Walktober is almost here!

The Last Green Valley’s fabulously successful annual series of activities starts in September, and Avalonia’s four offerings go right through the whole season! Registration is required for all Avalonia Walktober programs. (If an event is rescheduled because of weather, you’ll want to know.) Service animals only, please, at these events.

Saturday, November 7, 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM

Join researchers Salma Huque (Master’s student, Yale School on the Environment), Peter Paton (Professor Emeritus, URI), and Evan Zocco (Ph.D. student, UConn) as they present their research on, respectively, biodiversity, Great Black-backed Gulls, and beavers.

REGISTER HERE

Accessibility Note

One accessible space in the lot near the ramp. Automated entry doors. Accessible bathrooms. Sign language interpretation and amplification may be available upon request.  

For more information about the accessibility of this event, contact Avalonia at info@avalonialc.org or 860-884-8500.

About the Presenters

Salma Huque

Salma is a Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School on the Environment specializing in Water Resources. She is interested in watershed management, public land use, and conservation in the American West. Salma holds a BA in Economics from Reed College. Her work experience includes time as an environmental consultant in Oregon, a research assistant for the U.S. Forest Service’s Intermountain West region, and a water conservation data scientist in western Colorado. She has a background in coding and loves the challenge of communicating data-heavy analyses to the public. With a Co-Researcher, Salma completed a project on Avalonia preserves that enabled the organization to submit twenty National Diversity Database requests to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Peter Paton

A conservation biologist, Peter Paton has studied the population ecology of birds and amphibians for the past 50 years. He grew up in Colorado, and earned a B.S. in Biology from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon; a M.S. from Colorado State University, where he studied birds as an airstrike hazard in Hilo, Hawaii; and a Ph.D. from Utah State University, where he studied the breeding ecology of Snowy Plovers at the Great Salt Lake. For two years after receiving his Ph.D., he monitored birds at Denali National Park. In 1995, Peter joined the Department of National Resources Science at the University of Rhode Island, from which he recently retired. During his time at URI, he and his students studied shorebirds, wading birds, and passerines throughout southern New England. For the past 14 years, he has been studying Common and Roseate Terns on Great Gull Island, where he still is active in research and management. From 2024-2025, he and his students tracked 30 adult Great Black-backed Gulls breeding on Block Island National Wildlife Refuge (R.I.) and Avalonia’s South Dumpling Island. The results of this research improve understanding of partial migration, offshore distribution, and year-round resource use of Great Black-backed Gulls in an increasingly important segment of the species’ range.

Evan Zocco

Evan Zocco is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Connecticut. His work looks at how drones, aerial photos, and computer programs can help us better understand changes in the environment. He studies how beavers change streams, wetlands, and floodplains by building dams and holding back water. His research focuses on finding better ways to map these changes over large areas, especially in places where water may be hidden by trees, shrubs, or other wetland plants. This work can help with wetland mapping, wildlife habitat monitoring, conservation planning, and decisions about land and water management.