Speakers

Our last speaker in the This land is your land, this land is my land series is Matt Donovan, a forester with Weyerhaeuser, will be on February 27. Founded over 100 years ago with 900,000 acres of timberland in Washington, Weyerhaeuser has grown to become one of the largest sustainable forest products companies in the world. Today it is Alachua County’s largest landowner. In contrast to public lands, they manage their property as a working forest that pays property taxes and creates jobs that all contribute to our local economy and our quality of life. Weyerhaeuser is organized as a Real Estate Investment Trust that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Their managers work to provide added value to their owners – the exact thing that Sherry’s husband Joel spoke about. The timber produced from their working forest supplies raw material to our regional mills who in turn provides consumer products used by every single person in Alachua County every single day - from toilet paper and lumber to Gator Aid and cell phones.  We will learn how they manage their land, what their objectives are, and how they touch every single person in our county.

The Thompson Earth Systems Institute (TESI) was established in October 2018, and awarded funding in 2019 for the moonshot initiative: Scientist in Every Florida School (SEFS).

Through this free program, our mission is to build long-term collaborative relationships between teachers and scientists, better integrate current scientific research and big data into classroom lessons that adhere to Florida Sunshine State Standards, and connect a scientist with every school in the state.

SEFS is one of just eight projects awarded funding through a $17 million University of Florida moonshot initiative, aimed at tackling some of society’s most urgent issues. Scientist in Every Florida School has the potential to impact nearly 2.3 million K-12 students and 1000s of teachers statewide. As the name implies, the project mission is to connect all Florida schools with scientists yearly through a variety of platforms. 

Participating scientists must have a research focus related to Earth systems—air, water, land and life — which is in line with TESI’s mission to advance public understanding of environmental issues.