Lectures at Eagle Hill - 2025

Lecture programs are free. They run for about an hour, including time for questions. Start times are noted in the calendar below.

Lecture programs begin with a reception 45 minutes before the start of the lecture. This is a pleasant time to discreetly mingle with guests over complimentary juice, iced tea, or wine.

Optional dinner afterwards ... Each lecture is followed by an optional dinner for guests who enjoy an extended evening at Eagle Hill with friends in the company of the presenter. Dinners are normally $30, $25 for Dinner Club members and college students, and $20 for children under 18. Dinners include a salad, baguette, choice of 1 of 2 entrées, dessert, and coffee/tea. Wine with dinner is optional. Reservations need to be made by 10AM of the program day.

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2025 - Lectures are inserted as they are scheduled. Bios are at the end of the page. See below for schedules from past years.
Dates/Times	Days	Lecture titles and presenters	Optional dinners

July 10, 2025. 5PM	Thu	"Long-term monitoring of vegetation composition on Adirondack Alpine Summits" by Sean Robinson	Green mixed house salad with honey lemon dressing Baguette with butter Entrées: Roasted pork tenderloin medallions ... or ... Carrot, cheddar, barley, mushroom loaf ... Both with mushroom gravy Herbed roasted red potatoes Creamed spinach with onions Dessert: Apple crisp with whipped cream Selection of coffees or teas
July 16, 2025. 5PM	Wed	"The Calais Roads Project on iNaturalist" by Erika Mitchell	Baguette with butter Entrees: Baked haddock with home-made tartar sauce ... or ... Portobello mushroom cap stuffed with chickpeas, onion, tomato and garlic in a red wine sauce Home-made cole slaw Basmati rice Dessert: Florida rum cake with whipped cream Selection of coffees or teas
July 17, 2025. 5PM	Thu	"Sea Level Rise from Climate Change is Expected to Increase the Release of Arsenic into Bangladesh’s Drinking Well Water by Reduction and by the Salt Effect" by Seth Frisbe	Green mixed house salad with honey-lemon dressing Baguette with butter Entrees: Garlic chicken scampi ... or ... Garlic mixed vegetable scampi with tofu. Both without cream. Both with green peppers and mushrooms Basmati rice Sweet potato wedges Dessert: Bobbi's raspberry/vanilla ice cream with lemon walnut cookies Coffee or teas
July 24, 2025. 5PM	Thu	"10 Common Fungi and the Trees They Inhabit" by Jason Karakehian	Green mixed house salad with honey lemon dressing Entrees: Spaghetti Bolognese with beef, red wine, and herbs ... or ... Spaghetti Bolognese with mixed vegetables, red wine, and herbs House-made coleslaw Garlic bread Dessert: Vanilla raspberry ice cream, and a walnut cookie Coffee or tea
July 31, 2025. 5PM	Thu	"Mushrooming in Alaska" by Rick Van de Poll	Green mixed house salad with honey lemon dressing Entrees: Spaghetti Bolognese with beef, red wine, and herbs ... or ... Spaghetti Bolognese with mixed vegetables, red wine, and herbs House-made coleslaw Garlic bread Dessert: Vanilla raspberry ice cream, and a walnut cookie Coffee or tea
August 7, 2025. 5PM	Thu	"Morels and Lorchels; The True Morel and False Morel Mushrooms of New England" by Greg Marley	Green mixed house salad with honey lemon dressing Entrées: Spaghetti Bolognese with beef, red wine, and herbs ... or ... Spaghetti Bolognese with mixed vegetables, red wine, and herbs House-made coleslaw Garlic bread Dessert: Vanilla raspberry ice cream, and a walnut cookie Coffee or tea
August 20, 2025. 5PM	Wed	"Rise and Fall of American Goshawks in the Northeastern U.S." by David Brinker	House salad with raspberry vinaigrette Entrée: Beef stew with rutabegas, potatoes, carrots, fennel, and peas Vegan: Stuffed zucchini canoe with lentils, carrots, quinoa, almond slivers, fresh herbs Glazed roasted beets and onion wedges Dessert: French blueberry tart with whipped cream Selection of coffees or teas
August 21, 2025. 5PM	Thu	"Clubmosses of Coastal Maine: Diversity, Identification, and Ecology" by Weston Testo	Hummus dip with roasted red peppers Green mixed house salad with honey lemon dressing Baguette with butter Entrée: Roasted pork tenderloin medallions ... or ... Carrot, cheddar, barley, mushroom loaf ... Both with mushroom gravy Herbed roasted red potatoes Creamed spinach with onions Dessert: Black Forest blueberry cake with whipped cream Selection of coffees or teas


Past lecture seasons ... 2024 ... 2023 ... 2022 ... 2019 ...

Program descriptions.

