Aspen presentation follows journey of cutthroat trout

ASPEN – Thursday’s installment in the Naturalist Nights series at the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies will feature DNA researcher Jessica Metcalf following “The Journey of Cutthroat Trout in Colorado.”

The free presentation will be at 7:30 p.m. in the ACES headquarters at 100 Puppy Smith St. in Aspen.

Metcalf will discuss how she and other researchers went on a forensic quest to discover the journey cutthroat trout have taken over the years to populate rivers and streams in Colorado. In an effort to describe the historical diversity and distribution of Colorado’s cutthroat trout, Metcalf and other researchers sequenced historical DNA from cutthroat trout that were caught and preserved across Colorado and New Mexico between 1857 and 1889. Metcalf’s presentation will showcase a little known story about one of Colorado’s most iconic species.

Metcalf is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado, where she specializes in getting DNA out of dead organisms. She uses ancient DNA techniques to answer questions about ecology, evolution, conservation and forensics.

The Naturalist Nights series is a joint presentation of the Wilderness Workshop, ACES and Roaring Fork Audubon. Shows run Thursdays every week at ACES at 7:30 p.m. and every other week at the Third Street Center in Carbondale at 5:30 p.m.