How a changing climate is affecting the region and Pennsylvania will be the topic of the final lecture in the 2014 South Mountain Speakers Series on November 13 at Dickinson College in Carlisle.

"Changing Climate in the South Mountain Region: How a Changing Global Climate is Affecting the Local Landscape," will be held at 7 p.m. in the Great Room, Stern Center, at 208 West Louther St., Carlisle, on the Dickinson College campus.

"This lecture and panel discussion will explore how a changing climate is impacting forests and habitats, agriculture and weather patterns including major storm events and floods in the South Mountain landscape," said Jon Peterson, a planner with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy who is coordinating the committee on the speakers series.

The evening will begin with Shippensburg University earth science professor Tim Hawkins, who will draw upon his own research to describe historic weather and climate patterns and extremes for the region, including trends found along the Appalachian Trail.

The panel discussion that will follow will include: Ben Wenk, grower and partner at Three Springs Fruit Farm, covering fruit grower/agricultural issues; Marc McDill, associate professor of forest management at Penn State University, covering forestry issues; and Jeff Niemitz, professor of geology at Dickinson College covering heavy rainfall events and flooding issues.

This event is supported by Dickinson College, the Greater Carlisle Project and the South Mountain Partnership. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The annual South Mountain Speakers Series is envisioned as a revival of the talks given by Joseph Rothrock in the late 19th century as part of his work to preserve and restore Pennsylvania's forests and natural landscape.

This November event marks the last event in the 2014 Season of the South Mountain Speakers Series. The Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau sponsored this special fifth season. The series will continue in 2015 with an exciting set of events soon to be announced.

The South Mountain Partnership is a public-private partnership between DCNR and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and has grown into a coalition of citizens, businesses, non-profit organizations and government representatives in Adams, Cumberland, Franklin and York counties, working together to protect and enhance the South Mountain landscape.

South Mountain is at the northern end of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Communities in the 400,000-acre region have thrived off fertile limestone agricultural lands, the timber that fed iron furnaces, plentiful game and wildlife, and abundant pure spring water that is captured by the mountains' permeable soils and released into the valleys.

For more information about the speakers series, visit the South Mountain Speakers Series blog or call the Appalachian Trail Conservancy at 717-258-5771.  Some of the earlier lectures in the speaker series can be found on YouTube.

11/3/2014