As part of the 5th International Canopy Conference 2009 (and its subsequent publications), co-chair Meg Lowman is compiling a comprehensive history of canopy access. If you have any special methods that you invented or pioneered, stories worth telling (and re-telling), equipment that deserves recognition, inventions that facilitated improved canopy research, or other notable tales and fables, please email Meg with details so you will be included in this documentation:

canopymeg@gmail.com

From the Herald-Tribune:

There could be more than 2,000 Burmese pythons ranging largely across south Sarasota County within three years unless steps are taken to control the growth of the huge snakes, says a New College of Florida professor.

Suggestions, though, that this latest scourge of Mother Nature could harm tourism may be a stretch. After all, this is a state known for alligator and shark attacks — not to mention hurricanes, mosquitoes and love bugs — and the tourists still come.

The predicted explosion in the local python population is being made by Meg Lowman, director of environmental initiatives at New College. Lowman ranked pythons as a bigger issue, at least in the near term, than climate change in a report to the county. She and New College are in the final year of a five-year, $250,000 contract to advise the county on science issues.

Read the full article

5/11/09 Update: This is the last call to organize a symposia at the 5th International Canopy Conference being organized by ATREE on “Forest canopies : Conservation, Climate change and Sustainable use” during 25th – 31st October 2009, Bangalore, India, The deadlines for organizing a symposium have been extended from 3rd April 2009 to 20th May 2009, and please find the guidelines on http://canopy2009.org/html/sub2.html

The call for abstracts is open for contributed oral and poster abstracts, and guidelines can be found on http://canopy2009.org/html/sub3.html and http://canopy2009.org/html/sub4.html respectively.

Social events at the conference include a Canopy Art exhibition, Canopy Photo and Film festival and public lectures along with other traditional events.

Please find more information on www.canopy2009.org, and forward this to your colleagues to make this conference a success.

2/16/09 Update: The theme for this conference is Forest Canopies: Conservation, Climate Change and Sustainable Use. The conference program will include keynote and plenary speakers on critical topics, invited and contributed scientific symposia, methods workshops, a student symposium, poster sessions, field trips, a film festival and traditional canopy social events

You can now visit www.canopy2009.org for more information and please forward to your colleagues. ATREE invites you to present your work at the conference. Your active participation will help meet global challenges and make this conference a success. Dr. Meg Lowman is co-chairing this international event.

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SAVE THESE DATES!!!!!

5^th International Canopy Conference 2009
Forest Canopies: Conservation, Climate Change, and Sustainable Use
October 26-31 2009 Bangalore INDIA

Download the brochure

Forest canopies are the least explored habitats in the world. They not only support high terrestrial biodiversity, but also represent a critical interface between the atmosphere and the earth. Forest canopies also provide goods and services to support diverse human activities. Thus interactions between forests and humanity offer opportunities to explore sustainable use of such resources, particularly for sustaining local livelihoods. Sustainability is vital for environmental policies to foster conservation, sustainable use and mitigation/adaptation to climate change. This demands the integration of canopy science with physical science, social science and information technology.

The 5^th international canopy conference in 2009 will bring diverse professionals together to build inter-disciplinary links in canopy science to foster increased understanding of this unique subset of forest ecosystems. ATREE (Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment) is the major supporting institution for the conference, with Convenors Dr. Soubadra Devy (soubadra@atree.org) and Dr. T. Ganesh (tganesh@atree.org). Dr. Kamal Bawa and Dr. Margaret Lowman will serve as co-chairs. The goal of the conference will be to highlight the respect to important global challenges, especially climate change, sustainability, and conservation. The conference will provide an opportunity to build networks across continents, to facilitate capacity-building, and to address issues requiring information from multiple sites, within countries and across continents. The proceedings of the conference will be published in an edited volume, with a subset of papers published as a special issue of an international journal. Special sessions will be held on: Education; Climate Change; Ecosystem Services and Sustainability Initiatives; Innovative Tools; and an Emerging Issues Round Table discussion.

Special features of the conference include:

• All-day field trip to view Indian forests and inspire discussion
• Canopy film festival (similar to the successful programs from the 1^st conference)
• Canopy awards ceremony
• Student session
• Publiclecture to promote canopy education
• Opening Plenary talk by Thomas E. Lovejoy, President, H. John Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment

Save these dates! A timeline leading up the conference will be:

1. Call for symposia - January 2009
2. Call for abstracts - March 2009
3. Registration by 10 April 2009
4. More information will be posted on www.atree.org

Please contact Soubadra or Ganesh (emails above) with suggestions for speakers that may represent new, unpublished, innovative canopy projects around the globe.

Dr. Lowman talks about her recent project involving the church forests of Ethiopia:

One of my most recent projects involved global conservation of African forests. During January, I traveled to Bahir Dar, Ethiopia,a center of the Coptic or Christian Orthodox churches in this proud country. Working with the one (and only!) forest conservationist in northern Ethiopia, I presented a workshop to the church clergy, explaining the value of the forests surrounding their churches. In Ethiopia, a church is not considered to be serving its mission unless it is surrounded by a forest. As a consequence, some forest patches are over 1500 years old (as are the churches…. some amazing architecture!). (When I think of our Florida churches, usually surrounded by cement parking lots, I am quite embarassed!) Ethiopia’s landscape is predominantly cleared for agriculture, and also deforested for fuel; so these church forests house their last remaining biodiversity. This includes pollinators (important for their crops), birds, animals, and trees many of which are already listed by the United Nations as endangered species. Even more important, springs of fresh water are often housed in these forest patches, providing the only clean water supply, thanks to the surrounding trees.

