For more than 1,700 years, the Maya center of El Pilar thrived beneath the lush canopy of the Maya forest along the border of Guatemala and Belize.

Today, however, the ancient city is an abandoned shambles.

And the great forest that sustained its people for so many centuries is at risk of being cut and cleared.

UC Santa Barbara research archeologist Anabel Ford will discuss "El Pilar and the Maya Forest: Out of the Past, In the Present, For the Future," at one of UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang's periodic Chancellor's Community Breakfasts, at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 24. The breakfast will be held in the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center 1118 East Cabrillo Boulevard, Santa Barbara.