Natural Areas conference

When I started my PhD studies in November 2005, I set myself a goal of attending atleast two international conferences every year. So far I have been living my dream, and sometimes exceeded my expectations. I have just returned from attending my last conference for 2007.

I was an international guest at the Natural Areas Conference. The NAC is an an annual conference of the Natural Areas Association, and every year they give scholarships to international guests to participate in the conference. This year's conference was held in Cleveland, Ohio from 9- 12th Oct. The NAC is quite unique from other conferences have attended because it is primarily made up of conservation practitioners, as opposed to academics. Although there were a few of us who gave purely academic talks, most of the focus was on pressing conservation issues like invasive species, deer and land management etc.

Prior to the conference I went on a field trip to Hockings Hills, in Ohio. It was a really exciting trip where I got to meet many people and made lots of friends. The Hokings hills is a real gem, very scenic with lush green forests. Ofcourse it doesn't come close to Africa, but for American standards it is great. What impressed me most were the sculpted sandstone cliffs and outcroppings, which were a result of past geologic events. Most of the sandstones were in regular shapes as if they were cut by a mschine.

During the conference I also took a field trip to Kelley's Island, but this was rather disappointing because I was expecting a very pristine, uninhabitated island. But Kelley is technically a small Isand town. Anyhow, the main attraction of Kelley's Isand is the abandon of fossils on the limestone beaches as a result of past glacial action. And the glacial grooves that were formed during the pleistocene era, when glacia brushed through the ancient sea bed rock and created the massive grooves on the bed rock which look like erosion gully. Apparently most of the Midwest USA and most of Canada was covered by glacia to a height of almost 2 miles...

...but that was 350 million years ago.