Current Lectures & Special events
Lectures & Special Events Fall 2026 Season
Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network: Giving injured animals a second chance at a wild life:
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Free live lecture (no Zoom) with the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network
Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network (SBWCN) is an almost 40-year-old nonprofit organization that rescues, rehabilitates,and returns to the wild sick, injured, orphaned, or oil-impaired wild birds, reptiles, amphibians, and small mammals in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
Birds of California’s Channel Islands:
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Free live lecture, Zoom webinar, and book signing with Paul Collins
Join us for a lively and memorable lecture and book signing event with the primary author of Birds of California’s Channel Islands, Paul Collins.
Mammals Magnified: The appreciation of collections-based research in the 21st century:
Thursday, November 12, 2026
Free live lecture with Ally Coconis
Co-Sponsored by the Solvang Library
Research collections in natural history museums are important repositories of biological specimens, providing vast datasets for studies of ecological shifts across space and time. More recently, there has been a great expansion in the use of collections through both increased digitization efforts and the growth of molecular and chemical techniques in ecology. This has led
Climate Change on the Central Coast: Preparing for a resilient future:
Thursday, December 10, 2026
Free live lecture with Maren Farnum
Co-sponsored by the Solvang Library
From historic wildfires and prolonged droughts to devastating floods, rising seas, and record-breaking
Californians are already experiencing the impacts of a changing climate. California’s Climate Change Assessments are the state’s scientific foundation for understanding future climate-related vulnerability across California’s regions and systems.