Great Ecology’s President, Dr. Mark Laska and VP, Technical Services, Timothy Hoelzle are heading to the SER World Congress next week, August 23-27. The bi-annual conference unites leading practitioners, researchers, and government agencies focused on ecological restoration from across the world.

We are thrilled to be a part of this year’s event as both Dr. Laska and Mr. Hoelzle are chairing sessions and presenting restoration best practices and innovative projects.

Monday, August 24:

Mr. Hoelzle joins Dr. Aida Farag of the U.S. Geological Society to lead two symposia on Monday and Tuesday.

For the first symposium, Mr. Hoelzle and Dr. Farag will lead a session on Restoration and monitoring for success for lands and aquatic systems impacted by resource extraction (SY10; Monday @ 10:30). This session will focus on identifying constraints and opportunities for restoration of drastically disturbed environments with a focus on regulatory issues, novel reclamation methodologies, and economic modeling approaches. Mr. Hoelzle will present opinions on reclamation and restoration of lands where selenium issues are of concern (SY10.4). In addition, Dr. Laska joins the session to present how creative solutions driven by ecology can be applied to achieve beneficial re-use for underutilized properties (SY10.1).

The second symposium, Restoration of impaired ecosystems: An ounce of prevention or a pound of cure?, will present the results of the SETAC-SER Technical Workgroup meeting in summer 2014 (SY22; Tuesday @ 1:10). This Workgroup united top scientists and practitioners to develop best practices for the integration of remediation and restoration of contaminated ecosystems. The session will focus on the key findings on restoration goal setting, implementation, monitoring, and important pitfalls, which will also be published in an upcoming journal issue of Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management.

Tuesday, August 25

Our cities are becoming more populated and worldwide cities are making a push to increase urban green spaces. In the Oral Presentations O24 session, Dr. Laska stresses the core features of successful urban restoration projects. The challenge, create highly functioning and resilient ecosystems in the face of competing pressures. Join Dr. Laska to learn the best practices for the urban, hybrid ecosystems. It all starts with location!

Session Details:

1605 Oral Presentations O24 EXCHANGE 8
Moderators: Mark S. Laska, Ph.D. and Louise Egerton-Warburton, USA
Theme: Participation and Urban Restoration Urban restoration

O24.1 Designing for function and resiliency: using science to enhance habitat and enrich the landscape experience M.S. Laska, Ph.D., Great Ecology, San Diego, USA

O24.2 Transforming the Way Children Learn to Care and Act about Endangered Species S.S. Burnes, L. C. Jones, Captain Planet Foundation, Atlanta, USA

O24.3 Prescribed Goat Browsing at the University of Georgia (USA): Contexts, goals, impacts, and advantages E.G. King1,2, E.A. MacDonald3 – 1Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia,Athens, USA, 2Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, USA, 3College of Environment and Design, University of Georgia, Athens, USA

O24.4 Should we sweat the small stuff? Restoration and management effects on litter decomposition and microbial functioning in the Chicago Wilderness L.M. Egerton-Warburton1, L.G. Umek1,2 – 1Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, USA, 2Program in Plant Biology and Conservation, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA

O24.5 The Formal and the Informal City in Africa: Planning and Governance Dilemmas G.I. Nwaka, Humanities and Social Sciences, Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria

Check out one, both, or all of their talks!

Contact us to set up a meeting with Dr. Laska or Mr. Hoelzle at SER World.