1999 Scgis 2d Annual Conference

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1999 Annual Report  (From year 2000 SCGIS President Michelle Gudorf, dated Mar 6, 2000)

quick facts: Members: 302    Conference Attendees: 150.  Scgis Annual Budget $15,000   Scholars Granted to: 20     Scholarship Budget $5,300

"First of all, thank you for your interest and membership in SCGIS! Your membership dues and volunteerism enabled SCGIS to flourish this
year. Our society is not a business that provides a product for a price, but is an ensemble of people who have dedicated our lives to maintain and improve the quality of the natural world. Collectively we can improve the science and tools required undertaking such a goal. Therefore, I encourage you to send me your ideas on how we can pull together to improve our community."

"Here is a quick highlight of the society's accomplishments in 1999:
- Annual Conference: 150 individuals participated.

- Michael Soule: attended several of our workshops in addition to providing our keynote address.

- Sponsored 25 conservation professionals: Individuals representing over 10 countries attended the SCGIS and ESRI conferences, and received additional training in GIS concepts and applications, and ESRI software use.

- Developed five-year strategic plan and organizational structure: Goals identified in these documents have been distributed among our
various committees, and we have started to implement them. I invite you to view these documents on our webpage.

- Established a new endowment: Interest from the principal will initiate a domestic scholarship program in 2001.

- Annual newsletter: Provided to those attending the conference and mailed in January 2000.

- Voted in a new Board of Directors and Officers. With your continued support and spirit of volunteerism, we will make this a very exciting year.  he following are some of the events/developments we've planned through June.

- Planning Conference 2000: We have moved the conference location to a new venue in the historic adobe Casa del Zorro in the Anza Borrego desert.

- Planning Conference field trip: San Diego Wild Animal Park conservationists are hosting a behind the scene tour of the wild animal game park.

- Sponsorship for conference attendees

- Developing on-line database: This will enable our membership to maintain their own contact information, and better serve the needs of our committees.

- Establish a credit card service: By conference time, you will be able to pay for membership dues and conference registration with your credit cards.

- Fundraising: secure funding to enhance the conservation and GIS communities throughout the world community

- Committee development and implementation: Next week I'll send out a list of our committees and their purpose. Please take a moment to scan the list for one that interests you and volunteer a bit of your time.

My regards,  Michelle Gudorf, National Park Service,  President - Society for Conservation GIS"

1999 Scgis Second Annual Conference      xHistory   xConference  xScgis 

"Each year, the Society for Conservation GIS conducts a competitive international review of folks using computer mapping and GIS to help conservation, sustainable development and indigenous rights around the world.

Of course, the program would not exist at all if not for the countless hours of volunteer time from SCGIS members."

SCGIS 1999 Group Photo (click for large version)

More about Dr. Michael Soule, our 1999 Keynote Speaker

(from the 1999 Scgis Newsletter Vol 2 #1 by C. Convis)

Vol. 2, No. 1, July 1999

Conservation, Science and Activism: Dr. Michael Soule speaks

The Society for Conservation GIS is fortunate to have Dr. Michael Soule as the keynote speaker for our second annual conference. I first met Dr. Soule when he took the reins of the Environmental Studies Dept. at the University of California, Santa Cruz. It was one of only a handful of schools offering rigorous degrees in field natural history under the guidance of noted biologists like Dr. Kenneth Norris and Dr. Raymond Dasmann. Dr. Soule grew up in the canyons, shores and deserts around San Diego and the San Diego Natural History Museum. He went on to Stanford to become one of Dr. Paul Ehrlich's first graduate students, then on to help found the first university in Malawi. Besides over 100 articles and books on topics including evolutionary biology, biodiversity policy, and ethics, he is widely known for being one of the founders of the Society for Conservation Biology and the Wildlands Project. Greg Hanscom described Dr. Soule's work in an excellent overview (High Country News Apr 26, 1999, www.hcn.org): "Michael Soulé, a slight, goateed scientist in his 60s....concluded that he could not sit back and be an 'objective' scientist while the natural world went to hell."

"The human race was driving the sixth great extinction crisis, Soulé believed, on par with the disappearance of the dinosaurs and Pleistocene creatures like the woolly mammoth and the saber-toothed tiger. It was only natural, he thought, to search for ways to protect life, and his profession. Taking the cue from Aldo Leopold and others, he added conscience to science. Soulé's conservation biology has been likened to medicine; it's science aimed at healing the land."

