Program by Connie Mutel, editor of “A Watershed Year: Anatomy of the Iowa Floods of 2008”
When: Thursday, September 23, 7:00 PM
Where: Biosphere Discovery Hub, Macbride Hall (on UI Pentacrest)

Is there a link between Iowa’s changing climate, intensive land use, and an increase in flood frequency and intensity? Ecologist Connie Mutel will explore that issue in a public talk to kick off the fall semester of the University of Iowa Explorers Lecture Series Thursday, Sept. 23.

The lecture series is a program of the UI Museum of Natural History and features UI researchers, professors, and students presenting their cultural and environmental research. All lectures are free and open to the public and take place in the Museum of Natural History’s Biosphere Discovery Hub gallery at 7 p.m., followed by a question and answer session. Refreshments will be served.

Mutel’s talk is titled “A Watershed Year: Flooding in Iowa,” which draws on the science revealed in her most recent book, “A Watershed Year: Anatomy of Iowa’s 2008 Floods,” which was published this year by the University of Iowa Press. Mutel is an archivist and historian at the UI’s IIHR – Hydroscience & Engineering. Her environmental books include “Fragile Giants: A Natural History of the Loess Hills,” (1989) and “The Emerald Horizon: The History of Nature in Iowa” (2008).