FORT COLLINS--Diana Wall, director of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory and Associate Dean of the College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University, has been elected the new president of The Ecological Society of America.
Wall will preside over more than 7,600 members in the United States and internationally. The society, considered the country's premier professional organization of ecologists, was founded in 1915 to stimulate sound ecological research.
"The present rate of change in our environment is unprecedented in the history of the Earth," Wall said. "Ecologists provide accurate, credible scientific information to policy makers and the general public on critical management issues for the environment."
Wall will stress making ecological knowledge more accessible to citizens and decision-makers at all levels of government. The Society publishes its journals and bulletin online and will take other measures to enhance its educational outreach.
"Americans depend upon ecological knowledge to manage our natural resources, protect human health and to prevent small problems from becoming large, expensive problems," she said. "To solve the increasingly complex environmental problems will require that researchers integrate their knowledge from the natural, physical and social sciences."
The society's goals are to promote, clarify and communicate the science of ecology through reports, journals, research and expert testimony to Congress and other governments. The society encourages members to responsibly apply their research and ecological expertise to public issues through teaching and public interaction. Members solve environmental problems such as habitat alteration and destruction, natural resource management, species extinction and loss of biological diversity, ecosystem management, ozone depletion and global climate change, sustainable ecological systems, ecological restoration and biotechnology.
Wall is a fellow of
'"/>
Contact: Alison Gillespie
alison@esa.org
202-833-8773
Ecological Society of America
28-Oct-1999