CHESTERTOWN, MD—Two staff members from the Pickering Creek Audubon Center will discuss the importance of salt marsh habitats on Thursday, March 7, at Washington College. Sponsored by the College’s Center for Environment and Society, the free public lecture will begin at 4:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, Toll Science Center, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. 

The Center’s education coordinator Mandy L. Smith and its EcoCamp programs director Krysta Hougen will make the presentation. Their talk will be the first segment of the Audubon Center’s three-part program to educate the public about the vital role of salt marshes, a first step in gaining support for restoration projects.

The series also includes an April 13 “Salt March Walk” at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, and a half-day planting and restoration program on April 20. Times and other details for these events will be announced later. 

The Pickering Creek Audubon Center is a 400-acre working farm on Maryland’s Eastern Shore committed to environmental education. For more information on the Center and its programs, please visit www.pickeringcreek.org.

The Center for Environment & Society at Washington College was created in 1999 to promote interdisciplinary learning, research and exemplary stewardship of natural and cultural resources. Its primary objective is to support the integration of ecological and social values. The Center sponsors educational lectures, workshops, films and seminars and provides fellowships that put students to work on real-world problems. The Center also is home to the College’s Geographic Information Systems  program and the Chester River Field Research Station.