On Thursday, Nov. 3, Michael Heim will present “Perspectives on Invasive Plants” as part of the “Thursdays at the U” series at the University of Wisconsin – Barron County.
Heim, a faculty member at the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University in Hayward, will speak from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in the Blue Hills Lecture Hall (Room 234, Ritzinger Hall). The presentation also will be livestreamed.
Heim will explore questions such as: How should we view these plants? Does it matter if we think about plants new to our region as “invasive,” “nonnative” or “nonlocal”? What makes a new plant “good” or “bad”? He will discuss these terms, along with biological considerations that often are overlooked when implementing management decisions regarding these flora.
Heim teaches courses in the natural sciences and is the agriculture and natural resources degree program advisor at the community college. He has a longtime interest in plant ecology, paleobotany and the biology of adventive species, those living outside their native range. He also studies relict plants, remnants of otherwise extinct species.
Heim’s home is located on the Kettle Moraine in Sawyer County, where he gardens and studies all sorts of hardy plants, from kiwifruit to cacti.
The “Thursdays at the U” weekly series is free and open to the public thanks to support from the UW-Eau Claire – Barron County Foundation. Neither seating reservations nor parking permits are needed for campus guests.
For more information about the series, call the campus at 715-788-6244 or email Dr. Linda Tollefsrud, the series organizer, at tollefla@uwec.edu.
