Athens, Ga. – The twenty-fifth annual symposium of the United States Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology will be held at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel April 5-9. Terry L. Barrett and Gary W. Barrett, Eugene P. Odum Chair in Ecology, are the hosts and co-program chairs of the event.
This year’s symposium marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first meeting of the US-IALE, which was held in Athens in 1986 when the late Frank B. Golley, Distinguished Research Professor in the UGA Institute of Ecology (now the Odum School of Ecology) and then-ecology postdoctoral fellow Monica G. Turner (now the Eugene P. Odum Professor of Ecology at the University of Wisconsin) co-chaired the group’s inaugural annual meeting.
“It is fitting that US-IALE celebrate twenty-five years of success here,” said Gary Barrett, “because UGA faculty, students, and alumni have contributed so much to the conception, administration, and research accomplishments in landscape ecology during the past twenty-five years.”
Landscape ecology in the U.S. began in 1983 when Gary Barrett, then Ecology Program Director at the National Science Foundation, helped establish the US-IALE by funding a workshop that served as a catalyst for the organization’s annual symposia.
Herman H. Shugart, University of Virginia, will present the US-IALE Twenty-fifth Anniversary Awards Dinner address. Symposium speakers include Barrett; Turner; Richard T.T. Forman, Harvard University; Simon A. Levin, Princeton University; Joseph A. Tainter, Utah State University; and Carol Brewer, University of Montana.Reflecting the cross-disciplinary nature of landscape ecology, the event will feature presentations, workshops, plenary sessions, field trips, and a roundtable on a wide array of topics.
Registration for the symposium is open to US-IALE members ($350 professional/$170 student) and non-members ($460 professional/$220 student).Single day registration is $195. More details, including the schedule and lodging information, are available at http://www.US-IALE.org/athens2010/.