MacArthur Award
Alan Hastings
University of California at Davis

The Robert H. MacArthur Award is given biannually to an established ecologist in mid-career for meritorious contributions to ecology, in the expectation of continued outstanding ecological research. Nominees may be from any country and need not be ESA members. The recipient is invited to prpare an address for presentation at the annual meeting of the society and for publication in Ecology.

Alan Hastings of the University of California at Davis is one of the most respected theoretical ecologists working today. He has been a leading force in this field for two decades. He is distinguished both for his research and for his commitment to advancing the basic ecological sciences and their management implications. He has published fundamental papers in population genetics and ecology, made important contributions in metapopulation theory and conservation biology, and brought the full power of sophisticated advances to bear on the solution of applied problems.

His work, from the start, has sought to integrate ecology and evolutionary biology. His contributions to making space and time explicit in metapopulation and dispersal models have launched new research subfields, not only in theoretical ecology but in conservation biology and resource management. Dr. Hastings is distinguished not only for the breadth, quality, and impact of his work, but for his productivity, with more some 170 peer-reviewed papers, many of which have become classics. Alan has also written a successful textbook (Population Biology: Concepts and Models). Indeed, his nominators describe his writing in research papers as “both rigorous and pedagogical.”

After receiving his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1977, Alan Hastings began his professorial career in Washington State University in the Department of Pure and Applied Mathematics. Since 1979, he has been at U. C. Davis, where he is now Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, a department he chaired from 1992 to 1998.

As a mentor, Dr. Hastings has trained 16 doctoral students and 22 postdocs, and is beloved by those who have worked with him. His contributions to the wider community include service to the Society for Mathematical Biology as President and to the ESA as Chair of the Theoretical Ecology Section. Currently, he is Editor-in-Chief of the Theoretical Ecology Series for Academic Press, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Mathematical Biology, Associate Editor of Theoretical Population Biology, and serves on the Editorial Board of Mathematical Biosciences. In the past, he has served on the Board of Editors for Ecology and Ecological Monographs and as Associate Editor for Evolution and Oecologia.

 

George Mercer Award
Anurag Agrawal

The experiments carefully teased apart the complex interactive effects of herbivory, plant competition, and plant genotype on milkweed performance and fitness. The non-additive effects of competition by grasses and beetle herbivory on milkweed growth was a particularly novel aspect of the results. With a quantitative genetic experiment, Agrawal showed that milkweeds growing near grass experienced more herbivory from adult Tetraopes beetles, and that this effect was directly due to beetles being attracted to grass, which serves as their oviposition site. In a manipulative experiment with beetle larvae, Agrawal also found that grass competition interacted with larval feeding on roots to negatively impact milkweed. The grass, meanwhile, enjoyed competitive release by facilitating its neighbor’s herbivore. Finally, Agrawal presented a general model to predict the conditions under which plant–plant interactions can result in net competition or facilitation via indirect effects.

This paper represents the kind of holistic studies that will take our understanding of plant–herbivore interactions to a new level. Overall, Anurag Agrawal’s growing body of work, exemplified by but not restricted to this paper, is having a significant impact in the areas of plant–animal interactions and community ecology.

 

 

Eugene P. Odum Award
Claudia Lewis

 

Claudia Lewis, this year’s winner of the Odum Education Award, is Director of Education for Pinellas County, Florida. Ms. Lewis is a multi-lingual conservationist with a long and successful career in environmental education. Her unique set of professional skills has allowed her to effectively reach a wide audience with outstanding education programs and initiatives in sustainable development, conservation and education techniques. During her 20-year career she has developed a multitude of environmental education projects aimed at protecting a variety of species and ecosystems focusing primarily on wetlands and also on wading birds and shorebirds. Her latest focus has also included upland protection and restoration in Central Florida. A variety of innovative materials and approaches have included working with ecotourism operators and recreational wildland users.

Claudia Lewis is a brilliant educator, able to reach all levels of audiences, from small children to professional educators. Her professional work spans the range of the fields of social marketing, environmental education, interpretive program design and development and exhibits design. She has excelled in all of these fields. Much of her work has focused on reaching out to audiences typically not reached by traditional environmental education programs.

Major target audiences have included African-American and Latino teenagers, as well as teenagers in the juvenile justice system; entire neighborhoods; realtors and newcomers to the state; and decision-makers and politicians. Ms. Lewis works in a variety of ways. These include networking (one of her main foci has been to get a variety of interest groups to the table); knowledge transfer (she brings to her colleagues the latest and most innovative science and techniques in the environmental education field); and conservation work.

One recommender said of her: “Claudia is blessed with the gift of being a truly inspirational speaker, who motivates people to get involved and take action within their communities and local environment. Claudia exudes professional dedication and is highly motivated if not driven. She gives to others, unselfishly, of her time, heart and soul in order to make this a safer, healthier, and more beautiful world to live in. Claudia Lewis is an outstanding environmental educator and leader, deserving of this recognition.”

 

 

Sustainability Science Award
Millennium Assessment Team
Dr. Walter V. Reid
Director of Conservation and Science, Packard Foundation

 

the services they provide to society. The book demonstrates that, over the past 50 years, humans have changed the world’s ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water and other ecosystem services. This transformation of the planet has contributed to net gains in human well-being and economic development. However, this has occurred at the cost of substantial degradation in the capacity of ecosystems to sustain these services in the future. The book describes the risks of continued degradation of ecosystem services and identifies opportunities to reverse these trends. This comprehensive analysis provides the information and intellectual framework necessary to implement a global program to enhance sustainability.

The Straus Family Creamery of California has been recognized with the 2006 Corporate Award in its sustainability and land stewardship categories. This long-standing family farm has sustained a commitment to both local and landscape-scale stewardship of resources within a region of rapid change and enormous social pressures. Bill Straus founded the dairy in 1941, sixty miles north of San Francisco. In the years after, Bill and Ellen Straus participated actively in the Marin Conservation League, the efforts to preserve the national seashore, and the creation of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) in 1980. The latter organization has enabled the preservation of working agricultural landscapes in the face of intense pressures for development.

In the second generation, Albert Straus (son of Bill and Ellen) converted the farm to organic operation. Albert credits the conversion to organic with preserving the farm as an economic success, while neighboring conventional dairies have been fading away. Beyond typical organic practices, Albert has been applying innovative technology in every aspect of dairy and farm operations. The Straus Family Creamery now creates electricity from a methane Straus digester. The digester captures naturally occurring gas from manure and converts it into electricity. With this new system, Straus expects to generate up to 600,000 kWh per year, saving about $6,000 in monthly energy costs. This process also eliminates methane, a natural by-product of manure. The Straus generation is connected to the local electrical grid, allowing them to run their meter “backwards” and contribute to the regional power supply. Finally, the farm has now converted a diesel back-up generator to run on straight vegetable oil, and is in the process of converting farm vehicles to vegetable oil as well. Finally, the creamery washes its glass milk bottles with a less toxic method than the typical one.

The Ecological Society of America is delighted to recognize this second-generation family farm for its sustained commitment to sound agricultural practice, technological innovation in reducing environmental impact, and contributions to regional-scale conservation of working landscapes.

 

Honorary Member Award
Suzanne Milton

 

Dr. Suzanne Milton of the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, is a leader in the ecology and management of arid and semi-arid ecosystems. Her work has focused on the conservation, sustainable utilization and rehabilitation of natural vegetation, especially in southern African environments. Milton’s research interests are in plant population and community responses to harvesting, grazing and disturbance, in the causes and effects of invasive plants and animals, and in the processes leading to re-establishment of self-perpetuating indigenous plant assemblages in overgrazed or denuded areas.

Dr. Milton’s research combines observational studies, field experiments and spatially explicit models to reveal how the influences of these factors vary with site, temporal variation and management. Her collaborations with ecological modelers have been especially important in testing ideas about long-term vegetation change and rangeland management. She has a special knack for comparative ecological analysis and is able to use her deep understanding of southern African ecosystems to generate and inform broader ecological theory. She has participated in a wide variety of policy debates concerning international and national grazing, land management and rehabilitation. She is especially talented at translating her ecological understanding into easily understood, practical management options for land managers. Through direct involvement with ranchers, farmers and government agencies, her research results have been applied to the protection and sustainable management of rangelands and to recent efforts to restore degraded ecosystems.

She has many international collaborators and is sought after for her ecological insights, effectiveness, enthusiasm, cooperation, and uplifting attitude. She is a generous and informative host of international visitors, imparting a South African perspective that sticks in the mind and permanently alters perspective. She has become an essential conduit for the two-way exchange of information between South African scientists and the international scientific community. Furthermore, she is a creative and passionate teacher, stimulating enthusiastic curiosity in undergraduate students.

Suzanne Milton has managed to remain an effective researcher and educator under the most challenging conditions. Her career has spanned the days of resistance to apartheid, conflict and upheaval, the wholesale reorganization of society and the current period of rapid development in the midst of new social priorities. Her extraordinary research and publication record has been achieved without the funds and other resources available in more stable and developed countries, and in spite of the disruption and disturbances of rapid social change in South Africa. She has done so much, with such limited resources, under such difficult circumstances, that she is a fitting and inspiring choice for the ESA Honorary Member Award.

 

 

Distinguished Service Citation
Margaret Palmer

 

Dr. Margaret Palmer of the University of Maryland is recognized with the Distinguished Service Citation based on her extensive service to the Ecological Society of America and to the discipline of ecology as a whole.

Margaret Palmer’s service comes in many forms, most of which involve working on the inside – actually getting into the middle of the issues at hand and working tirelessly to ensure that results are forthcoming. Three significant efforts in recent years characterize the type of professional service she has provided. In 2000-2001 Margaret served as a Program Officer in the Ecology Program at the National Science Foundation. While there, she effectively pushed for important programs and initiated and oversaw a symposium jointly supported by NIH and NSF on mathematical-biological linkages. From 2002-2004 Margaret chaired the Visions Committee for the ESA. This was a monumental undertaking involving people and organizations from many realms. She did an excellent job that led to effective results and a high-profile outcome for ESA. Currently, Margaret chairs the hydrology subcommittee for the NEON. This is a major effort on her part, serving the broader interests of ESA and allied disciplines.

The impact of Margaret’s service has extended beyond ESA and professional scientists. For example, she has aggressively engineered a collaboration among many organizations and individuals in the National River Restoration Science Synthesis project. Carrying this much farther than the scientific domain, she worked with the public in Virginia to develop broad conservation plans for the banks of important streams in the area. In a clear indication that public service is important to her, Margaret was a participant in the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, designed to prepare prominent scientists for roles in the public sphere.

Palmer has also been an outstanding mentor for students at all levels. In particular, she has guided many young women as they have moved through the pipeline to become knowledgeable citizens or professional scientists. In all of her service, she has made particular efforts to ensure that women and other underrepresented groups are fully represented.

Her knowledge, insights, and hard work, coupled with her natural leadership skills, make it clear why Margaret Palmer has been so effective serving ESA, ecology, and the public.

 

 

Eminent Ecologist Award
Daniel Simberloff

His work forced ecologists to ask: what would these patterns look like if mechanism x were not in operation? Boiled down to its essence, his arguments have been summarized as “rely on the data to tell you how nature operates; don’t simply find the patterns that you’re supposed to find.”

His more recent work has been equally notorious. He has written pointed and controversial critiques about the wisdom of biological control, calling attention to the threats imposed by invasive species and raising the specter of “invasional meltdown.” His criticisms of biological control gone bad (and his data to support those criticisms) are slowly reaching land managers and the general public. He has become a world expert on the threats imposed by invasive species.

These are just the highlights. In almost every aspect of his research program, he has been a leader and has demanded rigorous tests and critical interpretations of data. His approach — know your organisms, ask interesting questions, and deal with the data rigorously — has been an example for countless numbers of ecologists and has made ecology a better, more quantitative science.

Minutes of the ESA Governing Board

8–9 May 2006
Washington, D.C.

Members present:
Nancy Grimm (President), Jerry Melillo (Past-President), Norm Christensen (incoming President-Elect); Alan Covich (President-Elect), Gus Shaver (Vice President for Science), Carol Brewer (Vice President for Education and Human Resources), David Inouye (Secretary), Shahid Naeem (Member-at-Large), Richard Pouyat (VP for Public Affairs), Bill Parton (VP for Finance), Dennis Ojima (Member-at-Large), Meg Lowman (incoming Vice President for Education and Human Resources)

Staff present:
Katherine McCarter (Executive Director), Cliff Duke (Director of Science), Elizabeth Biggs (Director of Finance), Sue Silver (Editor), Jason Taylor (Director of Education), Nadine Lymn (Director of Public Affairs), David Baldwin (Managing Editor), Fran Day (Director of Development)

I. ROLL CALL (9:00 am)

A) The Governing Board unanimously adopted the proposed agenda.

B) A motion to ratify votes taken by e-mail since the October 2005 meeting was approved. These include:

• The San Jose 2007 Annual Meeting theme, “Ecological restoration in a changing world; Tracking a moving target”;

• The Position Paper Biological Invasions: Recommendations for U.S. Policy and Management;

• A statement on the Endangered Species Act;

• The minutes of the October 2005 Board meeting ;

• Appointment of Margaret Palmer as the Awards Committee Chair; and

• The audit for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2006.

II. REPORTS

A) Report of the President

Grimm thanked the staff for its efficiency, and noted the good news that the Society is on track to reach 10,000 members soon. Areas for attention in the future include:

1) Publications. The Publications Committee report from Jim Reichman will be considered during the meeting.

2) Web site. A report from the consultant is on the agenda for the meeting.

3) International activities. The Mexico meeting was exceptional. Some work is ongoing on the Federation of the Ecological Societies of the Americas (we are hosting the web page); ESA also has endorsed SF2010, an ad-hoc, international advisory committee on prevention of biodiversity loss, and is a co-sponsor of the third Eco Summit (organized and paid for by Elsevier, to be held in Beijing in May 2007); Mexican and Canadian ecological societies are now active.

4) Interactions with federal agencies. Tomorrow a group from the Board will meet with the USDA competitive grants program. Ideas for other agencies we should meet with are solicited, and for major ecological messages that we can convey to them. Melillo suggests three major areas: energy, competitiveness, and security, and the potential to work with other societies on such issues. Discussion centered on how these major themes relate to ESA’s sustainability agenda and the activities of the Science Office.

5) Dinner this evening will be with seven AAAS fellows who are ESA members, and they will be invited to the Rapid Response Team lunch meeting in Memphis this summer.

6) The Regional Initiative will be discussed later.

7) Education and outreach. SEEDS is going well. We co-sponsored a session at the AAAS meeting about evolution and education, and issued press releases about the Pennsylvania and Kansas court rulings concerning Intelligent Design.

8) Financial issues. Board members are reminded about the Millennium Fund and the importance of having a high rate of Board participation to bolster other fund-raising efforts.

B) Report of the Executive Director and staff

1) Executive Director

Fran Day is the new Director of Development. Two new staff members, Michelle Horton and Devon Rothschild, are working hard on the Memphis meeting and coordinating well with the Program Chair and local host. Staff members gave 3-minute synopses of their main activities.

2) Science programs

Agricultural air quality conference is coming up next month (about 300 participants); 5 Latin American graduate students from the Mexico meeting will be funded to attend the Memphis meeting with funding left from the Mexico meeting.

3) Frontiers

The China special issue of Frontiers is completed except for one paper, the Mexico issue has all articles in, and the ESA Asian Section has become a wonderful resource for Frontiers (found a calligrapher to help with design of the special issue, are helping with translations, and facilitating access of ESA journals to China).

4) Public Affairs Office

Appropriations season in an election year is a busy time, but focus on economic competitiveness in NSF and DOE is making it harder for some other areas in which ecology is funded. Some Senators need to be reminded about the need for NSF funding for ecology. Publicity for Memphis is beginning.

5) Finance and administration

Registration has opened for Memphis (about 3 weeks earlier than usual; planning is going well). ESA has 8700 members now (600 more than this time last year). The new web site is coming along well (to be demonstrated this afternoon). ESA met its financial goal to break even on the Merida meeting.

6) Education and diversity Programs

SEEDS students had a field trip at the Sevilleta LTER site, attended the Merida meeting, and will go to Konza Prairie in June. There’s a monthly electronic newsletter that seems to be popular with the students. Institute for Learning Innovation is helping with developing an assessment process. A new CD for TIEE is in the works, as is a collaboration with other societies for a national science digital library. There’s a suggestion for a mentoring program for young minority faculty.

7) Development Program

ESA is the most intelligently managed nonprofit Fran Day has worked with. The Staff has been very willing to take on the additional workload that a long-term commitment to development demands. College of the Atlantic (where Fran Day has an appointment) will give their graduating seniors (about 60) a one-year membership in ESA. Preliminary discussions are underway with a couple of major corporations (Subaru and Alcoa). Three proposals have gone out to foundations and another major one is in preparation, as are some for SEEDS.

8) Publications

Discussion later on the Publications Committee report. Allan Press ran a meeting last week on emerging trends in publication that David Baldwin and Sue Silver attended. Submissions continue to increase. All graphics work is now being done in-house (at a great savings), and publications are back on schedule after a slowdown due to the new composition system. Frequency of Ecological Applications publication will increase to eight issues per year in 2007. The ESA Bulletin is also doing well in its new electronic format.

9) Financial updates

Current estimate is that ESA will end the fiscal year with about $180,000 above expenses, which will be added to the operating reserve fund. The Mexico meeting broke even, and the Montreal meeting generated about $160,000, but the Memphis meeting will be less profitable. As of June 2005 our reserves reached $1,000,0000, half of our target goal. The investment portfolio (60% stocks, 40% bonds) is just under $1,000,000; one-year return was 11%, three-year return 15%. The issue of increasing the target for the reserve was discussed; in some societies an amount equivalent to half of the annual budget is held in reserve.

III. DISCUSSION / ACTION

A) Proposed 2006–2007 budget

The proposed 2006–2007 budget was presented and discussed. There was some discussion of raising membership dues. Suggestions were solicited for use of Board initiative funds; ideas include Profiles of Ecologists dissemination, a publication related to the sustainability science initiative, an ESA intern to write the undergraduate survey report, a meeting of the Publications Committee, a retreat for congressional interns or staffers, working toward the documentation of the ESA history, a travel budget for preparation of future policy papers, a meeting of education organizations from CSSP to discuss SEEDS, and the idea of funding an ecologist’s sabbatical on Capitol Hill. Decisions about the use of these funds will be made in August.

B) Science “midterm” update

High-priority activities include:

• Advancing the Visions initiatives, through development of workshops (e.g., Agricultural Air Quality workshop next month), international outreach (e.g., Merida meeting, October 2007 Fourth International Nitrogen Conference), and follow-on activities for the Society Summit (2004 meeting with a dozen other societies to talk about data sharing activities); there are proposals in to NSF for three additional workshops.

• Responsiveness to the ecological community, including the air quality workshop, NBII cooperative agreement to develop a web site on pollination, and the upcoming peer review of the Sage Grouse comprehensive strategy.

• Development of a sustainability science agenda, working with the Science Committee, developing proposals for workshops on sustainability science in a nonequilibrium world, organizing a symposium for the San Jose meeting, and publishing symposium papers as Issues in Ecology to translate the information for nonscientists.

• Gus has met with representatives of SCOPE about collaborating on a meeting in Paris in 2007, a workshop leading to a symposium in San Jose, and possible an Issues edition.

NEON UPDATE

A lunch meeting update on NEON was presented by guests Liz Blood (program director for research resources at NSF’s Division of Biological Infrastructure, in charge of NEON), Bruce Hayden (Co-Director for Science and Education of the NEON Project Office and NEON PI) and Jim MacMahon (NEON Senior Management Team and National Network Design Committee, Chair of the Board of Directors for NEON, Inc.). The Public Affairs Committee is asked to suggest what should be an appropriate Society position on NEON.

C) Publications issues

The report from the Publications Committee was discussed. The Society’s cost per article is about $3000, and about one-third of authors request grants to cover publication costs. The issue of open access publishing is still under active consideration and discussion by many societies and libraries, and it is premature for ESA to make any moves toward or away from such a policy for its journals. The Publications Committee may be asked to take on further consideration of the issues it has raised, with a charge to be prepared for the August Board meeting.

The current Publications Committee chair, Jim Reichman, would like to be replaced as of August. Two ESA members have agreed to serve if asked and other current Committee members may also be appropriate and interested; Vice President Shaver will make an appointment soon.

D) ESA Award nominations

The proposed slate of awardees from the ESA Awards Committee, chaired by Judith Bronstein, was presented and approved unanimously.

E) LTER initiatives

President Grimm reported on the LTER planning process, an effort to integrate research from LTER sites (continental-scale science). One component of this is a proposal to the NSF for multi-site research. A second component is an initiative called Integrative Science for Society and Environment (ISSE), which is being prepared for submission to the NSF and perhaps other agencies. The ISSE focuses on integration of ecological with social science through the lens of ecosystem services. Grimm informed the Board about these efforts and urged that the ESA support them.

F) Web site

David Gammel (consultant from High Context Consulting) described the process behind design of the new ESA web site, and demonstrated both the structure and appearance of the new design. Full implementation will involve a lot of staff time and will probably not be completed until the fall.

G) Development program

Vice President for Finance Bill Parton and Director of Development Fran Day presented a report about Development activities. A major step was the hiring of Fran Day as Development Director in February. Recent activities include trying to get the grant proposal pipeline going, contacting individuals who are potential major (>$50,000) donors, foundations, and corporations. The idea of endowment funds was briefly discussed. The Board is in agreement with the several projects receiving most attention at present. Norm Christensen is charged with working with staff to develop criteria that will be used to evaluate possible corporate and commercial sponsors, and to bring a proposal back in August.

Board members are asked to look over the list of potential corporate donors for any that they think should not be solicited. Fran presented a list of four corporations she would like to approach for funding: Interface, Subaru, Alcoa, Toyota. It is moved and seconded that we approve approaching these four corporations now, and consider the remainder on the list at the August meeting. Passed with two abstentions.

The proposed conflict of interest policy for Board members was considered and will be brought back for discussion in August.

H) Education issues

Vice President for Education and Human Resources, Carol Brewer provided updates on two projects.

1) The Profiles of Ecologists report is in (possibly final) draft form, and provides much food for thought. The Board is enthusiastic about finding ways to distribute the information, and about the idea of publishing the data as a data paper (as well as the results of the survey described next).

2) The survey of Ecology in the Undergraduate Curriculum was conducted and analysis performed (by a student). A recommendation is made that an intern working with Jason take on the task of writing a report; funding would cost about $2,000.

I) Nominations Committee

Jerry Melillo, Chair of the Nominations Committee, presented the report of the committee. They recommend the following slate of candidates:

• President: Jim Ehleringer and Alison “Sunny” Power

• VP for Science: Rob Jackson and David Schimel

• Secretary: David Inouye and Deb Peters

• Member-at-Large: Ann Kinzig and Kate Lajtha

• Board of Professional Certification: David Breshears, Carmen Cid, Steve Handel, Wayne Polley, Ed Reichel, Diane Wickland

It was moved and seconded that the list of nominees be accepted. Approved unanimously.

Break for dinner with AAAS Fellows who are ESA members.

Tuesday 9 May 2006; same participants minus Christensen.

IV. EXECUTIVE SESSION

V. DISCUSSION / ACTION continued

J) Regional Initiative

Past President Jerry Melillo, Director of Public Affairs Nadine Lymn, and Director of Education and Diversity Programs, Jason Taylor reported on efforts to date.

A meeting was held this spring to work on this initiative. Goal of the “Knowledge Partnership” initiative is to share the basic principles of ecology with decision makers and clarify how these principles can help solve some of society’s most difficult environmental problems. Hurricane Katrina provided some incentive to pick the southeast as an initial focus. We might pick about 5 regions overall, consider them sequentially over 3-5 years. Rocky Mountains/Great Plains area might be another possibility (a prospectus was prepared by Jill Baron), as well as East, Far West, etc. Steps toward establishing a partnership could be:

1) Appoint a high-profile regional leader and a 3-person advisory committee;

2) Define three priority topics based on a regional workshop;

3) Appoint three, five-member Regional Response Teams (R3Ts), one per topic;

4) Hire a regional network officer (perhaps housed at an academic institution) to

a) facilitate development of a regional network of ecologists;
b) track major environmental legislation in the region and coordinate with DC office on national links;
c) support interactions between R3Ts and key decision makers in the region;
d) write for, edit, and publish an electronic regional newsletter;
e) attend three ESA meetings, two in D.C., one at Annual Meeting;
5) Nurture the regional “knowledge partnership.”

Robert Twilley (Louisiana State University) was identified as a possible leader for the southeast region, focusing on post-Katrina activities as well as other regional issues. Melillo has talked with some regional funding possibilities, and with Louisiana State University Board of Regents.

The sum of about $250,000/yr might be required for each regional office. Could be a way to invigorate chapters. Need to be politically savvy as well as nimble. Maybe have a training program for participants such as the Leopold program. Do we wish to go forward with this as a pilot project? Should we have a business plan before proceeding? Melillo will continue to work on this, with a possible joint meeting of the Science, Education and Policy committees before the 16–17 November fall Board meeting to develop a proposal for the overall project. Fran is given some direction about what fund-raising ideas would be appropriate. Two workshops will be pursued to identify the regional issues; first, the group of scientists, and second, a broader group of stakeholders. Finally, ESA must define how it wishes to proceed and develop a funding plan.

K) Position Paper process (Pouyat)

Dennis Ojima is monitor for the Ecological Foundations for Fire Management Position Paper review process, with both peer reviews and an open review process. The first draft of the paper is done and some reviews are now back.

The Public Affairs Committee met in March and proposes changes in the protocol for Position Papers. One change would be a category of proactive Policy Papers, with clarified process and goals (to target decision makers). The end result would not be a scientific publication, as has been the case for Position Papers, although publication in Frontiers is envisioned. The VP of Public Affairs would monitor the process, which would include a 2-day meeting and 1-year timeline for the finished product. Board discussio