Chairman Unveils Great Things

Chairman unveils great things

By DAVE MORTON

Kearneysville, WV Greetings, working group members! It’s probably been a while since you held this newsletter in your hand. After a slow period in our history, the GIS/Remote Sensing and Telemetry Working Group (a mouthful!) is energized and ready to grow. Before I discuss our current accomplishments and future plans, I want to reiterate the group’s goals as stated in our charter (for the complete charter see the website):

Facilitate communication and the exchange of information among members of The Wildlife Society interested in GIS, remote sensing, telemetry, and landscape ecology.

Enhance knowledge and technical capabilities of wildlife professionals in the area of GIS, remote sensing, telemetry, and landscape ecology.

Advance professional stewardship of wildlife resources and their habitats.

Advocate use of sound biological information for wildlife policy decisions.

Consistent with our goals, in the past year we have continued to co-sponsor FWIM-L (the fish and wildlife information management listserver), taught related shortcourses at the USFWS's National Conservation Training Center and the Smithsonian's Conservation & Research Center (via individual member efforts), elected a new chairperson (c’est moi), submitted regular news items to the Wildlifer, established a website at http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/tws-gis/index.htm, and held our annual TWS meeting in Buffalo, N.Y.

Of these accomplishments, the website is one of the most exciting. As far as I am aware, we are the only TWS working group with a webpage. Our site provides a central place to find information about our group such as: meeting reports, old newsletters, our charter, contact information for executive committee members and committee heads, etc. (Scott Klopfer provides a review on page 5). I encourage everyone to check it out and give feedback on additional links or topics to be included. In the next several months, the website will expand to include an Expertise Database. This tool will allow interested parties to locate working group members with specific expertise. Our members and general members of TWS will be able to contact experts within GIS (even specific software), remote sensing, and telemetry.

Other items in the works include co-sponsoring a national conference on Computer Applications in Fisheries and Wildlife with Organization of Fish and Wildlife Information Managers (OFWIM) and American Fisheries Society - Computer User’s Section (AFS - CUS); organizing a half-day symposium on Innovations in Home Range Analysis at the next TWS national conference (pending approval); and the development of an electronic newsletter, possibly with OFWIM and AFS-CUS.

As you can see, we are striving to fulfill the goals of our charter. I am extremely excited about the plans and possibilities of this group. I appreciate everyone’s patience through the last year and hope we can continue to strengthen. Please participate in your working group. Vote in the election. Visit the website. Add your name to the Expertise Database. Participate on a committee. If you have any suggestions or feedback, feel free to contact me at dave_morton@usgs.gov.