Message from our new chapter President, Eli Bernstein

Greetings!

As incoming president of the Colorado Plateau Chapter (CPC) of the Society for Conservation Biology I would like to follow in the respectable tradition of previous presidents by making a few welcoming comments to the Chapter’s membership. 

My name is Eli Bernstein and I grew up in central coast California, where I eventually became a devoted student of natural history, agro-ecology and conservation biology.  I’ve been living in Flagstaff since 2005 while working on a degree in Environmental Science and Policy at NAU.  My recent work has addressed the ecological and policy constraints to arid rangeland restoration in the Southwest; trying to articulate a new vision for public lands stewardship.  I am very excited about my new role with the CPC and look forward to the next three years as a special opportunity to serve the many critters and landscapes of this remarkable region.

I think the time is ripe to re-define our Chapter's strategic goals.  I've heard many of our officers and members say they support an applied vision for the Chapter, one that draws deeply on the cutting-edge conservation science being done by people across the region.  While everyone really values the work we have done hosting our annual Chapter meetings, there is some sense of untapped potential.  At the same time most of us have also lamented the lack of time we have for Chapter work, in addition to our other professional commitments. Therefore, our strategic goals must balance new, applied goals with the reality of limited resources.

I would like to help the Chapter become more applied and effective over the next three years through the following actions: (1) strengthen our Chapter membership and reputation by organizing a regional meeting for all North American (NA) Chapters of SCB here in Flagstaff in 2009; (2) work with chapter members to identify the top conservation priorities across the Colorado Plateau; and (3) communicate these conservation priorities to influential policy-advocacy groups.

As many of you know our Chapter has recently accepted SCB’s request to organize and host a 2009 regional meeting in Flagstaff for all NA SCB members.   This will be a joint meeting with the 10th Biennial Conference for Research on the Colorado Plateau and will be a huge and very exciting undertaking, one that will draw a great deal of attention to our Chapter and regional conservation issues.  At the July 2008 Annual SCB meeting in Chattanooga we made excellent progress in lining-out the conceptual and logistical framework for the meeting and in securing SCB’s full support.    

The North American section of SCB has recently developed a formal process to endorse policy position statements from Chapters.  At our Chapter meeting in October, 2008 we will continue to draw on the knowledge and research of regional scientists to identify policy positions for protecting biodiversity across the Colorado Plateau.  I believe we should make it a priority to communicate these policy positions to the SCB Policy Committee.  If endorsed, they will be incorporated into SCB’s strategic Policy Priorities for North America.   I strongly support the emerging SCB position to serve as a voice for Chapter’s policy positions at a national level. 

In addition, the upcoming U.S. presidential election will likely result in unprecedented (at least over the last 8 years) openings to advocate for biodiversity conservation, especially around the hot topic issues of climate change, national energy policy, and the “green” economy.   Therefore, this is a critically important time for conservation biologists (us!) to help define a new, regionally-grounded vision for sustainable land use in North America. 

I am committed to advocating the Chapter's science and policy positions at the regional and national level and look forward to working closely with all of you as CPC president.  Please attend our October 17-19th meeting at Marble Canyon.  I hope you are all enjoying the monsoons as much as I am!

Eli Bernstein