Letters
Letter from the Chair:
Welcome to the Applied Ecology Section webpage of the Ecological Society of America. We hope you find this site useful. We have provided information on the officers of the section, annual activities, our bylaws, and past and current newsletters.
The Applied Ecology Section of ESA is the second-largest and third-oldest of the active sections within this Society. The Section was established in 1971 and has a two-fold purpose:
- To facilitate communication about applying ecological principles to solve practical environmental problems, and
- To encourage liaison with specialists in policy, administration, planning, health, agriculture and natural resource management who use ecological principles to resolve problems.
The officers of the Applied Ecology Section are elected by membership vote with two year terms that rotate with officers being elected on rotating years. Past AES section chairs remain one additional term as the role of Past Chair to insure smooth transitions between elected officers.
Currently our main activities include:
1. sponsoring symposia, organized sessions, the Urban Bioblitz field trips in conjunction with the ESA annual meeting.
2. Working with other human oriented sections within ESA to promote greater interest and participation by students and others in Section activities and membership.
3. evaluating and awarding Applied Ecology Section student travel grants to assist students to attend the annual meetings.
4. hosting a joint mixer with several cooperating sections at the ESA Annual Meeting.
5. Creating fun events to engage members such as FLASH which is a member contest for best interdisciplinary poster or presentation!
The response we’ve been receiving to the Applied Ecology Section’s student scholarships has been great over the past several years, and recipients have included students from the U.S., Canada, Newfoundland, Argentina, France and Benin (Africa). We will continue to provide travel assistance to students presenting at the meetings. In 2014, ALL section awards will be announced on the main conference website so please check both the main site as well as the section page for information on section travel awards.
Section Officers are in frequent communication via email to focus our work. For the past several years we have endorsed symposium proposals and section officers have developed Organized Oral Sessions. This section planned several activities for the ESA Annual Meeting in Sacramento in August of 2014 including the first ever IGNITE Section Costume Ball–a fun event designed to meet all of the ESA section officers and highlight section activities. Watch for future announcements on costume requirements and other fun events during the 2014 IGNITE Section Costume Ball.
We want to make membership in this section relevant to you and to cultivate close links between research and application. Feel free to contact any of the officers with any comments or suggestions.
Best regards!
Gillian Bowser, Chair 2013-2014
ESA Applied Ecology Section
December 2013