The University of Illinois at Springfield’s Emiquon Field Station, in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy and Dickson Mounds Museum, is holding the second annual science meeting titled “Emiquon Science 2009: The Rebirth of Emiquon.” The event will be held on Thursday, March 12, at the Dickson Mounds Museum, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Emiquon Project is one of the largest floodplain restoration projects in the nation and was started in 2007. UIS established the Field Station at Emiquon in 2008, which is used for many research and learning opportunities for both the UIS community and general public.
Bill Mitsch, internationally-known wetland ecologist and professor at The Ohio State University, will be the keynote speaker for the annual meeting. His talk, “Restoring the Mississippi River Basin: Wetlands, Rivers, Floodplains and Delta,” will focus on how the Mississippi-Ohio-Missouri river basins contribute to Gulf Hypoxia and how restoration may pave the way toward fixing this problem. Mitsch has received numerous awards in the field of ecology, including the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Wetland Scientists and the 2005 Theodore M. Sperry Award from the Society for Ecological Restoration International.
The meeting will be comprised of both oral presentations and poster presentations related to ecology or research at the Emiquon Preserve. Morning topics include water quality at Emiquon, wetland and waterbird monitoring and more. The afternoon is comprised of poster sessions, and the event will conclude with a tour of the Emiquon Preserve and Field Station. For a complete schedule, go to https://edocs.uis.edu/mlemk1/www/Emiquon2009_final.pdf.
A complimentary lunch buffet will be served. Space for attendees is limited to 130, and advance registration is required. To register, go online to https://edocs.uis.edu/kmill2/www/emiquonScienceInvite09.htm.
For more information, contact Dr. Mike Lemke, Emiquon Field Station director, at lemke.michael@uis.edu.
