The Mahoosuc Land Trust will launch its 2015 Speaker Series, “This Is Your Backyard,” with a presentation by Dr. Stephen Mulkey entitled “This Is Your Climate Challenge.” Dr. Mulkey, President of Unity College, will speak at McLaughlin Auditorium on the Gould Academy campus at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 21, with a snow date of Feb. 4.

Unity’s academic programs are designed around a commitment to sustainability and its campus boasts two super-efficient “passive” buildings. The board of Unity College voted in 2012 to become the first college in the nation to divest of fossil fuels. Dr. Mulkey has written, “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, more important than establishing a sustainable future for our children.” With this conviction in mind he will discuss conservation in the context of climate change, as well as how fossil fuel divestment can help lead us to a safer and healthier future.

Prior to joining Unity in 2011, Dr. Mulkey was at the University of Idaho, where he developed a new graduate program in Environmental Science and led a statewide initiative in climate change education. Trained as a biologist, he is an expert in tropical forest ecology, author of Tropical Forest Plant Ecophysiology, and a co-founder of the International Center for Tropical Ecology.

Future topics in the speaker series will include “These are Your Windmills,” “These are Your Farmers,” “These are Your Forests” and “Your Backyard Dreams Get Real.”

The Mahoosuc Land Trust is an accredited community land trust encouraging public interest in conservation in central Oxford County and eastern Coos County, N.H., supporting a balance of growth and conservation and emphasizing sustainable and traditional land uses. For more information, visit www.mahoosuc.org or call 207-824-3806.