Erosion is a leading cause of degradation to ecosystems. It combines natural forces like wind and water with human forces like tillage and everyday use of the land. One site—a former plantation called Sellman’s Connection at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center—provides a case study of the profound effects of daily land use by the Sellman and Kirkpatrick-Howat families. In this talk, citizen scientist Sarah Grady of the Smithsonian Environmental Archaeology Lab will highlight the unintentional ways these families altered the land over the short and long term, and outline a new method to document their impacts by analyzing artifacts and sediment. Free and open to all!

"Archaeological Secrets of Maryland" lectures will take place every second Tuesday of the month at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, now through December. Thanks to the Anne Arundel Chapter of the Archeological Society of Maryland for cosponsoring the series!

Summary:
Matthew Baker is a Professor of Geography & Environmental Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  His current research involves using drones to monitor sediment releases following the Bloede Dam removal on the Patapsco River; assessing stream restoration projects with low-altitude aerial imagery; characterizing the ecological diversity of urban woodlands in Maryland; describing heterogeneity within the Baltimore Ecosystem Study; ForestGEO long-term forest inventory; and automated mapping of high-resolution stream maps from LiDAR across the Chesapeake Bay watershed (with the Chesapeake Conservancy).  About five years ago, Matt began testifying in lawsuits that tried to hold the coal industry accountable for the effects of mountaintop mining under the Clean Water Act.  He has now testified in five federal cases.

Matt earned his masters from the University of Michigan in 1996 in Forest Ecology and a Ph.D. in Aquatic Ecology in 2002. He was a postdoctoral research associate at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and an assistant professor at Utah State University before returning to Maryland in 2008. Matt is a broadly trained landscape ecologist and ecohydrologist. 

Our Thursday science seminars are free and open to the public. Because they are directed towards a scientific audience, they are more technical than our evening lectures. Visit our Evening Lecture Page to learn more about our free evening lecture series.