Long-term monitoring of vegetation composition on Adirondack Alpine Summits
Thursday, July 10, 2025 @ 5PM
This talk will provide an overview of the unique plant communities found on our northeastern alpine summits, what changes we have seen in these communities over the last several decades, and work being performed by summit steward programs to protect (and restore in some cases) these communities.
Sean Robinson is a Professor of Biology at SUNY Oneonta and Curator of the Jewel and Arline Moss Settle Herbarium in Oneonta, NY. He has been conducting work on the population genetics, ecology, and systematics of bryophytes for over 20 years. The alpine summits of northeastern North America have been the primary site for his work, but he has studied and collected bryophytes throughout North America and parts of Europe.

The Calais Roads Project on iNaturalist
Wednesday, July 16 @ 5PM
One summer, to satisfy my curiosity about what species are found where in my town, I designed a personal study of local biogeography. I walked the full length of every road and public hiking trail in my town, recording the species that I saw on iNaturalist. As I walked, I followed a stratified random sampling procedure to record woody plant species, my favorite taxa. In this talk, I describe how I set up my study using iNaturalist project tools, and show the results of my survey, both in terms of species counts and distribution maps. I also describe some other personal favorite iNaturalist projects and demonstrate how to create custom iNaturalist projects for study, instruction, or appreciation of the natural world.
Erika Mitchell is a researcher, educator, photographer, and naturalist from Calais, Vermont. She is a frequent contributor to iNaturalist with a special interest in botanical observations.

Sea Level Rise from Climate Change is Expected to Increase the Release of Arsenic into Bangladesh’s Drinking Well Water by Reduction and by the Salt Effect
Thursday, July 17 @ 5PM
Approximately 78,000,000 people in Bangladesh are drinking well water with unsafe concentrations of arsenic, a very potent carcinogen. Rising sea levels from climate change will likely cause a decrease in the dissolved oxygen concentration and oxidation-reduction potential of the underlying aquifer; this should increase the dissolution of insoluble arsenate (As(V)) in sediments by reduction. This, in turn, should release soluble arsenite (As(III)) into the drinking well water. Rising sea levels from climate change will also cause an increase in the salt concentration of the underlying aquifer; this should increase the release of arsenic from sediments into the drinking well water by the salt effect. This work can be applied globally to the release of arsenic and other toxic elements into all coastal drinking water aquifers, including sections of coastal Maine.
Seth Frisbe is a professor of analytical chemistry with over 35 years of experience in public health. He is the principal or co-author of numerous articles in refereed journals, chapters in scientific books, and government and United Nations reports. His team has worked on drinking water and public health in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe. They made the first national-scale maps of arsenic, manganese, lead, nickel, and chromium-affected drinking water in Bangladesh.

10 Common Fungi and the Trees They Inhabit
Thursday, July 24, 2025 @ 5PM
This lecture is a brief and accessible survey of several common fungi that are associated with specific plants in New England. We'll illustrate the fungi, where and when they occur on the plant, and discuss a little about their ecological relationships.
Jason Karakehian is a specialist on discomycetes and native of Massachusetts. Jason is a long-time member of the Boston Mycological Club and studied fungi for nearly a decade before returning to university to pursue a doctoral degree. He is an alum of Eagle Hill, having taken several courses on botany, plant anatomy, crustose lichens, and mycology. He earned his master’s degree under the advisement of Dr. Donald Pfister at Harvard University Extension School in 2019 and his doctoral degree under Andrew Miller at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in 2024. He is currently a post-doctoral at the USDA, Agricultural Resource Service northeast in Beltsville, Maryland. His research is in the diversity of a group of wood-inhabiting discomycetes. He is also interested in fungaria and mycological history and illustration.

Mushrooming in Alaska
Thursday, July 31, 2025 @ 5PM
Who needs an excuse to go to Alaska? This talk will highlight those who may consider going to Alaska with a mushroom bent! For two years in a row, Dr. Rick Van de Poll traveled to central and southeast Alaska to take part in two of Alaska's finest annual foray weekends, one in Cordova and one at Girdwood. Mushroom enthusiasts from all over the state traveled to see the fungal finery on display. Field trips took people to some of the outstanding places Alaska has to offer, like the Copper River delta, the Kenai peninsula, and the Heney Range. This talk will provide a pictorial and descriptive overview of mushrooming in this incredible part of the world!
Rick Van de Poll is the principal of Ecosystem Management Consultants (EMC) of Sandwich, NH. Since 1988, EMC has conducted ecological inventories and land management plans on over 400,000 acres of land for the public and private sector in New England. He is a certified wetland scientist, contributing author to the NH Method, and past Chairman of the NH Joint Board of Natural Scientists. Since 1978, he has taught various botany courses at the graduate and undergraduate level, including several workshops with Dennis Magee. Since 1991, he has been on the NH Plant Task Force and has surveyed hundreds of rare plants across northern New England.

