WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT - Future Scenarios of Landscape Change

The Harvard Forest and Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute are pleased to host the workshop:

Future Scenarios of Landscape Change: Tools and Tactics

When:           Friday, August 17, 2012

Where:          Harvard Forest, Petersham, MA AND via online webinar for out-of-region participants.

Description:  1-day workshop on emerging scenario tools and tactics for understanding landscape vulnerability and resilience to global change with a focus on stakeholder engagement, quantitative landscape modeling, and scenario visualization.

Registration: 

http://harvardforest2.fas.harvard.edu/asp/hf/php/guest_register.php?bid=2129

To register for the workshop conference by JULY 15.

If you plan to attend online, please include the note "via webinar" in that box for travel plans. Once you have filled out the form, please press "submit."

Funding support provided by a grant to the Harvard Forest via NSF DEB-1057617, Landscape Vulnerability and Resilience to Global Change.

DRAFT AGENDA

Future Scenarios of Landscape Change: Tools and Tactics

9:00 am Welcome and Background on LTER Scenarios Activity

  David Foster, Harvard Forest

9:15 am New England Forest Landscape Scenarios Project - Overview

  Jonathan Thompson, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute – CONFIRMED

9:30 am Tools and Tactics: Stakeholder Engagement

•       Approaches and Lessons from Maine Sustainable Solutions Initiative Alternative Futures Project Spencer Meyer, Robert Lilieholm, University of Maine - CONFIRMED http://crsf.umaine.edu/files/2012/05/AltFutures_Handout_5.7.12_web.pdf

•       Stakeholder Considerations and Options for the New England Forest Scenarios Project    Joe Maccarron, REOS Partners - CONFIRMED http://reospartners.com/

•       Discussion – 30 min.

11:00 am Tools and Tactics: Quantitative Landscape Modeling

•       Advances in Landscape Modeling from Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic Planning

Representative from University of Alaska Fairbanks - INVITED www.snap.uaf.edu/

•       Opportunities for Expanding the Land Use Module for LANDIS-II

Sarah Beukema, ESSA Technologies – CONFIRMED http://essa.com/

•       Discussion – 30 min.

12:30 pm LUNCH

1:30 pm Tools and Tactics: Visualization of Scenario Output - To Be Determined

3:00 pm Discussion: Implications and Next Steps for LTER Network Scenario Working Group

•       Follow-up on ideas and recommendations from last workshop for advancing scenarios as a network activity

•       Preparing for ASM in September

•       Ideas for new or joint proposals

4:00 pm Adjourn

Another Year of BPESL Workshops Comes to an End

The Baltimore Partnership for Environmental Science Literacy (BPESL) has completed another year-long Institute working with middle and high school science teachers from Baltimore City and Baltimore County.  The program began in the summer of 2011 with an 8-day intensive Institute where teachers were immersed in learning about carbon, water, biodiversity, citizenship practices, and pedagogical techniques to improve attention to student thinking in the classroom.  The summer program was followed by five Saturday workshops during the 2011-2012 school year.  Topics included:  Microbes, Disease Ecology, Environmental Justice, Phenology and Urban Farming.

The BPESL team would like to thank all participating teachers for their enthusiasm and involvement in the program.  We also wish the best of luck and a fond farewell to two of our exiting graduate students:  Tamara Newcomer (University of Maryland, College Park) and Julie Baynard (Towson University).  We look forward to our next Institute set to begin on June 25^th.

Contributed by BES Ecology Education Program Leader Bess Caplan

Gunpowder Days at Hereford Middle School

The Baltimore Partnership for Environmental Science Literacy (BPESL) held a learning station at Hereford Middle School’s annual Gunpowder Days held at Gunpowder Falls State Park in Parkton, Maryland on May 31, 2012.  Julie Baynard and Natalie Mollett, both BPESL graduate students from Towson University, led a leaf pack activity for eighth grade students.  Students dissected and investigated stream leaf packs that had been placed in the adjacent Gunpowder Falls for the previous month.  Students also dissected leaf packs that had been in Towson Run, located on the Towson University campus.  Macroinvertebrates were found living in all the leaf packs and were identified by students using ID cards and sorting sheets.  By assessing and comparing the species of macroinvertebrates living in both streams, students discovered that Gunpowder Falls supports more pollution-sensitive species of macroinvertebrates than Towson Run.   

Contributed by BES Ecology Education Program Leader Bess Caplan

BES Quarterly Research Meeting - June Meeting Postponed

The June BES Quarterly Research Meeting was originally scheduled for 21 June.

This meeting has been postponed.  The new meeting date will be posted soon.

