Plenary Session
The Plenary Session will be held on Monday, June 11th in the morning and will focus on the theme of the conference.
Plenary Speakers
Mike Chrisman: Resume
Denise J. Reed: Resume
Restoring Habitat and Resolving Conflicts: Wetlands and Water Management in the 21st Century
The 21st century promises to be a time of change in water resources, both floods and droughts may be more common and sea-levels will certainly be higher. For wetlands and their dependent wildlife, adaptation to such changes relies on the pace of change as well as the magnitude and frequency of their occurrence – and such systems over millennia have adapted. Now wetlands are highly valued for the services they provide, often associated with direct economic benefits. Managing both water and wetlands in a time of changing water resources to sustain these services involves complex tradeoffs which must be based on a sound understanding of wetland dynamics. Examples from NW Europe and coastal Louisiana will be used to highlight these challenges.
Jeffrey F. Mount: Resume
Consequences of Wetland Reclamation in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Implications for California's Future
Prior to reclamation activity in the 19th century, the most productive wetland complex in the western Americas lay at the head of the San Francisco Estuary. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta was reclaimed using more than 1700 km of levees. Today, this former wetland complex is the hub of water supply to 23 million Californians, supports multiple transportation and energy corridors, and is increasingly under development pressure. Trends in land subsidence, levee stability, sea level rise, seismicity and in inflow to the Delta all indicate that business-as-usual is not sustainable. Recently, a group of UC Davis scientists and engineers teamed up with the Public Policy Institute of California to assess a range of possible futures for the Delta. The results, which include economic and water resource optimization models and conceptual ecological models, suggest that all is not lost in the Delta.
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