artsculture

In the upper reaches of the Cliff-Gila Valley in New Mexico, this is the view from the front of Jamestown native and conservation biologist Mike Fugali’s straw bale home. At 7:30 pm on Tuesday, September 14, Fugagli will talk about “The Mud Hut: Big Plan

Jamestown, NY – While Jamestown native and conservation biologist Mike Fugagli is home visiting his parents, Kay and Bill, he’s going to take some time out to talk about the straw bale house he built in the upper reaches of New Mexico’s Cliff-Gila Valley.

As part of Green Home Chautauqua, the Audubon Center & Sanctuary and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute will co-sponsor his presentation “The Mud Hut: Big Plans for a Small Future” at the Robert H. Jackson Center, 305 East Fourth Street at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, September 14.

Fugagli says he threw out his suits and ties after graduating from Indiana University with a master’s degree in environmental science and public affairs in 1989. Bit by the field biology bug after spending a summer searching for wood thrush nests in southern Indiana, he toured the country as an itinerant ornithologist, studying a variety of endangered birds, until settling in Gila, New Mexico in 2000.

For most of the past decade, Fugagli worked as staff naturalist for The Nature Conservancy's Bear Mountain Lodge in Silver City, New Mexico. He spent this past summer in the Carson National Forest, hooting for Mexican spotted owls.

An advocate for simple living in an era of energy decline and climatic instability, Fugagli believes we have reached the limits to growth. His power point presentation will describe the projects and durable set of living arrangements his family and partners have begun on their three-acre property along the banks of the upper Gila River in southwest New Mexico. Sharing Fugagli’s “mud hut” home are his wife, Carol, and son, Hawk. They raise goats, chickens, ducks, a dog, two cats, and a hedgehog.

Refreshments will follow the presentation. There is no admission charge, but donations will be accepted to cover expenses.

“Bottlenecks & Resilience” along the Gila River with Mike Fugagli is a conservation video featuring Fugagli that can be seen at youtube.com.

To learn more, call (716) 569-2345 or visit www.jamestownaudubon.org. For more information about Green Home Chautauqua, visit www.greenhomechautauqua.com.