Executive Committee

(Term of office, E-mail address))
President Art McKee
(1998-1999, mckee@fsl.orst.edu)
Vice President Shorty Boucher
(1998-1999, v_bouche@lifesci.uscb.edu)
Secretary-Treasurer Peter Connors
(1998-1999, pgconnors@ucdavis.edu)

Members at Large

Steve Tonsor
(1999-2000, tonsor+@pitt.edu)
Hilary Swain
(1998-1999, HSwain@archbold-station.org)
Past President Jack Stanford
(stanford@selway.umt.edu)
Editor David White
(1999-2000, david.white@murraystate.edu)
Network Coordinator Mark Stromberg
(1999-2000, stromber@socarates.berkley.edu)

Standing Committee Chairs

Administration and Facilities Philippe Cohen
Education Steve Tonsor
International Rick Wyman
Public Relations Chuck Yohn
Research Hal Klieforth
NSF Relations Art McKee
Program Shorty Boucher
Data Management/Networking Mark Stomberg

List of New Members...2

LTER Seeks OBFS Liason...3

FIRST Update Report....4

NAML-OBFS Meeting....5

OBFS Display, Brochures...6

OBFS Data Management Reports...7

News from OBFS Stations...8

Annual Meeting, September 2000

A LETTER FROM OUR NEW PRESIDENT, HILARY SWAIN

I am taking on the President’s job buoyed by the title of a paper Tom Eisner wrote a 1982 about biological field stations entitled "For love of nature: exploration and discovery at biological field stations". I have been nurtured by many field stations, most recently at Archbold Biological Station in the unique world of the Florida scrub with its "almost Dr. Seuss-like" collection of endemic plants and animals. Hopefully I will be able to convey the OBFS enthusiasm for the urge to explore, and the ability to discover at our many sites to the broader scientific community and beyond.
The unique value of field stations is that they provide a most direct linkage among research, education, outreach, land manage-ment, conservation, and data management activities. I would like to work with all members to promote this special role of field stations to funding agencies and the legislature, and build linkages with other research networks, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. We need funding, support, and partnerships to realize our full potential. Our message should be - whether large scale LTER sites or modest teaching-oriented field stations – that the collective OBFS membership forms an established network of sites with the ability to detect, understand, and interpret ecological change at regional, national and international levels. (The recent analysis I conducted with Mark Stromberg shows that OBFS stations represent data collection points in ecoregional provinces that encompass over 72% of the U.S.). Furthermore that the viability of field stations (research, education, land, and finances) depends on recognition and awareness of their collective role and contributions.

Some of the priorities I would like to achieve in conjunction with OBFS and IOBFS members during my two year term are listed below but if there are other pressing issues please get back to me to put them on the radar screen:
        -Work with the Long-term Ecological Research network staff, with previous OBFS Presidents Jack Stanford and Art McKee, and Web Master Mark Stromberg, to ensure successful establishment of OBFS personnel and offices within the LTER Network office to promote data management activities within and among OBFS member field stations, with links to the wider ecological community.
          - Work with NSF to ensure continued support for the Field Station and Marine Labs program.
          - Build on an initial meeting we had with the Executive Board of NAML in February, 2000 (see other section in Newsletter) to explore regular OBFS/NAML exchanges, with a focus on integrating our efforts to interact with the legislature, congress, and funding agencies.
         - Support the initiatives by Susan Lohr for compiling standard OBFS field station operational policies.
         - Support J. Hodder and D. Ebert May in their initiatives to expand the undergraduate faculty enhancement program started under NSF FIRST designed to use field stations to enhance the teaching of ecology by undergraduate faculty.
         -Work with host sites to ensure we have a great 33rd and 34th annual meetings at Andrews in 2000 and Pymatuning in 2001. We are looking for agendas with both hard work and, also, enough fun for a continuing catalogue of compromising photos.

(How can the rumor from last year’s meeting about a decline in the rate of embarrassing photos possibly be true - there are several compromising photos of ME floating around - this is a data management issue, which I am going to make no effort to resolve).
The reason biologists fall in love with field stations is not only because they are a wonderful places for research and teaching. Through exploration and discovery we also fall in love with the land, and the sea - and with this knowledge comes the sense of stewardship and place. So I will measure my term as President of OBFS not just in terms of papers produced, students taught, presentations given, datasets on the web, GPS points on the ground, and dollars raised. But also as acres saved, watersheds protected, management techniques successfully implemented, citizens that believe in what we do, and measurable improvements in the ecological integrity of the natural communities we represent.

Hilary Swain, Executive Director
Archbold Biological Station
PO Box 2057
Lake Placid, FL 33862
telephone: 863-465-2571
fax: 863-699-1927
email: hswain@archbold-station.org
http://www.archbold-station.org