For immediate release
April 15, 2005
Contact: Anita Yoder, 530-889-4012 or
Mike Fitch, 530-886-4515

FORESTRY EXPERT TO SPEAK IN AUBURN, CARNELIAN BAY APRIL 26

One of the nation’s leading forestry experts will give a presentation titled “Solving the Wildlife Crisis: Tahoe and the Sierra” during appearances in Auburn and Carnelian Bay on Tuesday, April 26.
Dr. Thomas Bonnicksen will address the Placer County Board of Supervisors at 11 a.m. The meeting will take place in the county’s Auburn administrative center, 175 Fulweiler Ave.
At 6 p.m., he will be the guest speaker at a community forum in Carnelian Bay sponsored by county Supervisor Bruce Kranz. It will be held in Garwoods Grill and Pier, 500 North Lake Blvd.
The public is invited to attend the community forum and the presentation to the Board of Supervisors.
“We are honored to have an expert like Dr. Bonnicksen visiting Placer County,” Supervisor Kranz said. “His analysis of current forest conditions in the Lake Tahoe area is a wake-up call for us to do a better job maintaining a forest that is less at risk of forest fire.
“Our hearts go out to those in Southern California who lost so much in the fires. We have a duty to do our best to inform the public and support the efforts of our professional fire departments to avert similar catastrophes.”
Supervisor Kranz represents the 5th District, which stretches from north Auburn to Lake Tahoe.
In January, Bonnicksen spoke to the governing board of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
He is a visiting professor at the University of California at Davis and professor emeritus and former head of the forest science department at Texas A&M University.
Bonnicksen serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Forestry Foundation in Auburn, is a published author and is a former ranger with the National Park Service. He has been a member of several congressional fact-finding missions, including investigations of a 1988 fire in Yellowstone National Park and the 2003 wildfires in Southern California.
Bonnicksen has a bachelor’s degree in forestry, master’s degree in forest ecology and doctorate in forest policy, all from the University of California at Berkeley.