Diane Peavey launches Stegner lectures Diane Peavey launches Stegner lectures (February 09, 2005)

Rancher and environmentalist Diane Josephy Peavey will tell stories of the old and new West in a lecture Thursday, February 17, at 8 p.m. at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St.

Ms. Peavey will give the first of four lectures in the 12th annual Wallace Stegner Lecture Series, sponsored by the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST).

The series, which honors the late Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and conservationist Wallace Stegner, focuses on major issues involving land, nature and conservation.

Ms. Peavey left a job as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., to run a sheep and cattle ranch in south central Idaho. She writes stories about life on the ranch, its people and history. She also addresses the changing landscape of the West and conflicts between ranching and resource preservation.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist E. O. Wilson will give the second lecture Thursday, March 24. One of leading scientists in the world, Dr. Wilson, who became famous studying ants, uses arguments from science, economics and ethics to show that proper care for the earth's biodiversity is essential for survival.

The third lecture on Thursday, May 5, features Michael Pollan, author of "The Botany of Desire," in conversation with Paul Rogers, environmental writer for the San Jose Mercury News.

Ecologist, scholar and author Gretchen Daily will give the final lecture Thursday, May 26. She is an associate professor of biological studies at Stanford, and director of the tropical research Program of the Center for Conservation Biology.

For the 12th year, Bill and Jean Lane are co-sponsors of the Stegner lectures. Other sponsors include INNW Fund, Chris and Carol Espinosa, Paul and Antje Newhagen, and Sand Hill Advisors.

POST, a land trust based in Menlo Park, has helped save almost 55,000 acres as permanent open space and parkland in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties since it was founded in 1977.

Tickets for Ms. Peavey's lecture are $20 and may be ordered through the box office at 903-6000.

For more information on the Stegner lectures and series tickets, call POST at 854-7696.

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