The Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine plans to host a talk, “Maine’s Rivers: Subsistence to Sewers to Sustainability over Five centuries” at 3 p.m. Monday, Oct. 23.

In this talk, Lloyd Irland will discuss a series of distinct periods in the history of Maine’ rivers spanning five centuries, all while engaging in multiple sciences. He also will describe a fraught series of interactions between society and the rivers, often calling on images of a vanished “Golden Age.”

Irland has studied, written and taught about forests and water resources for decades. He came to Maine in the 1970s as the great program of cleanup was getting underway. He has not only written and read widely on the history of the state’s waters, but also participated occasionally as a state and local government official.

Irland recently completed an assignment as a technical specialist for the Indian Forest Management Assessment Team as part of a nationwide review of Bureau of Indian Affairs stewardship issues in forests and forest management.

All talks in the Mitchell Center’s Sustainability Talks series are free and are offered both remotely via Zoom and in person at 107 Norman Smith Hall at UMaine.

Registration is required to attend remotely; to register and receive connection information, visit the event webpage.

To request a reasonable accommodation, contact Ruth Hallsworth at 207-581-3196 or [email protected].

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