UNL Hosting Adaptive Management Short Course This Month (0807030)

July 03, 2008

LINCOLN, Neb. — The challenges of integrating science and societal dimensions of natural resource problems to help find solutions for managing large and complex ecosystems will be explored in a one-week short course on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's East campus July 28-31.

It is one of the first public short courses at UNL to address the rapidly expanding science of adaptive management as thoughtful approaches to managing large ecosystems, such as river systems like the Platte and Missouri rivers.

The course is targeted toward natural resource managers and policy makers who face complex problems in ecological recovery and river systems management. Prior experience with modeling will be helpful, but is not essential, in order to get full benefit from the course, according to co-sponsor Kyle Hoagland, director of the UNL Water Center.

"Adaptive management and adaptive environmental assessment strategies are rapidly being accepted as eco-friendly techniques for integrating science and inductive reasoning into composite solutions for best management of ecosystems," said Craig Allen, director of the Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, which is affiliated with UNL and is a federal cosponsor of the course.

The course begins at UNL's Hardin Hall on Monday, July 28 with introductions to adaptive management principles, particularly modeling and assessment, and moves toward a Friday, July 31 conclusion after looking at topics such as testing adaptive management models, prototyping habitat projects, small group exercises and developing adaptive management scenarios. Small group exercises and developing scenarios and conceptual models will be practiced extensively during the course.

"Students will understand adaptive environmental assessment fundamentals, appreciate a range of assessment techniques and be able to run model simulations for a large river system by the time the course concludes," Hoagland said.

Instructors include adaptive management expert Steve Light, St. Paul, Minn; Emory University environmental scientist Lance Gunderson, Atlanta, Ga.; and statistical ecologist Drew Tyre of UNL's School of Natural Resources.

Tuition is $700 per person. More information, a brochure and registration are online at School of Natural Resources.

Additional course cosponsors are the Collaborative Adaptive Management Network, St. Paul, Minn., and UNL's School of Natural Resources.

7/3/08-SR