Morels and Lorchels; The True Morel and False Morel Mushrooms of New England
Thursday, August 7, 2025 @ 5PM
Spring means Morels. Every experienced mushroomer and those building skills to begin foraging mushrooms dream of Morels as winter cold becomes spring greening. Morels (Morchella spp.) are the most commonly collected and eaten wild mushroom across the US. Their rich flavors lend complexity and richness to almost any preparation. False Morels (Lorchels) also appear in the spring, are often mistaken for Morels and have a more difficult and cautionary history. The common False Morel is dangerously toxic unless properly prepared and, even then recent information suggests a possible link with longterm severe neurological issues. Others False Morels are experiencing a time where people are cautiously exploring their edibility. This talk will dive deeply into the shifting taxonomy, their ecology with some updates in our understanding of edibility and toxicity in this fascinating group of mushrooms. We will focus on those species found or expected to fruit in Maine and New England.
Greg Marley has been collecting, studying, eating, growing and teaching mushrooms for over 45 years. He spreads his love of mushrooms through walks, talks and classes held across the New England. Marley is the author of Mushrooms for Health; Medicinal Secrets of Northeastern Fungi, (Downeast Books, 2009) and the award-winning Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares; The Love Lore and Mystic of Mushrooms, (Chelsea Green, 2010). As a volunteer mushroom identification consultant to Poison Centers across New England, he provides expertise in mushroom poisoning cases. Greg is frequent lecturer to college groups and occasionally a mushrooming foray faculty member. When not mushrooming, Marley works as a mental health clinician specializing in suicide prevention. He resides with his family and gardens in Rockland Maine.

Rise and Fall of American Goshawks in the Northeastern U.S.: Is There Reason for Conservation Concern?
Wednesday, August 20, 2025 @ 5PM
During the late 1800s to early 1900s American Goshawks (Astur atricapillus) were driven to near extirpation in the Northeastern U.S. by excessive timber harvesting and persecution as a robber of game. Over the past 50+ years, as forests recovered and human attitudes changed, the goshawk population in the Northeastern U.S. increased and the breeding range expanded back southward into West Virginia and Virginia. Since 1994, the Central Appalachian Goshawk Project has monitored over 185 goshawk nesting attempts, banded over 85 nesting adults, and investigated winter movements of breeding adults from NW Pennsylvania down the Appalachian Mountains into the high country of West Virginia. The positive population trend and range expansion during the late 20th Century abruptly reversed in the 21st Century. Breeding Bird Atlas declines have been recorded in all Northeastern states that have completed second atlas projects. After recovering their breeding range in Maryland and West Virginia, goshawks no longer breed south of northern Pennsylvania. Eastern hawk watch data document the virtual cessation of irruptive movements from the western Great Lakes eastward and show significant declines at most major sites, including the two lowest counts of goshawks at Hawk Mountain since the establishment of routine counts in 1970. Banding data from nest sites shows frequent reproductive failure and reduced female survival vs. male survival. Possible factors causing the declining trend include changes in nest predation pressure, prey population declines, and West Nile Virus
David Brinker is an ecologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resource’s Natural Heritage Program where he has worked on biodiversity conservation since 1989. He is the founder of Project Owlnet and co-founder of Project SNOWstorm, two highly successful cooperative efforts to study migrating and wintering owls using bird banding and radio telemetry. Since 1994, he has led the Central Appalachian Goshawk Study in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. He holds a federal Master banding permit and has banded thousands of raptors and colonial nesting waterbirds since 1975. He has authored or co-authored papers on Northern Goshawk population change, Red-tailed Hawk migration, Northern Saw-whet ecology and movement, American Oystercatcher distribution, as well as on secretive marsh birds and colonial nesting waterbirds.

Clubmosses (Lycopodiaceae) of Coastal Maine: Diversity, Identification, and Ecology
Thursday, August 21, 2025 @ 5PM
In this talk, we will explore the diversity of clubmosses (Lycopodiaceae) of coastal Maine, with a focus on recognizing commonly encountered genera of these remarkable spore-dispersed plants. We will also learn about clubmoss ecology and evolution, highlight our most abundant and conspicuous species, and examine the distribution of clubmoss taxa. both in Maine and around the world.
Weston Testo is an Assistant Professor at the University of Vermont at Burlington and Director of the Pringle Herbarium. Wes received his Ph.D. from the University of Vermont and subsequently worked at the University of Florida, Gothenburg University, and the Field Museum of Natural History before returning to the University of Vermont as faculty in 2023. His research interests range from taxonomy and systematics to phylogenomics and ecological modeling, with a focus on ferns and lycophytes in the American tropics. He has carried out fieldwork in 12 countries in the American tropics and has taught fern courses in the United States and several countries in Latin America.