AMAZON RAINFOREST WORKSHOP

DEPARTURE DATE: JUNE 25, 2007
Group Leader – DR. MEG LOWMAN

Unique, active, and fun! This expedition is an eye-opening introduction to the environmental and cultural aspects of the Amazon Rainforest and river system. The program is a Third World experience that is safe, comfortable, and accessible. The itinerary offers travelers a window on scientific discovery. Intercultural interactions are coordinated to be engaging and meaningful during the Amazon Library visit, Culture & Craft Fair, and Village Service Project.

PROGRAM FEATURES
You’ll be immersed in field experiences at four rainforest lodge facilities in the Amazon basin of Northern Peru:

• Ascend over 115 feet on a 1/4-mile Rainforest Canopy Walkway, one of the few of its kind in the New World.
• Visit indigenous communities and contribute to the well being of people who live on the Amazon River.
• Identify the many ecosystem partnerships of one of the most biologically diverse environments on our earth
• Engage all of your senses to observe the unique flora and fauna of the Amazon Rainforest.
• Use hand lenses, binoculars, maps, taxonomic keys for identification, and simple field equipment with the help of
• Dr. Lowman and our experienced Naturalist Guides to learn about:
  • Insect Camouflage & Mimicry
  • Neotropical Butterflies
  • Rainforest Canopy Research
  • Rainforest Conservation
  • Neotropical Birds & Migration
  • Reptiles and Amphibians
  • Rainforest Ecosystem Comparisons
  • Amazon River System, Geology and Soils
  • Medicinal Plants
  • Orchids & Bromeliads

The 2007 land cost for this workshop is $1898 and the international flight roundtrip Lima ~ $750-$800.
Space is limited, so reserve your place early.
Contact: Dr. Frances Gatz, Environmental Expeditions, 9335 Fraser Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
Phone: 301-585-7027 or toll free at 1-800-669-6806

For More Information:
PDF Flyer
Travel2Learn

From ScienceCareers.org:

The decision to mesh motherhood with a nascent career as an environmental biologist wasn’t one that Margaret Dalzwell Lowman (AKA Canopy Meg) had the luxury of choosing. Rather, it was a lifestyle born out of necessity.

Full Article

Each year The Explorers Club and Rolex USA host the Lowell Thomas Awards to honor extraordinary individuals who have made unique contributions to a particular field of exploration. This year, our focus is forest canopies and their rich biodiversity, which is essential to our existence.

Our Master of Ceremonies for the evening is the renowned conservationist and television star Jim Fowler, who also serves as Honorary President of the Explorers Club. The awards are named for Lowell Thomas, a renowned explorer/journalist, who served as President of the Club in the 1950s.

Past recipients include Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, Robert Ballard, Buzz Aldrin, Scott Carpenter, James Lovell, Kathryn Sullivan, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Sir Edmund Hillary (currently the Club’s Honorary Chairman), Wade Davis, Simon Winchester and Dr. Edward 0. Wilson, to name a few.

Sent by the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW · Washington DC 20460 · 202-564-4355

Contact: Suzanne Ackerman, (202) 564-4355 / ackerman.suzanne@epa.gov

Everyone has a role in protecting our environment, including members of Generation Y. EPA is tapping into their innovation and creativity in finding solutions to environmental challenges through the agency’s People, Prosperity and the Planet competition. The agency plans to award up to $1.25 million in grants that enable teams of college students to research, develop and design scientific and technical solutions to sustainability challenges that protect the environment while achieving continued economic prosperity.
EPA will award as many as 50 grants up to $10,000 each to student teams. The money will be used to research and develop sustainable solutions during the 2007-08 academic year. In spring 2008, the teams will be invited to bring their designs to Washington, D.C. to compete for EPA’s P3 Award, which includes an additional award worth up to $75,000 to further develop and implement the project in the field. The competition will be judged by the National Academy of Engineering for design innovation and technical merit along with relevant social, economic and environmental considerations that are the keys to sustainable designs.
The P3 competition is open to teams of students attending colleges, universities and other post-secondary educational institutions. Interdisciplinary teams are strongly encouraged, including representatives from multiple engineering departments and/or departments of chemistry, architecture, industrial design, economics, policy, social sciences, business, communication, etc.
The grants will be awarded for research related to the P3 (People, Prosperity, and the Planet) sustainability competition, a national student design competition launched in 2004.
Proposals must reach EPA by December 21, 2006.

