Magpie, a three-year-old wolf, will be part of a presentation next week at the University of Rhode Island by the Mission Wolf program.

Photo courtesy of Tracy Brooks

Leading authors, scientists and environmental and human-rights advocates are scheduled to gather Friday to Sunday at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth for the third annual Bioneers by the Bay: Connecting for Change Conference.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, will kick off the conference with a presentation on the night before the conference starts.

Other speakers include authors Bill McKibben, Naomi Wolf, and John Perkins. Also speaking are Diane Wilson, who led a campaign to stop chemical dumping in waters off Texas; Van Jones, founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; and Dr. Joia Mukherjee, medical director for Partners in Health, a charity that operates clinics in developing countries. Mukherjee delivered a stirring commencement address at the University of Rhode Island last May.

The conference will explore topics ranging from the green economy to renewable energy, protecting food supplies and protecting democratic freedoms.

The conference is sponsored by the Marion Institute, which works to support sustainability and solutions to problems facing the world.

The conference is a result of a partnership including the national Bioneers organization, the Marion Institute, UMass Dartmouth, the city of New Bedford, the Center at WestWoods, and Chelsea Green Publishing of White River Junction, Vt.

To register, call (508) 748-0816. Fees range from $100 for one day to $225 for three days. Conference details are at www.connectingforchange.org.

Audubon meeting marks anniversary

The Audubon Society of Rhode Island is celebrating its 110th anniversary at its annual meeting Sunday, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick.

The keynote speaker will be Cheryl Charles, president and cofounder of the Children & Nature Network, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to building a movement to reconnect children and nature. Cofounder Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods, gives the movement much of its momentum.

Charles will speak about the growing disconnect between children and nature and address the scientific and common-sense evidence of the benefits children receive from experiencing nature on a daily basis.

Also, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed will be recognized for supporting the “No Child Left Inside” legislation that would provide federal money for environmental education programs.

Audubon’s staff and volunteers teach more than 33,000 schoolchildren each year at the society’s Environmental Education Center in Bristol.

The society also will present its annual awards for business, educator and volunteer to the Newport Harbor Corp.; Marilyn Wentworth, a teacher at the San Miguel School in Providence; and Everett Stuart, a longtime Audubon volunteer from North Kingstown.

The meeting will run from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tickets are $20 each. To make reservations, call the society at (401) 949-5454.

Program features live wolf visit

Next week, Rhode Islanders will have the rare opportunity to see a live wolf.

Magpie, a three-year-old wolf, and Abraham, a hybrid puppy, will be brought to an educational program scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, in Independence Hall at the University of Rhode Island.

The wolves are part of the Mission Wolf program that travels around the country, educating people about wolves, programs to restore wolves in the wild, wolf communication and behavioral comparisons with dogs.

Kelly Grennan, a science teacher at Cole Middle School in East Greenwich, will host the visit. For more information, go to www.missionwolf.com or www.wolfteacher.com.

Tour shows off sewer technology

Visiting a sewage treatment plant may not be high on most people’s list of things to do on a Saturday afternoon, but the Narragansett Bay Commission is nevertheless inviting the public to its Bucklin Point Wastewater Treatment Facility on Saturday.

From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. the public is invited to tour the plant, at 102 Campbell Ave., East Providence. The Narragansett Bay Commission, which operates the plant, says that after a $65-million upgrade, it is the most technologically advanced wastewater treatment plant in Rhode Island.

The tours are being held to mark the 15th anniversary of the Bay Commission’s ownership of the facility and the 35th anniversary of the Federal Clean Water Act.

Along with the tours, there will be family-friendly activities, music and refreshments.

URI hosting oceans workshop

Educators, scientists and the public are invited to a day of ocean science from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Coastal Institute at the University of Rhode Island’s Bay Campus.

The event is entitled Oceans À la Carte, Large Marine Ecosystems, A Celebration of NOAA’s 200th Anniversary.

NOAA, the federal oceans agency, was actually created in the early 1970s. But it is tracing its roots to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, which goes back 200 years.

There will be presentations during the day by leading scientists, hands-on activities and information sessions. Free materials will be distributed by NOAA and URI’s office of marine programs.

Much of the focus will be on large marine ecosystems, vast areas of the oceans that are being managed because they share similar water depth, productivity and currents. The concepts behind LME’s, now being established around the world, were devised by Rhode Island-based scientists.

Many of the leading scientists at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography and federal laboratories nearby are taking part. The keynote speaker will be Kenneth Sherman, director of NOAA’s Narragansett laboratory and one of the creators of LMEs.

There will also be presentations on studying ocean productivity from space, assessing pollution in LMEs, governing LMEs and marine pollution in Narragansett Bay.

A fee of $35 ($20 for URI students) covers lunch, refreshments and take-home materials.

Register by downloading a form at http://omp.gso.uri.edu/ or by calling (401) 874-6211.

Cancer expert to speak at Brown

Devra Davis, an author and scientist, will lead a special seminar on her latest book, The Secret History of the War on Cancer, at 4 p.m. Thursday, in the Smith-Buonanno building on Meeting Street at Brown University.

Davis uses materials from secret archives to show how industries that generated many cancer-causing materials have downplayed research on cancer prevention and kept findings on environmental causes of cancer from gaining widespread attention.

“Since its formal launch more than 35 years ago, the war on cancer has been fighting many of the wrong battles with the wrong weapons and the wrong leaders,” Davis writes. “Officially declared by President Nixon in 1971, the American effort aggressively targeted the illness but left its myriad causes untouched.”

Davis is a professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Her talk is hosted by the Superfund Basic Research Program at Brown.

Blackstone panel holds reception

A reception for Jan Reitsma, the new executive director of the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission, is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, at the commission’s offices at 1 Depot Square in Woonsocket.

Chrysandra Walter, deputy regional director for the National Park Service, will provide introductions. The public is invited, but is asked to call ahead to Barbara Dixon, at (401) 762-0250, ext. 30.

The Environmental Journal is a listing of brief news items about the actions of individuals, organizations and businesses that affect the air we breathe, the water we drink and the landscape that surrounds us. If you have comments or suggestions, please contact environment reporter Peter B. Lord at 277-8036, or by email at plord@projo.com or by writing him, care of the Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, R.I. 02902.