Local Author Will Talk Conservation At Westport Library Next Week

WESTPORT, CT — James Prosek, a conservationist and author whose career was inspired by his childhood spent "trespassing" the Aspetuck Reservoir area, will talk conservation at the Westport Public Library next month.

Prosek's talk is titled "Trespassing and Conservation," and it will take place on Wednesday, April 6 beginning at 7 p.m. at the library (20 Jesup Road, Westport).

The lecture will "draw attention to the beauty of our natural world while urging us to protect, conserve and connect our lands restoring a healthy ecosystem for all," officials wrote in a news release.

Prosek, a lifelong resident of Easton, credits the years he spent exploring the watershed lands surrounding the Aspetuck Reservoir as having shaped his career.

Now, he's published over a dozen books and is most well-known for "Trout: An Illustrated History," which he wrote as a 19-year-old freshman at Yale University.

And he's also an artist, whose work has been featured in The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Yale Center for British Art and more.

"The danger comes when the lines we draw make us lose sight of the interconnected nature of Nature," Prosek has written. "The challenge is to communicate and celebrate the beauty of diversity on our planet without embracing an ethos of division."

This event is part of the annual Haskins Lecture Series organized by Aspetuck Land Trust to honor noted scientists Caryl and Edna Haskins, who bequeathed their Westport estate on Green Acre Lane to the land trust in 2002, creating the 16-acre preserved named after them.

Admission is free, though officials are asking attendees to RSVP here.