Mike Fay Live: “Climbing Redwood Giants”

INTERNATIONAL NATURALIST MICHAEL FAY TO PRESENT AT THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN

‘Climbing Redwood Giants’ Brings to Light the 2011 International Year of Forests 

Join National Geographic Society Explorer-In-Residence, J. Michael Fay at the Missouri Botanical Garden on Sunday, Oct. 23 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. for an exhilarating presentation on Sequoia sempervirens – the giant redwoods of coastal California. A former Missouri Botanical Garden botanist and Washington University graduate, Fay returns to St. Louis for the 2011 International Year of Forests to share his work and passion for these exceptional forests and what conservation work can be done to save them from devastation. The presentation will feature an introduction by Fay and screening of “EXPLORER: Climbing Redwood Giants,” followed by a question and answer session. The event is included with Garden admission and is presented in partnership with the Academy of Science St. Louis and Washington University in St. Louis.

Mike Fay has spent his life as a naturalist—from the Maine woods as a boy, to Alaska and Central America in college, to North Africa and the depths of the central African forest and savannas throughout the last 25 years. Under the tutelage of Dr. Peter Raven, Missouri Botanical Garden president emeritus, Fay honed his passion for world-wide ecosystems and turned that passion into action by surveying thousands of acres of ecosystems on foot, while also using more sophisticated measurements."

"I think about GIS (geographic information system) and what it’s about,” said Fay. “It's about managing the landscape, quite simply. Whether its oil or logging or crime prevention or conservation, it’s about all that is living and all that is not on this planet. You can visualize the landscape and understand cause and effect and you can make change happen.”

The National Geographic documentary “EXPLORER: Climbing Redwood Giants” features redwood trees stretching more than 300 feet above the ground, with hidden gardens and mysterious predators thriving within their canopy. The film reveals the unexplored environment of redwoods using high-tech aerial laser surveys and breathtaking imagery of their monster crowns, tallying biological material and discovering new record-breaking trees, while climbers and biologists escape falling branches and crashing trees in the process. It is an impressive year-long exploration of the past and future of this primeval tree, threatened by human pressures in 21st century California.

Fay has been affiliated with the National Geographic Society, the Wildlife Conservation Society and several other conservation organizations. He received a B.S. in 1978 from the University of Arizona and spent six years in the Peace Corps as a botanist in national parks in Tunisia and the savannas of the Central African Republic. He joined the staff of the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1984 to do a floristic study on a mountain range on Sudan’s western border, but ended up doing his Ph.D. on the western lowland gorilla. It was at this time that Fay first entered the forests of central Africa, surveying large forest blocks and creating and managing the Dzanga-Sangha and Nouabale-Ndoki parks in the Central African Republic and Congo.

In 1996, Fay flew over the forests of Congo and Gabon and realized there was a vast forest corridor spanning the two countries from the Oubangui to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1997, he walked the entire 2,000 mile corridor surveying trees, wildlife and human impacts on 12 uninhabited forest blocks. Called the MegaTransect, the project brought the world’s attention to the last pristine forest in central Africa and the need to protect this unique treasure. This work led to a historic initiative by the Gabonese government to create a system of 13 national parks in Gabon, making up some 11,000 square miles.

Fay hosted Colin Powell on a forest walk in Gabon after the former Secretary of State’s announcement to support the Congo Basin with tens of millions of dollars for national park creation, development and forest management. Fay worked tirelessly to set up the management infrastructure in Loango National Park.

In 2004, Fay completed the MegaFlyover, an eight-month aerial survey of the entire African continent. He logged over 800 hours in a Cessna, taking photos every twenty seconds for a total of 116,000 vertical images of the continent’s ecosystems and the associated human impacts; many of the images can now be viewed on Google Earth.

In 2008 he completed the Redwood Transect, a new project to learn more about the redwood forests. He walked the entire range of the redwood trees – over 700 miles – with the support of the National Geographic Society, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Save-the-Redwoods League.

Mike Fay Live: Climbing Redwood Giants is included with Missouri Botanical Garden admission of $8 for adults; St. Louis City and County residents enjoy discounted admission of $4. Children ages 12 and under and Garden members are free.

The Missouri Botanical Garden is located at 4344 Shaw Blvd. in south St. Louis, accessible from Interstate 44 at the Vandeventer exit and from Interstate 64 at the Kingshighway North and South exit. Free parking is available on site and two blocks west at the corner of Shaw and Vandeventer.

For general information, visit www.mobot.org or call (314) 577‑5100 (toll-free, 1‑800‑642‑8842).

*Description by the Missouri Botanical Garden.