Conference Program.

An innovative, compelling and diverse program of expert speakers combined with thrilling field trips that explore a landscape bookended by the massive San Juan Mountains and the see-forever high mesas defining the boundary of the Colorado Plateau.

Schedule

We recommend arriving in Durango by late afternoon on Wednesday, Aug. 4. Whether driving from Denver, Albuquerque or Salt Lake, or flying into Durango, we suggest you arrive the day before. The actual program will not begin until the afternoon of Thurs., Aug. 5.

Registration / Hospitality

Located inside the Student Union building. Signs will show the way. Near Senate Chambers room.

Download / View Venue and Campus Map

About our speakers

Craig Childs After decades of work with archaeologists and trekking more than a thousand miles across the Southwest along ancestral migration routes, Childs will put cliff dwellings and their surrounding landscape in context, from the rise of these people a thousand years ago to their exit from the region. 

Childs is known for following ancient migration routes on foot, pursuing early Pueblo passages across the Southwest and most recently the paths of first peoples into the Americas during the Ice Age. He has won the Orion Book Award and has twice won the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award, the Galen Rowell Art of Adventure Award, and the Spirit of the West Award for his body of work. He is contributing editor at Adventure Journal Quarterly, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Men's Journal, and Outside. The New York Times says "Childs's feats of asceticism are nothing if not awe inspiring: he's a modern-day desert father." He has a B.A. in Journalism from CU Boulder with a minor in Women's Studies, and from Prescott College, an M.A. in Desert Studies.

Mike Kintgen is curator of alpine plant collections at Denver Botanic Gardens and a keen field botanist whose traveled widely throughout North America, Mexico, Argentina, Morocco, China and much of Europe. He has gardened in Denver, but also at nearly 8000’ in Moffat County where true alpines are far better adapted. He was a major contributor to Timber Press’s Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountain region as well as writing extensively for the NARGS Quarterly and other alpine garden groups.

Marcela Ferreyra is a professor and researcher at CONICET (the National Scientific and Technical Research Council - Argentina) on systematics, morphology and evolution of vascular plants in South America, especially Asteraceae, and flora and historical biogeography of the southern Andes, at the Universidad Nacional del Comahue Inibioma, Conicet. She has written extensively on flowers and plant of Patagonian Steppe and High Andean flora and vegetation.

Arnold Clifford is a taxonomist, field botanist and author who has conducted extensive research on plants throughout the four corners area from the lowest desert areas of the Sonoran, Colorado Plateau, Mojave and Chihuahua to the high alpine peaks of the area. For seven years he’s served as curator of the Carrizo Mountain herbarium. He is native American, and has gathered a wide range of information concerning the traditional uses of plants of this region. He is co-author of Flora of the Four Corners Region, published by Missouri Botanical Garden.

Adriano Tsinigine is an undergraduate at Northern Arizona University obtaining a B.S. in Biology and UG-Certificate in Wildlife Ecology & Management in December 2021. In addition to being an undergraduate student, Mr. Tsinigine proudly represents his positions as Youth Representative for the Navajo Nation Youth Advisory Council & the Diné Uranium Advisory Commission. Mr. Tsinigine was raised with the Navajo Culture and incorporates that into his educational studies. Navajo Ethnobotany has been apart of the Navajo Culture since time immemorial, and is still actively practiced today. The presentation will give you a deeper understanding into ceremonial herbs/medicines, foods, tools, and the uses of Native Plants. In addition, cultural stories will be shared to give a greater understanding of the origin on plants. Mr. Tsinigine will also share his current research with Ethnobotany from his summer project with the USFWS.

Anthony Culpepper is Associate Program Director for Mountain Studies Institute (MSI's) Forest Health Program, Forest Program Associate Director, and Four Rivers Resilient Forest Collaborative (4Rivers) Partnership Coordinator. Anthony joined the MSI team in 2012 and has worked in support and coordination roles for forest health and watershed collaboratives across the San Juan mountains. Anthony has led numerous alpine vegetation monitoring, alpine fen restoration, and natural history outreach and education efforts while with MSI. He holds BS degrees from Webb Institute (Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering) in Glen Cove, New York and from Prescott College (Natural Resource Management and Conservation Biology) in Prescott, Arizona. Anthony's time spent long distance hiking around the American west has inspired a passion for the unique flora of our high mountain environments. He is always quick to stop in the middle of a run or hike to pull out a hand lens.