LOWER LAKE, Calif. – This month’s Redbud Audubon Society meeting at the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum on Thursday, March 21, 7 p.m. ventures into the world of the very photogenic, intriguing and endangered giant panda.

Sandy Moura, a Redbud Audubon Society member, will share her experiences from last summer when she traveled to China “On the Trail of the Giant Panda,” with the Earthwatch organization.

Earthwatch is a nonprofit group that supports research and education worldwide through grants to scientific researchers to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment.

Earthwatch funds 65 projects in 35 countries in four topic areas: ecosystems and wildlife; ocean health; climate change; and archaeology and culture.

Supporting the research, volunteers assist with ongoing fieldwork at locations around the world, which is what Moura was doing.

The primary goal of the Panda project is to increase the population of the giant pandas (about 1,500 in the wild at this time) through captive breeding programs and reintroduction of pandas into the wild.

Moura was at a site in the mountains outside the city of Chengdu in southwest China. She worked at the Ya’an Bifengxia Panda Base that focuses on breeding and behaviors of breeding females and their offspring.

The public is invited to this interesting program.

For more information about the Redbud Audubon Society, go to www.redbudaudubon.org .