2005 Shivvers Memorial Lecture: Laura Jackson, The Farm as Natural Habitat
Date: Wednesday, October 19th, 2005 
Start: 7:00 pm
Location: Ames, Iowa
Laura Jackson is one of Iowa's emerging leaders in ecology, land conservation and agriculture. She is a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Northern Iowa where she teaches courses in ecology, conservation biology and restoration of agricultural landscapes.
She is a co-editor of the 2002 book of essays, The Farm as Natural Habitat: Reconnecting Food Systems to Ecosystems. Her passionate interest in environmental issues and the future of agriculture isn’t surprising considering her family background. Her mother is Dana L. Jackson, senior program associate for the Land Stewardship Project in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and the co-editor of The Farm as Natural Habitat. Wes Jackson, her father, is president of the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, and author of several books, including New Roots for Agriculture and Altars of Unhewn Stone: Science and the Earth. Kamyar Enshayan, her husband and fellow UNI professor, leads several projects that explore the mechanics and benefits of local food systems.
Jackson serves on Iowa's advisory board for the State Preserves System, reflecting her interest in preservation and restoration of Iowa's prairies, forests and wetlands. She and her students are currently studying how to add wildflower species to grass-dominated prairie plantings. These techniques could be applied to roadsides, CRP fields and rotationally grazed pastures.
Since 2003 she has been a member of the advisory board for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. She has a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology (with an agronomy minor) from Cornell University and has been a member of the UNI faculty since 1993.
This lecture was sponsored by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, the ISU chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta Honorary Society for Agriculture and the ISU Committee on Lectures funded by GSB. The series has been presented at ISU since 1969 in memory of John Shivvers who farmed near Knoxville. The lectures focus on ways in which agriculture can sustain rather than destroy natural resources.
Related information
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture |
Ames, Iowa 50011 |
(515) 294-3711 |
leocenter@iastate.edu