The next speaker in the semester-long series “The Restoration Agenda: Water!” at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (F&ES) is William Mitsch, professor of natural resources and environmental science at Ohio State University. His talk on Wednesday, Jan. 28, is titled “Mother Nature, Father Time: Chief Contractors in Wetland Design.” The weekly talks on water quality, urban and rural waterways, waste water treatment and flood mitigation are from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Bowers Auditorium at Sage Hall, 205 Prospect St.
There is a fee of $100 per person for community participants for the semester. A limited number of fellowships are available for qualified registrants. For registration information, contact Aimlee D. Laderman, Ph.D., lecturer in wetland ecology and research affiliate at the F&ES, telephone 432-3335 or e-mail aimlee.laderman@yale.edu.
“Wetland creation and restoration must incorporate the concept of self-design — Mother Nature — and a better appreciation of the time necessary for ecosystems to become functional — Father Time,” said Mitsch, who is founder and director of the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park, a 23-acre wetland research facility at Ohio State. The self-design of that park will be used to illustrate both the tension and cooperation between Mother Nature and Father Time in wetland restoration.
Mitsch is a certified wetland scientist with the Society of Wetland Scientists, and the society’s past president. He is founder and editor of “Ecological Engineering - The Journal of Ecotechnology,” and has provided testimony to the U.S. Congress on wetland matters. He served on the National Academy of Sciences’ Panel on Wetland Characterization 1993- 1995, was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1997, and was the recipient of the Environmental Law Institute/US EPA National Wetland Award for Research in 1996. He is the author, along with James Gosselink of Louisiana State University, of “Wetlands,” the standard text used in colleges and universities for courses in wetland ecology.
