The Sequoia Park Zoo’s 13th annual Conservation Lecture Series continues Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the zoo’s Flamingo Room at 3414 W St., Eureka. CA.

In-person attendees can enter the zoo through Gate C, located to the left of the main gate at the W Street crosswalk. The lecture will also be shown via Zoom. The Zoom link will be available on the zoo’s website at redwoodzoo.org.

The speaker will be Clint Pogue, who will discuss how the community can support local butterflies in his talk titled “Elfin Magic: The Power of Curious Communities in Butterfly Conservation.”

According to a zoo press release, “Humboldt County is home to over 70 kinds of butterflies. Many of these occur in our backyards, parks and public spaces. To help address the ongoing global decline in butterfly abundance, we can leverage the curiosity and power of our community to make a difference. Humans have an ecological role to play on the landscape.

By working with our human neighbors, we can care for our butterfly neighbors (and more). Through the lens of the brown elfin butterfly, we will explore many facets of butterfly conservation and share multiple ways that we can turn our communities into butterfly towns.”

Pogue is a botanist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. His work focuses on butterfly conservation through the recovery of listed species and increasing butterfly abundance in general. He grew up in southeast Missouri and has lived in eastern Washington and central Michigan before moving to Humboldt County. He graduated from Truman State University in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and from Central Michigan University in 2016 with a master’s degree in biology where he studied the habitat requirements of an endangered butterfly in the tallgrass prairies of the Midwest: the Poweshiek skipperling.

Today, he lives in Arcata with his dog Ette and in his personal time enjoys exploring the boundless world of music, woodworking and serving as president of the local chapter of the North American Butterfly Association.

The event begins with refreshments and a zoo update slide show at 6:45 p.m. The lecture starts at 7 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to ask the speaker questions after the presentation.

The Sequoia Park Zoo’s 13th annual Conservation Lecture Series is hosted by the Conservation Advisory Committee and sponsored by the Sequoia Park Zoo Foundation.