On Tuesday September 11 (note change of date) at 7.30 pm in the Carriage House of Beaconsfield Historic House, at the corner of West and Kent Streets in Charlottetown, Dr. Doug Sobey will present a fully illustrated PowerPoint presentation on his research into the historical records for the various native mammals that occurred on Prince Edward Island at the time of European settlement in the eighteenth century.  He will also present a picture of the food-chain relationships between the animals, as well as consider their interactions with the French and British settlers, and the resulting extirpations that began to occur even from the first years of settlement.  Admission is $5.00 and light refreshments will be available. For information call Beaconsfield Historic House at 368-6603.

Dr. Doug Sobey taught environmental biology and ecology for thirty years at various educational institutions in Northern Ireland until he took early retirement in 2004 from the University of Ulster. Over the past twenty years he has been carrying out research into the history of the forests of Prince Edward Island, and has produced various reports and articles on the subject.  He has recently completed a study of the different woods used in Island shipbuilding in the nineteenth century, based on the survey reports of the Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, and is currently writing a report on the forest descriptions found on the early manuscript maps and field survey books in the Prince Edward Island Public Archives.