CERF 2009 in Portland, Oregon
‘Coasts and Estuaries in a Changing World’ is the theme for
CERF 2009 Conference in Portland, Oregon
1-5 November 2009
Please save the date! The first week of November 2009 seems
like the distant future now – but we know how busy you are and
we want see you at the next conference in beautiful Portland,
Oregon. The memories of our lively conference in Providence
last November are still strong and we’ve begun work to bring
you an equally exciting conference in 2009. In fact, we are
also evaluating sites for the 2011 conference and looking for a
leadership team. Speak up if you’d like to play.
The Scientific Program and Program Advisory Committees
The 2009 Scientific Program Committee is beginning to formulate the scientific program for the 2009 conference. Robert Emmett, NOAA Fisheries, is the chair of this important committee. The committee’s core members are: Antonio Baptista, Oregon Health and Science University, Alan Shanks, University of Oregon, Walt Nelson, Environmental Protection Agency, Fred Prahl and Francis Chan, from Oregon State University. We think this is also a terrific opportunity to showcase estuaries and coastal research along the entire Pacific coast and California Current. So we have recruited help from scientists in California, Mexico , Canada and Washington to organize sessions.
But to balance out the Scientific Program, many others are needed to help create sessions and workshops. We refer to this larger group as the Program Advisory Committee. This committee did great work for the recent Providence conference (thanks, everyone who served!!) and we are now actively recruiting people to be part of this action for the 2009 conference. If you are interested, please contact Bob Emmett or Joy Bartholomew.
While the Pacific region will naturally be highlighted at this conference, we remind members in all parts of the world that Federation conferences always welcome a myriad of presentations on ALL coastal and estuarine topics.
How do we come up with the conference theme?
Coasts and Estuaries in a Changing World
The Scientific Program committee’s first job was to come up with a theme for the conference. To accomplish this we started out with a simple theme or idea – Dynamic Scales and Transfers. This initial theme captured the idea of measuring energy/changes/biology transfers through estuarine/coastal systems, the effects of various drivers at different scales of time and geography, and, possibly, climate change issues. After some initial discussions, we also invited input from the CERF Governing Board.
It was soon apparent that Dynamic Scales and Transfers was too geeky a theme for an international estuarine conference. What does this theme really mean anyway? So, as the e-mails flew, we thought about adding a colon and adding either, “Watching Things Come and Go” or “Measuring Change”. The first statement sounded like it came from an Otis Redding song, but most of us liked the second idea of “Measuring Change.” This is what most of us do during our research projects.
At this point the Governing Board joined the very lively discussion to provide some guidance. All members liked the idea of incorporating “change” into the theme. However, Andrea Copping was first to voice the importance of bringing “coastal” into the theme because that is now more explicitly part of our geographic and programmatic domain. All members agreed that as this will be the first conference since we officially became a “coastal” scientific society, it would be very appropriate to incorporate “coastal” into the theme. I’m not sure, but I think Ivan Valiela came up with “Coasts and Estuaries in a Changing World”.
This theme captures the important relationships between coastal regions and estuaries over time and spatial scales, and implies on-going change. Plus we think it is plain-spoken and self-explanatory for our non-scientist partners as well. Both the Governing Board and the Scientific Program Committee unanimously approved this theme for our 2009 conference.
Coasts and Estuaries in a Changing World is a very appropriate theme for a conference in the Pacific Northwest where oceanographic conditions, and climate changes strongly affect entire watersheds. But, happily we think this theme is appropriate everywhere as many of us are researching and observing change in a variety of coastal and estuarine habitats. We look forward to seeing you share the results of your research on this and other subjects in 2009 in Portland, Oregon.