Google Earth & the Field Notes of Bretz & Pardee

North Spokane Library 44 E Hawthorne Rd, Spokane, WA

Join Glenn Cruickshank as he shares a look at 16 years of J Harlen Bretz’s field notes about the historic ice age floods and 30 years of Joseph Pardee’s USGS field notes, now publicly available for the first time in 100 years and visible through Google Earth. This presentation will introduce you to a large and growing collection of historic notes by early ice age floods investigators, but if you can't make the presentation you can explore much of the material on Nick Zentner's CWU webpage. Presentation will be by Glenn Cruickshank, Vice President, Cheney-Spokane Chapter, IAFI, Liberty Lake Presented in partnership with Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI) (Registration required on SCLD website. Registration opens at 6:00 PM Wednesday, January 15, 2025.)

Oregon Gold – This valuable mineral is brought to you by Geology

Tualatin Heritage Center 8700 SW Sweek Drive, Tualatin, OR, United States

Geologist and professor, Sheila Alfsen, will show how geologic processes that occurred in Oregon paved the way for the discovery and utilization of gold in our state. Sheila is an Adjunct Instructor of Geology at Portland State University, Chemeketa Community College, and Linn-Benton Community College. Tuesday, February 18, 2025, In Person 6:45PM PST at Tualatin Heritage Center, 8700 SW Sweek Drive, Tualatin, OR 97062 Simultaneous Live ZOOM from THC if you cannot attend the in-person THC meeting yourself. Click here for Zoom meeting, Meeting ID: 869 4651 3479 Passcode: 322382

Take a Bee-Line to the Wild Side

White Salmon Valley Community Library 77 NE Wauna Ave, White Salmon, WA, United States

Wild bees are a diverse group of bees that are important pollinators for many crops and plants. The U.S. has roughly 4,000 species of wild bees that pollinate thousands of plants, including many common foods like apples and almonds. Wild bees, along with many pollinators, are declining around the world due to land changes, human activities, pesticide use, and other threats. Despite growing concern about population declines, there are limited data about wild bees. You can help wild bees by providing nesting boxes, restoring pollinator-friendly habitats, and encouraging legislation that protects bees. In his “Take a Walk on the Wild Side” presentation, Steve Castagnoli will provide an introduction to the natural history of wild bees in the Pacific Northwest.  Steve Castagnoli is an apprentice level melittologist with the Oregon Bee Atlas. The Oregon Bee Atlas Master Melittologist Program trains and equips citizen scientists to: a) create and maintain a comprehensive and publicly accessible inventory of the state’s native bees and their plant-host preferences, b) to educate Oregonians on the state’s bee biodiversity and c) to conduct an on-going survey of native bee populations in order to assess their health. Specimen records are added annually to newly digitized historic records from the Oregon State Arthropod Collection to build the first comprehensive account of the native bee fauna of Oregon.  

Terroir and the floods

(12Dec24) Scott Burns is back in March to talk about the impact the Ice Age Floods had on vinticulture in the Pacific Northwset.  Join us as Scott explains how the Floods influenced the regional properties of Northwest soils and ultimately made the Pacific Northwest one of the prime wine producing regions in the United States. The "virtual wine tasting" will happen at our chapter meeting 04Mar2025 at 7:00pm at Bellevue College, Building B ,ROOM 104.  This lecture will be in-person and livecast on Zoom. Click on Zoom link:   https://us02web.Zoom.us/j/82985244730 Bellevue College, Bldg B Rm 104

Mapping the Pacific Northwest’s Glacial Legacy

Cheney Community Library 610 1st St, Cheney, WA

Enhanced LIDAR images (WA-DNR) Glaciers have shaped much of the Pacific Northwest’s landscape over the past 15,000 years. The Cordilleran ice sheet, repeated ice age floods, and expansive alpine glaciation have left their distinctive fingerprints on the topography of our region. Geologists and cartographers have been mapping and interpreting glacial landforms since the late 19th century. In the past decade, the Washington Geological Survey has created new maps that build upon this rich cartographic history by fusing older datasets and techniques with modern insights and technology, such as lidar. Using both historical and modern maps, this presentation by Daniel Coe, Washington Geologic Survey, Seattle, will be a visual journey through the Pacific Northwest’s glacial past and present. Presented in partnership with Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI) Registration required on SCLD website. Registration opens at 6:30 PM Tuesday, March 18, 2025.)

How the Ice Age Floods Changed the Course of the Palouse River

Moran Prairie Library 6004 S Regal St, Spokane, WA

Palouse Falls - Photo Glenn Traver Before the Ice Age Floods, the Palouse River would have flowed through present day Washtucna, Kahlotus, Connell, Mesa, and Eltopia before entering the Columbia River near the Pasco Airport. Today, it takes a fifty-mile shortcut to the Snake River at Lyons Ferry via the Palouse Canyon and Palouse Falls. In this presentation by Lloyd Stoess, President, Palouse Falls Chapter, IAFI, we look at the two factors that caused this dramatic shift—either one by itself would not have been enough. To examine when this happened, we look at some possibilities and clues recently discovered by scientists. Presented in partnership with Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI) (Registration required on SCLD website. Registration opens at 6:30 PM Monday, March 31, 2025.)

How Do They Know? Major Findings About the Ice Age Floods

Spokane Valley Library 22 N Herald Rd, A, Spokane Valley, W, WA, United States

  Maps Have you ever been watching a science program and wondered “How do they know that?” Dr. Gary L. Ford, President, IAFI, will briefly discuss the how and who “figured it out” regarding aspects of the Ice Age Floods, looking at five questions. These include: how we know there was a huge glacial lake in western Montana thousands of years ago, how we know it drained rapidly perhaps a hundred times, about how many floods there were and when they occurred, where the floodwater came from, and about how long it took the floodwater to get to the ocean. We also go over which answers to these questions are still being debated by researchers. Presented in partnership with Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI)