USGS: Biology arrow iconStatus & Trends Home arrow iconNews & Events arrow iconMay 2009

News

5/21/2009 - New Tool Predicts Potential Desert Tortoise Habitat
A new tool provides land managers with a predictive model for mapping the potential distribution of desert tortoise habitat and to evaluate different land-use issues the tortoises face at a landscape scale. The model incorporates an extensive amount of field data for desert tortoises, as well as environmental data related to landscape attributes, soil properties, annual rainfall patterns, and the influences of perennial and annual plants.

5/19/2009 - USGS Scientist to Speak on Vegetation Change in the Mojave Desert
USGS scientist Kristin Berry gave a presentation titled ?Then and Now: A Photographic Account of Change in Indian Wells Valley and Vicinity" at the annual dinner of the Historical Society of the Upper Mojave Desert on May 19 in Ridgecrest, California. The presentation featured old photographs taken between 1899 and 1940 at historic sites compared with matches of the same sites taken during the last ten years, with commentaries on how perennial vegetation has changed over time. (Kristin Berry, Moreno Valley, CA, 951-697-5361)

5/9/2009 - Wetlands Celebration
The USGS video ?Wetland Revival,? which describes the science guiding the restoration of salt ponds to tidal wetlands in San Francisco Bay through adaptive management, was screened at an American Wetlands Month event on May 9 in Redwood City, California. The event, ?Keeping Our Baylands Wet and Wild,? was sponsored by the Sierra Club, Loma Prieta Chapter Wetlands Subcommittee and the Redwood Shores Branch of the Redwood City Public Library. This is the 19th year that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its partners in federal, state, tribal, local, non-profit, and private sector organizations celebrated the importance of wetlands to the Nation's ecological, economic, and social health. (Steve Schwarzbach, Sacramento, CA, 916-278-9490)

Events

5/13/2009 - 5/15/2009 - 11th Annual Southeast EPPC Conference
11th Annual Southeast EPPC Conference will be hosted in Georgetown, South Carolina on May 13-15, 2009.  The conference topic is Creating Sustainable Landscapes for the Future.

5/11/2009 - 5/15/2009 - World Ocean Conference 2009
World Ocean Conference 2009: May 11-15, 2009, Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The World Ocean Conference (WOC) 2009 is a forum for the world community to discuss current issues in the marine field particularly those related to climate change. For more information visit the conference website.

5/5/2009 - 5/10/2009 - Bat Conservation and Management Workshop
Bat Conservation and Management Workshop - In this intensive 6-day, 5-night program, BCI biologists and professional colleagues conduct a combination of lectures and discussions, field trips to examine bat habitat, and hands-on training to capture and identify bats.  For more details, visit the website.

5/4/2009 - 5/7/2009 - 2009 International Miconia Conference
2009 International Miconia Conference "Pulling it all Together" will bring together scientists, resource managers, field technicians, and funding agencies to focus on the challenges and successes associated with miconia invasions across the Pacific. The conference will provide opportunities to review current control strategies, learn the status of potential biocontrol agents, discuss outreach and funding strategies, and explore the beautiful East Maui region.

4/30/2009 - 5/1/2009 - ODUM Conference 2009 Understanding and Managing Biological Invasions as Dynamic Processes: Integrating Information Across Space and Time
ODUM Conference 2009 will be held in Rensselaerville, NY.  This conference will focus on: 1) incorporating a dynamic perspective into invasion ecology and management; 2) developing specific mechanisms to assemble and evaluate the needed datasets; and 3) fostering a collaborative research-management approach wherein site-specific data reveal broad patterns, which in turn yield management recommendations.