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Global Invasive Species Team listserve digest #085
Thu May 17 2001 - 17:54:07 PDT
--CONTENTS--
1. A Message from the Wildland Invasive Species Team (Global)
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1. A Message from the Wildland Invasive Species Team (Global)
From: John Randall (jarandall(at)ucdavis.edu)
The Nature Conservancy is undergoing a major reorganization under which
the Conservation Science Division will no longer exist. Details of the
fate of specific people and programs, including the Wildland Invasive
Species Team and the other Ecological Management and Restoration (EMR)
Programs, are not yet known. However, a strong possibility is that the
Invasives Program and other EMR programs will be integrated into the new
Global Portfolio Enterprises (guppies).
The other EMR programs are the [U.S.] National Fire, Landscape Ecology,
and Monitoring & Adaptive Management Programs.
We do know that the Invasive Species Initiative within TNC will proceed
and that our program (the Wildland Invasive Species Team) has a major
role to play in this Initiative. This Initiative seeks to greatly broaden
and better coordinate efforts across TNC over the next several years to
abate invasive species threats to biodiversity. Our program, or what it
transforms into, is slated to grow under the Invasives Initiative in order
to provide expanded technical support for invasive species prevention and
management everywhere that TNC works, and to include coverage of groups of
invaders beyond plants (e.g. insect invaders, aquatic animals). Our
program will also play roles in promoting applied research on invaders,
and providing technical support for a communications campaign and for
public policy changes that could improve invasive species prevention and
management. We will provide more details on the Initiative on this
listserve within the next few weeks.
We also feel fairly confident that some of the Invasives Program's current
efforts, particularly this listserve and our website, will continue. One
important change we foresee is a significantly expanded role in providing
information, advice and technical support for TNC sites and partners
outside the US.
In more general terms, TNC's reorganization is intended to make the role
of science and scientific thinking stronger, more prominent, and more
fully integrated into all of TNC's conservation work. In a meeting with
the Conservation Science Division last week, TNC President Steve McCormick
noted that he wants to suffuse science throughout TNC. He also said that
he supports the findings of the External Science Review Committee. The
committee's report includes a number of recommendations that would elevate
the role of science and scientists within TNC. We believe that much of the
work that all the EMR programs have embarked upon is clearly aligned with
Conservation by Design. This includes the Landscape Conservation Networks
launched earlier in Fiscal Year 2001. These learning networks, which
include both U.S. and international landscape-scale conservation areas,
are critical to the development of innovative multi-site, landscape-scale
strategies and are already transforming the way conservation is conducted
in TNC. It is our assumption that under the new organizational structure,
the networks that have already begun will continue (Forest Management,
Aridlands Grazing, Wetland Management, and Mexico Fire Management), and
those that are in the planning stages will proceed in the next fiscal year
(e.g., Eastern [U.S] Weed Management, Western [U.S.] Fire, U.S. Prairie
Restoration, and Caribbean Fire). We will know more about the implications
of the reorganization to the networks over the coming months and will keep
you updated.
We look forward to working with you.