Language of the Land: A State of Change – California’s Forgotten Landscapes

Join us for a talk by author Laura Cunningham featuring her work on the updated A State of Change: California’s Forgotten Landscapes. This talk draws from fieldwork spanning the state and beyond, Indigenous oral histories and interviews with tribal elders, scientific research in biology and paleontology, and years of artistic study. This deep time exploration of Old California throws into stark relief the engineered landscapes we know today and the diminution of biodiversity already millennia in the making. We’ll hear about topics such as the comebacks of California wolves and condors, the resurgence of salmon populations under tribal stewardship, and the gradual reimplementation of Indigenous fire management.

Laura Cunningham is an artist-naturalist and award-winning author of A State of Change: California’s Forgotten Landscapes. Cunningham studied paleontology and biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked field biology jobs for the California Department of Fish and Game, the United States Geological Survey, and various universities, gaining experience with such species as Owens Valley pupfish, salmon and steelhead trout, Yosemite toads, Panamint alligator lizards, and tule elk. Simultaneously, she taught herself the arts of sketching and oil painting and pursued studies of California’s historical ecology. She currently works in the conservation nonprofit field. Her studio is next to Death Valley National Park along the Amargosa River.