An Invitation to Join a Workshop to Explore an Alliance to Monitor the Environment

25-28 October 2001
Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
Sponsored by an ACS Environmental Citizenship Grant

We are living in a time of global environmental change. Declining water quality, suburban sprawl, increasing air pollution, reduced wildlife habitat, endangered and threatened species, the declining stratospheric ozone layer, and global warming characterize our natural environment. On the other hand, ecological restoration projects, air and water remediation, the banning of ozone-depleting chemicals, and other local, state, and regional projects offer hope that these negative trends can be halted and even reversed. In order to assess the health of the environment and to measure the effect of restoration and remediation efforts, measurement of key environmental parameters is essential.

Faculty members at ACS institutions are involved in various aspects of environmental monitoring research and education, including acquisition and analysis of data.  We will be hosting a meeting of interested ACS faculty 25-28 October, 2001, to discuss the formation of an alliance to monitor the environment, to use environmental data, and to educate students in this area. The workshop will bring together environmental scientists, GIS and GPS users, environmental policy scholars, and other faculty to describe their environmental monitoring projects, to define the environmental parameters of greatest relevance, to develop a plan for an environmental monitoring alliance, to learn how GIS and GPS technologies can support regional monitoring projects, to develop a plan for educating students about monitoring techniques and use of network data, and to explore opportunities for future funding for the alliance.

In addition to the conference, we have planned some truly unique activities.  The first night (25 October) we will witness the emergence of Mexican free-tailed bats from Bracken Cave, just north of San Antonio.  The cave, home to over 20 million bats, is managed by Bat Conservation International (www.batcon.org).  This emergence is truly one of the wonders of the world and should not be missed!

On Friday evening we will have a tour and picnic at Mission San Jose.  This mission, founded in 1720, is part of a series of missions along the San Antonio river managed by the National Park Service (www.nps.gov).  We will be given a personal tour after hours.

Saturday night will be left open for your own explorations of the San Antonio River Walk, in downtown San Antonio.

We need your commitment now in order to organize this workshop!  All of your flight and accommodations will be provided. 

If interested, please email one of the coordinators and indicate what your contribution will be to this workshop.  We plan on spending most of Friday on informal poster presentations where faculty will describe projects at their institutions dealing with environmental monitoring. We look forward to hearing from you!