Social Hour: 4:00 - 5:15 PM

Weather permitting, we will kick off the event with a relaxed outdoor social hour where you can mingle with fellow nature enthusiasts, festival goers, and guides over light nibbles, refreshing drinks (non-alcoholic, wine, and beer), and some groovy tunes.

We will have a mini version of our bird hub merchandise available on site, or you can visit us at 65 Third Street, Point Reyes Station, throughout the festival weekend to check out the Shore to Inspire art show with artist Allison Spreadborough, and a full range of festival gifts and swag.

Inkind Sponsors

Keynote 5:00 - 6:30 pm

Bears & Beavers: Wild Architects of the Watershed with Meghan Walla-Murphy

Dig into an unforgettable early evening celebrating the fascinating world of bears and beavers with a keynote that’s un-bear-ably insightful and ‘dam’ inspiring.

How do two very different species—bears and beavers—shape the land, water, and life around them? Join Meghan Walla-Murphy, wildlife ecologist, tracker, writer, and renowned conservation storyteller, for an illuminating keynote exploring the ecological roles of these keystone species and their profound impact on the health of our watersheds, including around Marin and the Bay Area.

Through the lens of science and deep observation, Meghan reveals how the behaviors of bears and beavers—digging, damming, dispersing, and foraging—create and sustain habitats that support biodiversity, water resilience, and climate adaptation. These “wild architects” don’t just survive in their ecosystems—they engineer them.

This keynote will take you on a journey through riparian corridors, salmon-bearing streams, and forested uplands, offering fresh insight into how we might rethink conservation by understanding and supporting the natural engineers already doing the work. Come away inspired to see the landscape and its wild inhabitants—in a new light.

Meghan Walla-Murphy has been able to combine her passions for wildlife tracking, writing, and people into vocations of habitat conservation and public awareness. As an educator, ecologist, and author of books, essays, and articles, Meghan strives to help people connect to their external and internal landscapes. She has been tracking animals avidly for more than two decades, which adds depth and breadth to her work in habitat connectivity and outreach. She is the director of the North Bay Bear Collaborative (www.beingwithbears.org). She has also co-authored a book on tracking with carnivore biologist Dr. James Halfpenny, as well as a book on the historical ecology of salmonids in the Russian River. Meghan has traveled extensively in the US, Brasil, the Congo, and Southern Africa to learn from diverse teachers who use tracking for research, land stewardship, and education. This seemingly esoteric, yet ancient art has given Meghan the skills to read a landscape and better understand ecology, which she then applies to help solve conservation and social justice challenges in her community. Learn More

Join Meghan in the field on Sunday, April 26th, for “From Tweets to Tracks: Reading the Landscape through Bird Language & The Art of Tracking.” Field event registration number coming soon!