(St. George, UT) - The Dixie/Arizona Strip Interpretive Association, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service-sponsored lecture series continues throughout February 2011 featuring an exciting line of up engaging presentations. The one-hour Brown Bag Lecture, series, which takes place at noon each Friday, provides an opportunity to learn more about the prehistory, geology, forestry, biology, and current events of the Arizona Strip and neighboring landscapes.

The Brown Bag Lecture series is hosted at the Interagency Visitor Center located at 345 East Riverside Drive in St. George, Utah. Admission is free, but seating limited for this popular lecture series. Participants are encouraged to obtain free tickets in advance from the Interagency Information Center to reserve a seat. For more information about the upcoming lectures call the Interagency Visitor Center at (435) 688-3200.

February 2011 Brown Bag Programs

February 4, 2011: Connie Reed, Kaibab National Forest Archeologist presents “10,000 Years of Human History; Cultural Resources of the North Kaibab.” Reed will speak of the "island" of trees comprising the North Kaibab Ranger District which contains numerous interesting prehistoric and historic sites spanning a 10,000 year period. Over the past several decades, archaeologists have located thousands of sites on the District. Join Reed in an exploration of the intriguing range of site types that exist on the District and a review of the results from recent regional studies

February 11, 2011: Journey back in time with Historian and Educator Dr. Leo Lyman, as he presents, “Jedediah Smith and the Southern Paiute.” In the early 19th century, the area known today as southern Utah and the Arizona Strip was home to resourceful Southern Paiute. According to Dr. Lyman’s research, Jedediah Smith an early Euro-American visitor was one of the nation’s most prominent explorers. Learn more from discussion of Smith’s interactions with local American Indians and possible consequences that may have resulted.

February 18, 2011: Charles Johnson, Mining Engineer and Western Mining and Minerals Manager speaks about Gypsum. Johnson details the resources’ many uses, why the mineral is so unique, and how to spot the substance in your surrounding environment. Learn the answers to these and other questions about gypsum from one expert who helps facilitate the use of this mineral as a regional economic asset.

February 25, 2011: Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument Paleontologist Alan Titus, delivers, “Dinosaur Salads.” Join Titus for an exploration of the plants and ecosystem of the 74 to 76 million-year-old (Late Cretaceous) Kaiparowits Formation, a valuable local resource from which many world renowned dinosaur discoveries have recently been extracted. During the Late Cretaceous, Utah’s landscape would have appeared completely alien to us today, with what was then a thick, vine-covered tropical jungle. Today’s buried fossil jungles of the lost Kaiparowits ecosystem are shedding new light on Late Cretaceous ecosystems, regional climate, and dinosaur diversity and biogeography as the great age of reptiles drew to a close.