The first inaugural North American Congress of Conservation Biology in Oakland, CA this summer did an excellent job of featuring the great work being done by SCB chapters. Before every one of the three daily plenaries, three chapters had three minutes to describe their work. Here is what Andy Holdsworth, past-president of the Minnesota Chapter, said about the chapter.
The Minnesota Chapter was formed in 1994 by students of the
University of Minnesota Conservation Biology Graduate Program. But
students graduated and the chapter went dormant for a bit. The chapter
was reborn in 2003. Graduate students were again the driving force, but
we struck out to build a chapter that went beyond our student body to include
the larger conservation science community in Minnesota.
It was the best decision we made. Our chapter now consists of a fantastic mix of students, academic
researchers, and agency and NGO conservation scientists and practitioners.
The Minnesota Chapter has a strong record of engagement in
conservation policy. For instance, at one of our annual meetings we developed a
resolution on ecological and conservation implications related to biofuels when
that issue emerged several years ago. The next day we testified in a legislative
hearing on the issue.
Our biggest policy endeavor was the development of
conservation biology-based recommendations for the 2008 Farm Bill. These recommendations went through the SCB
global office policy review and then became adopted as recommendations from the
North American Section of SCB. Those
were sent to the House and Senate Agriculture committees.
In the last year we have focused on fostering the
connections within Minnesota’s conservation science community. We greatly expanded the number of events that
we hosted. We focused on creating
diverse and informal opportunities for MN SCB members and potential members to
interact. Examples include a happy hour before the Minneapolis premiere of the
film “Green Fire”, a winter soup event after a UMN ConsBio seminar, and a happy
hour before the talk by TNC lead scientist, M. Sanjayan.
Our Annual Meetings are one of the highlights of our
success. They exemplify our work to
foster connections amongst members of the community of conservation
scientists and practitioners. These connections don’t just bridge
academia, agencies, and non-profits. They span generations.
The organized presentations and discussions at our annual
meetings help us explore new approaches, have discussions we often don't have,
meet new people and reconnect with others.
