Nature Network 10/22/08 Members MeetingThis is a featured page

Nature Network
Meeting of Member Organizations
Wednesday, October 22, 10-12:30 a.m.
Cornell Cooperative Extension, 16 E. 34th St. 8th Floor

Agenda
Please RSVP via e-mail reply or 914 922-1542. Expected attendance: Howard Apsan, J. T. Boehm, Brian F. Cabezas, Helen Forgione, John Halenar, Jane Jackson, Don McCrimmon (by phone), Rud Platt, Bill Shore, Bill Solecki, Shino Tanikawa (If you’re not listed, please RSVP!)

  • 1. Self-Introduction of those attending, with their organizations’ news.
  • 2. Speaker: William Schlesinger, President, Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies: Global Changes in Cities: What can New Yorkers expect? The basics and basis of the current global warming trends--what this will mean for northeastern cities and for New York in particular and some suggestions about what can be done to mitigate and avoid the greatest impacts of climate change.
  • 3. Reports and discussion about Nature Network’s 7 Working Groups, currently working on: (1) Organizing to prepare a regional Biodiversity on-line Atlas, (2) Improving nature education in NYC schools, (3) Collecting experience with citizen science, Monitoring with Volunteers, (4) Controlling invasives, (5) Identifying NYC sites that should be preserved, restored or better managed for natural protection, (6) improving the sustainability of what is built staring in the Mid-Hudson, and (7) alerting the Region to the true state of global ecosystems. The Atlas discussion will take the most time. Please see 2 attachments in preparation.
  • 4. Outdoor meeting next spring: proposals to consider. (Please see 3rd attachment.)

RE: Bill Schlesinger:

On 1 June 2007, William H. Schlesinger was named President of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, a private ecological research institute on the grounds of the Cary Arboretum in Millbrook, NY. He assumed this position after 27 years on the faculty of Duke University. Completing his A.B. at Dartmouth (1972), and Ph.D. at Cornell (1976), he moved to Duke in 1980, where he retired in spring 2007 as Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and as James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry. He is the author or coauthor of over 180 scientific papers on subjects of environmental chemistry and global change and the widely-adopted textbook Biogeochemistry: An analysis of global change (Academic Press, 2nd ed. 1997). He was among the first to quantify the amount of carbon held in soil organic matter globally, providing subsequent estimates of the role of soils and human impacts on forests and soils in global climate change.

RE: Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies:

The work of the Institute contributes to an understanding and resolution of pressing environmental problems in two fundamental ways: Basic science is the foundation for environmental problem solving. Indeed, basic science often is the window through which critical environmental problems are first recognized. Examples include acid rain in North America, eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems, the ecological origins of Lyme disease and the global CO2 increase. Environmental problems cannot be evaluated or solved without answers to questions like, "How much? How extensive? What has been the change with time? What is the impact on different system components? What are the feedback and amplification pathways?" Research programs at the Cary Institute contribute answers to such questions. For example, Cary Institute staff can state how their research projects relate to global environmental change, biodiversity, air and water pollution, eutrophication, forestry practices, and sustainable development. Second, Cary Institute staff members are committed to making scientific information available to the public, managers, and decision-makers. The consensus document on "Sustained Ecological Research: A Critical Need" arising out of the international 1989 Cary Conference organized by the Institute, reflects this commitment. Other examples include workshops on science and the media, public field trips and ecological excursions led by Cary Institute staff, concerted staff review of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation plans and programs, and interactions with local, state, and federal officials and agencies. Specific examples include regional commissions concerning the Hudson River, town planning boards and conservation commissions, the New York Governor's Environmental Advisory Board, the New York City Parks Department, and the USDA Forest Service. In addition, the Cary Institute Education Program attempts to increase scientific literacy in elementary and high schools, and the National Science Foundation funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program aggressively recruits women and students from minority groups, and from schools where research is not likely to be an option for college undergraduates. The intense involvement of Cary Institute staff in these pursuits is remarkable and unusual even when compared to centers of ecology at leading universities.

Members Survey
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