PLENARY SESSION
Thursday, January 31, 2008, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
THEME OVERVIEW
The Perils of Prediction: Let Forecasters Beware
Glenn Guntenspergen, Landscape Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey
The maturity of a field of science can be measured by its ambitions and the types of questions that scientists ask. An increased emphasis on prediction dominates the questions that society asks of wetland scientists. Wetland ecosystem responses to global change, urbanization and other multiple stressors operating at different temporal and spatial scales are difficult to predict, and conveying uncertainty remains a major challenge. Prediction does have an important role in wetland research, but it is also important to emphasize that what we do not know is as important as what we do know. There are limits to ecological prediction and how we go about recognizing these limits affects society’s reactions to increasingly complex problems. Wetland scientists should strive to maintain a balance between knowledge application and expanding the frontiers of knowledge, which will result in new principles and concepts that can be used to address future unknown problems and mysteries yet to be tackled.
About the Speaker
Dr. Glenn R. Guntenspergen is a Landscape Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. He received a B.S. and M.S. from the University of Illinois in Biology/History and a Ph.D. in Plant Ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research interests include: climate change impacts on freshwater and coastal wetlands, the role of biotic and abiotic processes influencing ecosystem function, the regional and landscape implications of spatial heterogeneity on plant community organization and structure, and ecological threshold responses to stressors in plant and animal communities.
> Click here to visit Glenn's webpage on the USGS website
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
The Intersection of Wetland Science & Policy: A 30-Year Personal View
Barbara Bedford, Senior Research Associate at Cornell University's Department of Natural Resources
Based on her personal experience, Barbara will discuss how wetland science and wetland policy have evolved and intertwined over the past thirty years. She will emphasize the idea of the "Fair Witness," to which the late wetland ecologist Dan Willard first introduced her when she worked with him as an expert witness in Wisconsin wetland cases. This idea embodies what she perceives to be the legitimate role of the scientist in policy issues. She also will use the "Myth of Sisyphus" to temper the outrage she feels at the extent to which small thinking has undermined environmental protection and the education of environmental stewards capable of addressing the urgencies of the day.
About the Speaker
In Barbara’s own words, she has been "obsessed with all aspects of wetland ecosystems" since the early 1970's when Jim Zimmerman "first turned her senses to their beauty and biological diversity." And after more than 30 years, she still feels drawn to that diversity, intellectually and personally. She teaches students about it, does research on it, and works with government agencies, conservation organizations, and other groups involved with issues related to wetland diversity locally, nationally, and internationally. Barbara has been at Cornell University since 1980 where she is currently a Senior Research Associate in Cornell’s Department of Natural Resources, which she joined in 1989. She has received teaching awards from both her college and her university, and many forms of national recognition for her work at the interface between wetland science and policy, including awards from the Society of Wetland Scientists and the National Association of State Wetland Managers. She holds an M.S. (1977) and Ph.D. (1980) from the Institute of Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin - Madison, and an A.B. in Theology (1968) from Marquette University.
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BANQUET PRESENTATION
Thursday, January 31, 2008, 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm (program will begin ~ 7:15 pm)
> Click here for information on the banquet dinner menu and how to purchase tickets.
Introductory Remarks: Matt Frank, Secretary of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Confronting Amphibian Declines and Extinctions
Kevin Zippel, Program Director for the Amphibian Ark
Amphibians include frogs and toads, newts and salamanders, and caecilians. Their value is immeasurable: they are indicators of environmental health, components of healthy ecosystems, and contributors to human medicine and culture. But the world’s amphibians are disappearing, and wetland habitat loss is one of the key factors contributing to amphibian declines. With more than one hundred species likely already extinct and thousands more threatened with extinction, their predicament represents the greatest species conservation challenge in the history of humanity. In fact it is the greatest extinction event in the 360-million-year history of amphibians, and the planet has not seen anything similar since the extinction of the dinosaurs. The causes of the amphibian declines and extinctions are diverse, and their synergies are poorly understood. But it is clear that for hundreds of species, their threats cannot be mitigated in the wild and captive management is required if they are to persist.
The Amphibian Ark (AArk) draws together diverse stakeholders to save prioritized species until a future time when in situ threats can be mitigated. AArk work includes species prioritization, husbandry training, capacity building, fostering partnerships, fundraising, and education. A campaign entitled 2008 Year of the Frog is helping to raise awareness among governments, media, educators, and the general public, and to support a capital campaign to fund amphibian conservation programs worldwide. The outcome of Amphibian Ark will be that we will have saved hundreds of species from extinction, developed capacity both within our institutions and globally to continue to provide amphibian species with care and protection when needed, formed a true partnership between ex-situ and in-situ components of conservation, established a model framework for responding to future species conservation crises, and demonstrated to the world that zoos and aquariums are essential conservation organizations. This presentation will provide an overview of the amphibian decline crisis and global conservation efforts.
About the Speaker
Kevin Zippel is the Program Director for the Amphibian Ark. He received his B.S. in 1994 from Cornell University, and his Ph.D. in 2000 from the University of Florida. He worked for one year (1999) as a curatorial intern in the Department of Herpetology at the Wildlife Conservation Society/Bronx Zoo while he finished his doctorate. Kevin then went on to work five years as Curator of Amphibians at the Detroit Zoo. During his years in Detroit, he developed adjunct associate professor status at Michigan State University and George Mason University. In 2005, Kevin joined the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) to help the ex situ community develop and implement plans to stem the amphibian extinction crisis. These efforts evolved into the Amphibian Ark.
> Click here to visit the 2008 Year of the Frog campaign website
