Dam Good Connections – Bend: Nature and Beauty in Oregon’s Backyard

Join Bend-area Beavs for an evening of conservation and connections, featuring representatives from Oregon State’s HERS Lab.

Whether you’re an outdoor enthusiast or simply appreciate the breathtaking landscape of the Pacific Northwest, join us for networking with Central Oregon Beavers and an immersive conversation with The Human and Ecosystem Resilience and Sustainability (HERS) Lab at Oregon State University-Cascades.

The HERS Lab serves as a hub for research, science support and capacity building focused on managing protected areas and natural resources across the Pacific Northwest. Packed with stories rooted in research, resilience and responsibility, this evening features three HERS Lab program areas:

Wildlife Connectivity Hub: Studying usage of wildlife crossing structures and providing science support for wildlife crossing structure planning throughout the State of Oregon.

Northwest Bat Hub: Working with federal and state agency partners to coordinate and implement the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) in the Pacific Northwest.

East Cascades Native Plant Hub: Restoring native plant communities via seed collection, plant propagation and more as part of the National Seed Strategy in collaboration with federal and state agencies.

Dam Good Connections - Bend
Saturday, May 16
5–7 p.m.
Deschutes Brewery | Mountain Room
901 SW Simpson Avenue, Bend, OR 97702

PRICING
$25 Nonmembers
$20 OSU Alumni Association Members (Join today!)
$18 Youth (ages 8–16)
Children 7 and under: free
Pricing includes admission, one drink ticket and heavy appetizers.

Thanks to our host, Deschutes Brewery, attendees will also be able to enjoy discounted drinks: $5 beers (normally $8) and $9 wines (normally $13).

Questions? Please reach out to us at 541-737-2351 or osualum@osualum.com.

About the speakers:

Matt Shinderman, Ph.D.
Matt founded the Human and Ecosystem Resilience and Sustainability Lab in 2015 and continues to direct it, in addition to his duties as a senior instructor of natural resources and the program lead for the sustainability double degree at OSU-Cascades. At the HERS Lab, he helped develop the East Cascades Native Plant Hub and is involved with wildlife crossing structure research. Additionally, he is partnering with the National Park Service to manage a park studies unit at OSU-Cascades. His work focuses on collaborative and applied science, enabling the HERS Lab to serve as the hub of natural resource management in the Pacific Northwest.

Corrinne Dombrowski (Oedekerk)
Corrinne has been with the HERS Lab since 2017. Her primary research focuses on the use of remote cameras in wildlife ecology. Her research career began with studies of American pika occupancy in lava flows. Today, her work focuses on improving habitat connectivity and reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions by evaluating the performance of wildlife crossing structures and developing decision-support tools to guide statewide planning. She recently completed her M.S. in Environmental Science with an emphasis in ecology at OSU-Cascades, where she researched the effectiveness of wildlife crossing structures along the U.S. Highway 97 Corridor.

Sara Rose
Sara joined the HERS Lab in 2018 as a seasonal field technician for the Northwest Bat Hub. She currently serves as the Assistant Bat Hub Coordinator and assists with field crew management for regional bat monitoring projects. She also runs the Audible Bats Project, a hybrid approach to bat observation that incorporates citizen science and professional surveys. Her research involves developing a new monitoring framework for rare and cryptic bat species in the Pacific Northwest’s high desert. Sara received her bachelor’s degree in natural resources from OSU-Cascades, where she completed internships with the Deschutes National Forest and with Cardiff University at their research center in Malaysia.

Dates, times and other details for in-person events are subject to change.

Photos and videos from this event may be used in Oregon State University promotional materials. By attending this event, you consent to have your photo taken and appear in videos and allow use of these photographs and videos by OSU, the Foundation or the Alumni Association for promotional purposes.