"Conservation biology grew largely out of a school of thought called island biogeography. The theory was pioneered by such notable naturalists as Charles Darwin, and captured in the 1967 book, The Theory of Island Biogeography, by ecologist Robert MacArthur and biologist Edward O. Wilson. Its basic principle is that large islands close to the mainland can support more types of plants and animals than smaller, more isolated islands. As islands shrink, species fall prey to inbreeding and accidents, and start dying off."

1999 Scgis Conference Agenda and Speakers

Paper Presentations                      
Gabriela Augusto             Portugal               European Ecological Regions
Douglas C. Comer*          Univ. of Maryland            ?
Donald Ebert      EPA        ATtILA AV Extension
J. Chris Ecohawk               National Park Service     ArcView-Baseline Water Quality
Dina El-Mogazi  EBIC       Environmental Justice
Luis Fernandez  University of Michigan   Deforestation in Nicarauga
Rita Gomes         Portugal               GIS-National Ecological Reserve, Portugal
Tom Hoctor        UF          GIS-Ecological Network in Southeast US
Lorri Peltz            Michigan              Vegetation Change Analysis for Ecoregional Planning
Steven O. Rohmann, Ph.D.          NOAA   Benthic Habitats of the Florida Keys CD-ROM
Eric Sanderson*                WCS       ?
Don J. Smith       UF          Ecological Interface Zones GIS model
Will Allen / Frank Conkling            TCF / Panda Consulting  Midewin Prairie Explorer Map Objects Application
Pat Halpin            Duke     A Conservation DSM for Multisite Reserve Design
Two-Hour Workshop 2:00 - 4:30pm                         
Bill Ferguson      SW Colorado Data Center             Overview of Metadata Concepts
Tom Hoctor        University of Florida       Potential Connectivity for the Florida Black Bear.
Denise Kamradt                National Park Service     GIS analysis of bobcat and coyote distributions
Katherine Kantaras         University of Florida       Ecological Interface Zones
Luis A.M. Plahares de Melo         Brazil     GIS Decision Support Tool for Genetic Resources
Frank Biasi*        TNC        Ecoregional Planning
Paul Zwick           UF          Spatial Analysis
Michelle Anthony            USGS     Hands-on Metadata Development Workshop
                                 
International Scholarship Recipient Papers                        
Ferdinand Addo,              Ghana   Cultural Resource Management
Lindsay E. Madero Archbold        Columbia             Biosphere Reserve
Dr. Vijay H. Aswani          Panama                Biodiversity in Central America
Victor P. Belogurov         Russia   GIS - Ecological Risk Zones
Joe Bremen        Israel     Marine GIS, Israel
Marion Cayetano             Belize    Community Development in Belize
Claire Geddes    Kenya   GIS/GPS - Elephant Tracking
Luis Fernando Gómez    World Wildlife Fund        Forest Management in Ecuador
Emily Gonzales  Canada Gray squirrel - BC
Razafimbololona Lalaina                Madagascar        delimitation of Masoala National Park
Anthony Maddock          South Africa       Conservation-worthy areas in South Africa
Ibrahima Mamadou Mat               Senegal                Planning and Monitoring Biosphere Reserve
Lynette Obare   Kenya   Gender Conflict in Resource Management
Lalit Rai India      Identification of biorich patches & corridors
Nelson Sanchez                Chile      GIS in Conservation of Patagonian Forests
Csaba Sandor     Hungary               public access to environmental information in Hungary
Robert J. Smith UK          integrated protected area network for South Africa
S. Sreekesh        India      impact assessment in mining areas of Goa, India
Vladimir Tikunov              Russia   Environmental Atlas of Russia

                  
Sunday Panel Discussions / Workshops                  
Bob Arenz - Allen - Coveny          SCGIS    SCGIS Strategic Planning Workshop
Gillian Bowser* SCGIS    Environmental Ethics Panel
Sunday GPS Instruction, Sunday 8:30-11:30am or 1:15-3:15pm                   
Mike Kunzman*               University of Arizona      GPS and GIS Instruction
Charles Preuss  Trimble Conservation, GPS, and 1024 Week Number Rollover

MORE 1999 PHOTOS

in 1999, SCGIS had co-presidents Will Allen (Left) and Sandra Coveny (right). Dr. Mike Hamilton is seated behind.

Dr Hamilton and Sandra observe

Dr Michael Soule, founder of Conservation Biology, was our keynote speaker

Conservation GIS Conferences should always be held outdoors, less order, more nature!

Prashant Hedao (not pictured) had just completed our first global map of members and it was a popular map.

Victor Belogurov (foreground) was one of our first scholars, from the Emergency Rescue Service of Ukraine.