Together, my colleague and I asked for the blessing of the bishops for our conservation project. When I showed them photos of their church forests using Google Earth, they gasped. They had never seen Google Earth, much less a computer! They understood that NO OTHER forests existed within miles of their own sanctuary, and they could also see the rings of soil color changes, indicating rapid shrinking of their property due to encroaching agriculture. They fervently asked for our support, because maintaining these forests (not just the building itself) is part of the responsibility of the clergy.

One simple solution is barbed wire fences. For approximately $10,000 we can create perimeter delineation for at least 10 churches since labor is almost free. TREE Foundation generously funded this workshop for the bishops, and now we seek additional funding to help Ethiopia save its important biodiversity. Who knows if the cure for cancer exists in their unstudied vines or tree canopies! If anyone has any thoughts about philanthropy that supports religion and/or environmental issues, this project is a real win/win/win for the donors, the church, and the planet!

(Click to enlarge.)

From Herald-Tribune:

The beautiful Casey Key home of Henry and Susanne Rodriguez was the perfect setting for an intimate and fun party to celebrate the launch of the TREE Foundation, with president Gerri Aaron and executive director Dr. Meg Lowman.

The dynamic duo shared their plans to build an elaborate, multilevel tree house on the Crowley Museum and Nature Center grounds that will link children with nature.

The foundation’s mission is “Tree research, exploration and education, both locally and globally,” says Lowman. “Our flagship project was the Myakka canopy walkway, and we hope the tree house project will be a logical next step to focus on linking kids to nature through trees.”

Full story

Published in Sustainability on April 1, 2009:

A Blueprint for Florida’s Clean Energy Future - Case Study of a Regional Government’s Environmental Strategy
Margaret Lowman

Abstract: On 13 July 2007, Governor Charlie Crist of Florida signed executive orders to establish greenhouse gas emission targets that required an 80 percent reduction below 1990 levels by the year 2050. Florida is a very high-risk state with regard to climate change. Its 1,350-mile-long coastline, location in “Hurricane Alley,” reliance on coral reefs and other vulnerable natural resources for its economy, and the predictions that state population could double in the next 30 years all contribute to this designation of “high-risk. As a consequence of the potential economic and ecological impacts of climate change to Florida, a series of Action Teams were created to plan for adaptation to impending environmental changes. As the 26th largest emitter of carbon dioxide on a global scale, Florida needs to act aggressively to create a clean energy footprint as part of its statewide initiatives but with global impacts. This case study examines the process and expected outcomes undertaken by a regional government that anticipates the need for stringent adaptation.

Download PDF Full-Text (37 KB)

From Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

SARASOTA - Widely known for her research on the world’s treetops, New College professor Meg Lowman now stands at the forefront of a revolution in the world of science and science education.

A multimillion-dollar project to track and predict ecological changes across the continent is expected to break ground this year on its first pilot station, after a decade of work by more than 100 scientists, including Lowman.

She also recently published a report on the project’s mission to integrate environmental science with education in Science Magazine (PDF of the article), recognized as one of the top scientific journals in the world.

“It’s really like having a baby in the world of ecology education,” Lowman said.

The project, called the National Ecological Observatory Network or NEON, will keep tabs on the nation’s forests, streams and wetlands the way the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration studies oceans and weather.

Read the full article

Dr. Lowman’s article on the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) published in Science Magazine:

Science 27 February 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5918, pp. 1172 - 1173
DOI: 10.1126/science.1166945

Education Forum
ECOLOGY:
A National Ecological Network for Research and Education
Margaret Lowman, Charlene D’Avanzo, Carol Brewer

A proposal links continental-scale ecological data with education projects.

PDF of the full article

From New College News:

Professor of Biology and Director of Environmental Initiatives at New College Meg Lowman, a.k.a. “Canopy Meg,” will speak at United Nations Association, Sarasota-Manatee Chapter, on March 24 at 6:00 pm. Professor Lowman will be joined by Dr. Eugenie “the Shark Lady” Clark. The event is entitled “Two Women: Two Extraordinary Scientists” and will be held at the Herald Tribune Building, 1741 Main Street, in the first floor Community Room.

For more information, please contact Catherine Seress at (941) 928-1187. Please note that searing is limited.

From the Venice Area Audubon Society:

Dr. Meg Lowman to Speak at VAAS Dinner
Topic: Conservation for the Next Generation

The Venice Area Audubon Society is privileged to have the renowned scientist Dr. Meg Lowman speak at the VAAS fundraising dinner Sunday, March 15th at 5:00 PM at the Crossroads American Grille.
Dr. Lowman has recently returned from speaking at the Ecological Society of Australia Conference in Sydney, Australia, where she was interviewed by ABC Radio National. During the interview she dicussed the mysterious world of the canopy and remarked that over half of the life on earth lives in the tops of trees which includes millions of insects and thousands of birds. Dr. Lowman stressed the urgency to uncover the secrets of the rain forest before we lose the forests.

More info and sign up form PDF