FARMINGTON —The University of Maine at Farmington is presenting a talk on the Maine Forest Tick Survey by guest lecturer Dr. Allison Gardner on Monday, March 27, at 11:45 a.m., in Thomas Auditorium in UMF Preble Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

The Maine Forest Tick Survey is a cross-disciplinary research project with the long-term goal of identifying forest management practices that inhibit tick-borne disease transmission, are compatible with landowners’ economic interests while conserving biodiversity and enhancing other ecosystem services provided by healthy forests.

Due to a combination of climate change and an expanding human-wildlife interface accompanying land development, Maine has seen a five-fold increase in Lyme disease incidence over the past decade. Active forest management may alter individual risk of exposure to tick-borne disease and the spread and persistence of tick-borne disease in the forest landscape via diverse mechanistic pathways.

In southern Maine, over 80% of forested land is managed and used for hunting, timber extraction, and outdoor recreation by non-industrial family forest landowners, creating both an urgent public health need and a unique socio-ecological context in which to investigate the effects of forest management on disease transmission.

This event is sponsored by the UMF Division of Natural Sciences.