KAW MISSION COUNCILS 2008

Our Fabulous Flint Hills: The Hills Alive

The fourth program in the Kaw Mission Councils 2008 educational program series, Our Fabulous Flint Hills: The Hills Are Alive! features Joe & Suzanne Collins presenting Snake Stories. The program will be presented at 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 17th at the Kaw Mission State Historic Site in Council Grove, Kansas. All Kaw Mission Councils2008 programs are free and open to the public.

Joseph T. Collins has written more books about Kansas wildlife than any other person in the history of the state. He has published over 260 articles on reptiles, turtles, amphibians, and fishes throughout North America and has written twenty-three books. In Snake Stories, Collins will talk about snakes and how people perceive and react to them. His presentation will be peppered with humorous anecdotes about people and their interaction with snakes.

Joe Collins is the editor of Mammals in Kansas and Birds in Kansas (two volumes). These three books, along with Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas and Fishes in Kansas, are a complete set of vertebrate field guides for Kansas.

In 1978, Collins served as president of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, the leading international professional society in that field, as president of the Kansas Association of Biology Teachers (1980-1981), and as president of the Kansas Herpetological Society (1983). He was chosen the University of Kansas Employee of the Year (1979), was honored as the Kansas Wildlife Federation's Conservationist of the Year in 1986, was the 1989 recipient of the Kansas Herpetological Society's Bronze Salamander Award for distinguished service, was designated (1996) an honorary life member of the Texas Herpetological Society, was invested and proclaimed by Governor Bill Graves as The Wildlife Author Laureate of Kansas in April 1996, and was honored with the Kansas Wildlife Federation Presidential Award for distinguished service during 1997. He was a distinguished delegate to the First World Congress of Herpetology at Canterbury, England, in 1989, and was made a Distinguished Life Member of the Kansas Herpetological Society in 1998.

Joseph T. Collins is Adjunct Herpetologist for the Kansas Biological Survey, Herpetologist Emeritus for the Natural History Museum at The University of Kansas, Adjunct Curator of Herpetology for the Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Fort Hays State University, and Director of The Center for North American Herpetology (a non-profit 501c3 foundation).

The Friends of Kaw Heritage, Inc. and Kansas Historical Society sponsor the Kaw Mission Councils 2008 educational program series. Free refreshments compliments of FKH. For additional information contact the Kaw Mission State Historic Site at 620-767-5410, e-mail - kawmission@kshs.org. Group reservations are recommended.
 

The Kansas Historical Society does not discriminate on the basis of disability in admission to, access to, or operation of its programs.  The society requests prior notification to accommodate individuals with special needs or disabilities.