Sarasota County Communidons scgov.net ( 941.861 .SO00 1 N 19 Media Contact: Sarasota County Natural Resources, (941 ) 861 -6230

Enjoy a dusk nature walk of the Florida forest canopy. What’s happening? A nature walk led by Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Dr. Margaret Lowman and New

College of Florida Conservation Biology students. When is it happening 4 p.m. Thursday, September 28 Where is it happening Myakka State Park located at 13207 SR 72 Sarasota, Florida 34241 (941) 361-651 1. Meet in the parking lot of the canopy walkway. Participants will have to pay the park fee for entry. Why is it happening

Join ecology students from New College for a dusk tour of the Florida forest canopy. They will share the biodiversity of the canopy with the community. Action for reader to take Space for this walk is limited to 50 participants, so call to reserve a spot. Participants should wear comfortable walking shoes that can get wet, a hat, sunscreen and bug repellent, and bring a camera, drinking water and binoculars. Families are welcome. Contact info For more information, contact the Sarasota County Call Center at (941) 861-5000 and ask for Natural Resources.

Herald Tribune Article by Kazuaki Nagata

New College of Florida students and Sarasota County residents got to explore Red Bug Slough on Sept. 2 as part of a special guided tour hosted by the college.

Full Article

Adina Paytan Drinking with a Lobster!

Biography The major focus of Dr. Paytan’s research is understanding marine biogeochemical cycles in the present and the past. Dr. Paytan was born and raised in Israel and after a mandatory military service of two years went traveling to India and Nepal and hiking the Himalayas for another two years. She got her B.Sc. double major in Biology and Geology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Realizing how important science education is to the well-being of our planet I pursued a M.S. degree in science education at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. Dr Paytan developed a curriculum in field geology for high school students, which has been implemented successfully and then got another masters degree, this time in oceanography, at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her thesis was on oxygen isotope exchange between water and phosphate via biological cycling. In 1989 she moved (with Ron) to San Diego to take part in the Ph.D. Graduate program at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Her thesis was on marine barite as a recorder of oceanic chemistry, productivity and circulation. After 6 years she graduated with a degree and a daughter (Tali) and stayed in San Diego (UCSD) for a post doc, this time producing a high resolution sea water S isotope curve for the past 120 Ma. In the summer of 1999 Dr. Paytan moved to Stanford (as part of the new Ocean Program and the Environmental Science, Engineering and Policy Program) and since then is working as an assistant professor in oceanography at the department of Geological and Environmental Sciences.

Research Interests: Dr. Paytan’s principal research interests lie in the fields of paleoceanography, chemical oceanography and marine biogeochemistry. The goal of her research is to use the chemical and isotopic record enclosed in sea water and marine sediments to study present and past biogeochemical processes. This research spans a wide range of temporal (seasons to millions of years) and spatial (molecular to global) scales. An over-arching goal of this research is to link changing ocean composition to global changes in climate and tectonics. In addition Dr. Paytan is interested in natural and anthropogenically induced perturbation that effect biogeochemical processes in the ocean such as methane emission from wetlands, trace metal recycling in sediments, aerosol impact on marine biota and coastal water pollution. Biography Dr. Paytan focuses her work on the causes and consequences of climate change and coastal pollution. Trained as an oceanographer she uses the chemical signatures recorded in seawater, sediments, and living organisms to understand how the Earth System responds to natural and human induced climate and environmental changes over seasons to millions of years time scales. Dr. Paytan is the author of over 60 scientific publications, including review articles on barite and on the P cycle. She has received numerous awards including the AGU – Oceanography Early Career Award, NSF Early CAREER Award and the NASA New Investigator Award. She is currently and assistant professor in the department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University.

TREE Foundation and New College Environmental Studies Program are sponsoring two community lectures:

Co-sponsored by Dynamite Plant Food

1. September 21st at 5 PM
Chae Auditorium, Natural Sciences Building, New College Campus
A case study on coastal pollution in California
“All the Waters (and Everything in it) Run into the Sea”
Lecture Given by Dr. Adina Payton, Stanford University

2. October 12th at 5:00PM
Sudakoff Center, New College Campus
A case study on harmful algal bloom (HAB) outbreaks in North Carolina
“Emerging Linkages Between Nutrient Pollution and Harmful Algal Blooms”
Given by Dr. Joann Burkholder, North Carolina State U.