Conference to Explore Area’s Past and Future

At a Cal State Northridge conference beginning Thursday, the ecological and environmental past of Southern California will be discussed and analyzed in an attempt to predict its future.

Scientists and historians from around the country are expected at “Nature’s Workshop: Environmental Change in 20th Century Southern California,” an annual conference co-sponsored by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and its Center for California Studies.

The conference sessions include discussions on urban planning, flooding and drought, natural disasters and urban hazards of Los Angeles, as well as interpreting changing landscapes and the historical perspectives of air quality, organizers said.

Representatives from more than 20 colleges and universities nationwide, as well as state agencies, preservationists and art patrons will meet to study the region’s past.

Scheduled moderators include historian Catherine Mulholland; Leonard and Dale Pitt, authors of an encyclopedia of Los Angeles; and conference co-chairman Mike Davis, a historian, journalist and author.

The public conference begins at 8:30 a.m. Thursday and continues through Saturday.

Registration is $20 general, $50 for academics and $30 for kindergarten-through-junior college instructors. Students with valid identification will be admitted free.

Other sponsors of the event are Caltech, the John and Laree Caughey Foundation, the Whitsett Endowment, the Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and Humanities, California Council for the Humanities and Calabasas Historical Society.

For more information, call (818) 677-6518, or register via fax at (818) 677-7115 or e-mail at scehc@csun.edu