This seminar focuses on current native fish and mollusk restoration endeavors on-going in the United States. It will describe a historical perspective of many of the causes for our native aquatic species declines but will also highlight the outstanding efforts of many conservation organizations, federal and state agencies, and academia to slow and reverse these trends. It will cover restoration efforts from bull trout in Crater Lake NP to brook trout in the Carolinas to roundtail chub in Arizona to mollusks in the Southeast. Many of these efforts are now being supported by the National Fish Habitat Action Plan and coordinated through several regional initiatives and joint ventures.

Web conferencing is a way to hold group meetings or live presentations over the Internet.  It minimizes travel, reduces costs, facilitates collaboration, and is real time.  At a web conference, participants sit at their personal computer and share information with each other through the Internet.  Visual communication on the computer is usually accompanied by voice communication through a telephone conference call.  Typical features of web conferences include a slide presentation, application sharing such as spreadsheet manipulation, whiteboards, Internet co-browsing, chat, file sharing, and polls.

The web conferences are similar to a graduate seminar, last 2-3 hours, and feature an interactive question-and-answer session.  Pre-conference materials are made available by NCTC as appropriate to the topics.  Students are encouraged to have questions prepared to ask the presenters during the conference.

The web conferences use the Microsoft Live Meeting software program. Conference advertisement and registration is through DOI LEARN.  All conferences, including questions and answers, are recorded and available in NCTC’s web library.

College Credit: 1 semester hour

Who should attend:  Any Service biologist or scientist who desires to keep up-to-date with current aquatic species restoration efforts across the country.

Dates: December 3-4, 2008; 1-4pm EST each day