout, and a rancher that traded cows for tourists. 

Marzluff advises that one of humanity’s grand challenges is to conserve nature while providing for a growing and increasing affluent population. On Oct. 20, he will share lessons learned from agrarians and the scientific community and strategies that can be employed to help meet this challenge.

Autographed copies of In Search of Meadowlarks will be available at the Adopt A Stream Foundation’s Northwest Stream Center Nature Store. For more information call 425-316-8592, or go to streamkeeper.org.