January 17, 2006
John Nielsen, environment correspondent for National Public Radio, presents the lecture Condor: To the Brink and Back at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum
Summary Facts:
- John Nielsen
- Condor: To the Brink and Back
- Nielsen has covered environmental issues for 15 years for National Public Radio
- His talk will chronicle the dramatic and successful fight to save the California condor from extinction
- Co-presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
- Sunday, February 26
- 1 & 3:30 pm / Farrand Hall, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
- All tickets: $10
- Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535
NPR’s environment correspondent John Nielsen examines the captive breeding program that has brought the California condor population from near extinction to over 200 birds in his public lecture Condor: To the Brink and Back at 1 & 3:30 pm in Farrand Hall, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Nielsen’s presentation, based on his recently published book of the same name, will tell the dramatic story of the fight to save the California condor, and the radical changes taking place in both the California landscape and the conservation movement. Audubon Magazine picked Nielsen’s work as one of its “Editor’s Choices,” while Booklist asserts, “This is popular science writing at its peak.”
The California condor, with a wingspan of nine-and-a-half feet and a history as old as the Redwoods, was pushed to the edge of extinction. Instead, in the last few years it is soaring over the Grand Canyon, Big Sur and south-central California. Fifteen years ago there were only 27 California condors left in the world, and they were all in zoos, where none had even tried to reproduce. The effort to save this bird had become a battleground between those who advocated a hands-off approach to condor management and other members of the so-called hands-on school.
“Nielsen alternates California history with the story of the condor protection and recovery movement, showing how development put pressure on the birds’ environment and how bird-lovers, scientists, farmers, builders and bureaucrats battled to decide the fate of the condor population,” writes Kirkus Review in its starred critique of Condor. “Nielsen combines good storytelling with a knack for detail in his coverage of the condor recovery program’s triumphs and setbacks, while showing just how fraught the process has been. Well told story with an ambivalent ending reminding us that few of the factors leading to the condor’s near extinction have changed.”
John Nielsen’s reports air regularly on NPR’s award-winning news magazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition. He also prepares documentaries for the NPR/National Geographic Radio Expeditions series, which is heard regularly on Morning Edition. Nielsen also occasionally serves as the substitute host for several NPR News programs.
During his years with NPR, Nielsen has reported on a wide range of topics including the environmental records of the last three U.S. presidents; changing world population trends; repeated attempts to limit suburban sprawl; socially divisive water shortages in the Middle East; allegations of “toxic racism” in the United States; rhinoceros relocation efforts in the lowland forests of Nepal; and attempts to track and cope with the West Nile virus, toxic algal blooms, environmental problems related to economic globalization, and the causes of global climate change.
Before joining NPR in 1990, Nielsen was a Knight Fellow in the Science Journalism program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to that, he worked for the Los Angeles Times, The Orange County Register, and the Salisbury (North Carolina) Evening Post. He grew up in the tiny town of Piru City, California and is a graduate of Stanford University, where he studied Shakespeare.
Courtesy of Borders, John Nielsen’s book will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
This event is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and sponsored by KCBX Public Radio. All tickets for the event are $10. Ticket prices are subject to convenience fees. Tickets are on sale now and can also be purchased at the door, if still available.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.