News Release

Madeleine Ostwald Presents for Casa Grande Ruins Annual Speaker Series January 29, 2020

Date: January 21, 2020
Contact: Dave Carney, 520-723-3172

COOLIDGE, AZ – On January 29, 2020 Casa Grande Ruins will host Madeleine Ostwald as part of its annual speaker series. The presentation will begin at noon on January 29 featuring Madeleine Ostwald who will present a lecture titled "Native Bees of the Sonoran Desert". The speaker series will continue every Wednesday at noon through March 11.

Madeleine Ostwald is a doctoral student in Animal Behavior at Arizona State University. She has previously studied the biology of bees and the history of biology at Cornell University, the University of Edinburgh, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Her current research focuses on the evolution of social behavior in native carpenter bees.

The Sonoran Desert is home to over a thousand species of native bees, making it perhaps the most bee-diverse region in the world. However, many of these bees are critically threatened by habitat loss and other environmental concerns. Learn about the basic biology and identification of these important pollinators, as well as how to protect native bees in your yard and even participate in citizen science projects. 

The Speaker Series is funded by the Friends of Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (http://friendsofcasagranderuins.org/) with additional support from Arizona Humanities (https://azhumanities.org/). The program begins at 12:00 pm in the Casa Grande Ruins visitor center theater at 1100 W Ruins Drive, Coolidge AZ, 85128. There is no fee for the program, and entrance to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is free.

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument protects the multi-story Great House and the ruins of other ancient structures built by the people of the Sonoran Desert over 800 years ago. 

The monument is open daily from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, May through September, and from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, October through April, except for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Independence Day holidays.  Directions and additional information are available on the monument’s website, http://www.nps.gov/cagr. You may call [phone], or follow us on Facebook by searching for Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.
 

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