EcoSummit 2012 - Ecological Sustainability-Restoring the Planet’s Ecosystem Services

 

From the website:  www.ecosummit2012.org 

EcoSummit 2012 will bring together the world's most respected minds in ecological science to discuss restoring the planet's ecosystems. Come hear Nobel Prize laureate Elinor Ostrom, Pulitzer Prize winners E.O. Wilson and Jared Diamond, Kyoto Prize winner Simon Levin, Stockholm Water Prize laureates Sven Jørgensen and William Mitsch, and many others in the first conference ever linking the Ecological Society of America (ESA), The International Association for Ecology (INTECOL) and the Society for Ecological Restoration International (SER).

Over 1950 abstracts from 100 countries have been received by EcoSummit 2012 for presentations in 67 symposia, dozens of general sessions, and hundreds of poster presentations. More than a dozen professional workshops and forums with 200 additional participants will also be included in the Program.

The symposia, general sessions, posters, and workshops cover a wide variety of ecological topics, over the entire week of the conference in parallel sessionsincluding:

• ecological restoration and ecological engineering
• estimating ecosystem services
• global change issues including climate change effects and the future of food security
• lake, wetland, river, forest and agro-ecosystem management
• corporate involvement in the environment
• sustainable economics and business practices 

Ecosystems such as streams, rivers, inland and coastal wetlands, grasslands, and forests provide numerous services that fundamentally support human health and well-being. This international conference will explore innovative science-based strategies that are socially and culturally acceptable to create, manage, and restore these ecosystems, ensuring that society has access to all these ecosystem services. Our aim is to provide a high-profile platform for dialogue among researchers, planners and decision-makers to develop a better understanding of the complex nature of ecological systems and the means to protect and enhance their services.

Topics

Sustainability and Resilience Ecosystem Creation and Restoration/Ecological Engineering Global Change Ecosystem Services Ecological Indicators Biodiversity and Biological Conservation Climate Change Ecological Complexity Ecotoxicology

Ecological Economics Ecological Modelling Biological Invasions Ecosystem Health Environmental Policy Ecological Knowledge Coastal Problems Caused by Upland Pollution Sources Watershed/River Catchment Management Ecohydrology

BES Quarterly Research Meeting: Green Infrastructure

Green Infrastructure

 

Quarterly Research Meeting

Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Technology Research Center Room 206

5200 Westland Blvd

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

(Directions at:  http://beslter.org/frame2-page_10.html)

Preliminary Agenda

9:30:      Gather and Schmooze

9:50       Overview of Meeting. Morgan Grove

10:00:    Burgess: A View from the City

• How will Green Infrastructure help Baltimore meet its needs?
• What are the types of Green Infrastructure the City is contemplating?
• What are the City’s concerns and issues associated with Green Infrastructure?
• What are the City’s monitoring and research needs?

10:30:    Shedlock: Hydrologic Monitoring

• What are the existing hydrologic monitoring activities?
• How do we assess whether existing activities are sufficient?
• What might be needed, what could be deactivated?

11:00:    Grove: Social and Economic Monitoring

• What are the existing social and economic monitoring activities?
• How do we assess whether the existing activities are sufficient?
• What might be needed, what could be deactivated?
• What have we learned from current activities?

11:30:     Groffman / Kaushal: Learning from Past and Present Monitoring and Research

• Examples of existing Green Infrastructure monitoring and research?
• What have we learned?
• How can we improve our Green Infrastructure monitoring and research?

12:00:    Lunch

1:30:      Discussion Part 1

·        What are related existing or planned BES or BES-related projects?

2:00:      Discussion Part 2

·        How can BES collaborate with city agencies and NGOs with existing resources?

·        How can BES develop new resources for collaboration?

3:00       Adjourn

International Drylands Symposium: Learning from Legacies, Sustaining the Future

THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2012

10:00 AM TO 5:00 PM

Las Cruces Convention Center, 680 E. University Ave., Las Cruces, New Mexico 88001 USA

Recognizing both 100 years of Jornada Research in Support of Management and Conservation of Land and the UN Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification

The event is free and open to the public.

Register and submit posters online at: http://jornada.nmsu.edu/news-events/jornada-symposium

Featured speakers during the afternoon program include:

·         Mr. Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

·         Dr. William deBuys, Conservationist and noted author (A Great Aridness; River of Traps; Salt Dreams)

·         Mr. Luis Torres, Long‐Time Community Worker in Northern New Mexico and member, High Country News Board of Directors

·         Dr. Deb Peters, Ecologist and Principal Investigator of the National Science Foundation’s Long Term Ecological Research Program (NSF LTER) at the Jornada

·         Dr. Steve Shafer, Deputy Administrator, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

·         Program Moderator: Dr. Jeff Herrick, USDA ARS Soil Scientist

 

 

Morning poster program: submission of titles and contributions are welcome and will be published on‐line

Pre‐Symposium Field Tour, Wednesday, July 11th, 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM, availability limited to first 100 registered

Contact Bernice Gamboa (bgamboa@nmsu.edu or 575‐646‐4842) for further information

Organized by the USDA‐ARS, UNCCD, and the NSF LTER