Petition to Create a Renewed ESA Chapter in the Rocky Mountain Region
The Rocky Mountains include a variety of ecosystems, communities, and species across broad altitudinal, latitudinal, and climatic gradients. The Rocky Mountain region delivers head waters for many significant continental river systems and provides an early warning system of climate change impacts on glacier melt, fire events, species distribution shifts. Rocky Mountain lands and waters are modified by human activities yet are needed to provide essential services to society. The interplay between mountain and plains systems moderate species migrations, human impacts on ecosystems, and determine the source-demand patterns of land and water resources across the regional domain.
The Rocky Mountain region is also home to some of the finest ecological research and training institutions in the world. Our scientists and students interact with practitioners and policy makers to jointly identify local to regional issues where ecological science can contribute to knowledge and management solutions. The focus of a revitalized Rocky Mountain Chapter will be to serve and connect ecologists across the region and to be a platform for engaging academic, tribal and local knowledge providers related to ecological issues, state and federal agency ecologists, and former agency ecologists to integrate knowledge and perspectives to sustain ecological knowledge across the region.
The benefits of a chapter include:
- A community of ecologists that can support each other, train next generations of scientists, and share their knowledge with the public
- A dedicated voice representing the Rocky Mountain Region and its members to the ESA Council
- Dues money for projects and activities that benefit members of the region as determined by the chapter members
- Providing a platform to maintain the collective knowledge of ecologists across the local knowledge providers, to agency ecologists, and academics of the Rocky Mountain region
All ESA members who support these goals are encouraged to sign this petition; it does not obligate one to join the chapter if approved by Council.
The undersigned members of the Ecological Society of America support the establishment of a Rocky Mountain Chapter.