10/30/2003

Weaver Lecture to Focus on Natural Resource Management

AUBURN, Ala. — Adaptive resource management (ARM), a framework for natural resource management that recognizes the importance of improved biological understanding through the process of management itself, will be the topic of a Weaver Lecture Series presentation set for Wednesday, Nov. 5, at 3 p.m. in Ballroom A (left) of the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center.

The lecture, entitled “Adaptive Resource Management: The Simultaneous Improvement of Biological Understanding and Management,” will be presented by Byron K. (Ken) Williams of Reston, Va., chief of the Cooperative Research Unit program for U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

According to Williams, managing adaptively involves recognizing the uncertainty of management consequences and emphasizing the role of management for improving resource system understanding as well as understanding in resource conservation. In his presentation, Williams will give an overview of ARM, including its background, operating principles and technical elements, and will describe an overall approach to managing adaptively. He also will illustrate ARM in terms of the Adaptive Harvest Management system, which currently is being used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state agencies to manage the regulation of sport waterfowl harvests.

Before being named chief of the USGS Cooperative Research Unit, Williams was leader of the Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and held positions in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s North American Waterfowl Management Plan Office and Office of Migratory Bird Management. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Oklahoma University and a master’s in statistics and doctorate in range science from Colorado State University.

He has been instrumental in the development and implementation of adaptive harvest management for North American waterfowl populations and is author of numerous technical publications on adaptive management and decision theory in natural resources, mathematics and modeling and wildlife biology. He is also the lead author of Analysis and Management of Animal Populations, which promises to be a landmark book in the field of wildlife science.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the AU School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences and made possible by an endowment from Earl H. and Sandra H. Weaver of Brewton, long-time supporters of Auburn and forestry. For more information on the lecture, call (334) 844-1006.

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News from:

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing

Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu

10/30/03

For immediate release