2023 Cary Environmental Symposium Kicks Off Tomorrow – Here’s What to Know

The Town of Cary, in collaboration with Trees For The Triangle, will be hosting the first ever Cary Environmental Symposium. The series of events will begin on Friday, September 1st.

The Town of Cary, in collaboration with Trees For The Triangle, will be hosting the first ever Cary Environmental Symposium. The series of events will begin on Friday, September 1st, and will continue every weekend until Friday, September 29th.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Purpose

The Cary Environmental Symposium was created to help continue the conversation about environmental issues that affect our lives here in Cary, and around the world. The series of speakers include a range of backgrounds, including a former Peace Corps member (and later VP of the Worldwide Wildlife Fund), professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, and more. The speakers will conduct a Q&A at the end of each event to help keep the conversation going.

Everyone that attends one of the events will receive a grassy-stage Longleaf pine seedling as a thank you for attending.

Events

There will be 5 events in total. Below is information for the first one (which takes place tomorrow). You can read more about the other ones as well as reserve tickets from the official website here.

First Event: Saving The Spirit Of The Forest hosted by Richard Carroll

When: 9/1, 7:00 PM

Where: Cary Arts Center (101 Dry Ave, across the street from the library parking deck. There are limited parking spots available at the Cary Arts Center, so parking at the parking deck would be your best bet).

Cost: Free, but tickets must be reserved in advance. Click here to get them.

Event info (copied from the official website):

Richard Carroll

After through-walking the Appalachian Trail in 1975 [south to north], Richard joined the Peace Corps and was posted to Africa. He stayed in Africa after leaving the Peace Corps and was recruited by the World Wildlife Fund, eventually rising to its vice-presidency. Along the way, he earned his Ph.D. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He retired in 2010 after 30 years of service. During his time in Africa, Richard idealized, planned, and established the Dzanga-Sangha Forest Special Reserve, one of the largest nature-protection areas in the world.

In creating the Reserve, Richard worked closely with the leadership of the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, and Cameroon, the three countries whose land comprised the 2,650 square miles of the Reserve. In his presentation, Richard will take you on a walk through the Congo Basin and the Reserve to see how the people there, like the citizens of Cary, are trying to save the spirit of the forest, and how our cultural, physical, and spiritual lives are dependent on an intact forest.

The event will open with remarks from Mayor Harold Weinbrecht and a musical score from local Cary pianists Olivia Li and Yuanduo Li.

Additional Info

You can find more information about the 2023 Cary Environmental Symposium from the website here. While this is the first Cary Environmental Symposium in history, the hope is to make this a biennial event.

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