Biological Conservation and Ecosystem Protection UMass/EOEA working Group

Minutes of the May 8, 2000 meeting, Westborough, MA


Present: Dan Clark, Tom French, Dave Kittredge, Paul Lyons, Sharon MacGregor, Kevin McGarigal, Bill rivers, Juliette Rooney-Varga, John Scalon, Rob Stevenson, Kevin Stokesbury, Henry Woolsey

The Group convened at 10 am and we reviewed the information submitted to date. The lead author on each draft project idea provided a brief overview of the proposed projects that were grouped as follows:

  1. Establishing Priorities for Biodiversity Protection

  • Mapping Dynamic landscapes/Biomapping

  • Mapping Marine Ecosystems


  1. Development of Knowledge Management Systems

  • Development of a Decision Support System for land managers

  • Dissemination of science into management


  1. Monitoring Biodiversity and Ecosystem Conditions

  • Long-term Ecological Monitoring System

  • Microbial Biodiversity Assessment


These groups then formed the focus of a discussion that brought together the following five proposed projects/products from our working group:

  1. Proposed Project on a Forest Knowledge Management System that would facilitate putting existing knowledge to use. Dave Kittredge agreed to take the lead on this project along with Rob Stevenson, Bill Rivers, and Tom French

  1. Proposed Project on Terrestrial Conservation Planning that is a spatially explicit inventory of conditions that includes a dynamic landscape component designed to address several specific information needs:

  • Purchase prioritization

  • Protection using non-purchase mechanisms if high priority areas

  • Identify areas for restoration

  • Tom French agreed to take the lead on this along with Kevin McGarigal, Bill Rivers, Henry Woolsey, and Rob Stevenson

  1. Proposed Project on Marine Mapping to identify aid in biodiversity protection that would be an extension of the terrestrial bio-mapping project. Kevin Stokesbury agreed to take the lead on this along with Juliette Rooney-Varga, Kevin McGarigal, and Rob Stevenson.

  1. Proposed Project on Monitoring Biological Diversity of the Commonwealth that would establish a set of sites and priority actions to begin long-term monitoring of selected ecosystem components. Kevin Mcgarigal agreed to take the lead on this project along with Dan Clark, John Scanlon, Bill Rivers, Juliet Rooney-Varga and Rob Stevenson.

  1. Establishment of a Biodiversity and Ecosystem Protection Science Advisory Committee consisting of EOEA and UMass representatives. This on

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