Central College’s Central RED Society will present “Jeweled Dancers — Our Real-Life Dragons and Damsels” with Marla Mertz on Thursday, Sept. 9, in Dave and Ardie Sutphen Common Room in Central’s Graham Annex.
Coffee will be served at 10 a.m. with the presentation beginning at 10:30 a.m. Cost is $5, and membership in Central RED is required to attend.
Prior to European settlement, wetland basins covered approximately 11% of Iowa’s surface area. Today, nearly 95% have been drained. Mertz, a naturalist with the Marion County Conservation Department, will discuss some of nature’s real-life damsels and dragons (damselflies and dragonflies) whose ancestors date back over 300 million years ago — long before dinosaurs and birds.
Mertz has served Marion County as a naturalist for the past 25 years. Environmental education and awareness of the local environment is her main duty. She works with numerous ecosystems and their communities and loves to educate others about them.
Central RED (Ready to Engage and Discover) is a volunteer-driven, lifelong learning and social organization with an abiding partnership with Central alumni and friends who wish to share knowledge, talents and experiences. Members pay $20 annually to join Central RED.
No affiliation with Central is required to join. For more information, visit www.central.edu/red or contact Mary Benedict by email at benedictm@central.edu or phone at 641-628-7641.