... to the inaugural newsletter of the Canadian chapter of the Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS). As many of you know, the chapter was constituted last year after a petition signed by several Canadian SWS members was submitted for consideration at the annual meeting in Bozeman, Montana. We hope that, over the next few years, our chapter will become as large and active as many of the American chapters. One hurdle we must acknowledge, however, is that the Canadian chapter encompasses far more geography than any other (with the exception of the International chapter) so the challenge will be to form a cohesive, well-informed membership without the benefit of regular in-person meetings. Therefore, we feel strongly that a regular newsletter may help to foster communication and, in time, a sense of community among the many wetland scientists in this country. After all, Canada is well endowed with vast areas of numerous wetland types so we owe it to ourselves to become more fully aware of research, teaching, industrial, and regulatory activities that occur in the Canadian wetlands scene.

To reach the widest possible readership, this first newsletter was printed and mailed to all 80 current SWS members in Canada. An electronic version was also posted on the main SWS web site at www.sws.org. Although the content of the printed and electronic versions will be mostly the same, we anticipate the electronic version will occasionally include such things as color photos that would be prohibitively expensive to include in the printed version. So if you do not currently have Internet access, we encourage you to consider getting it.

To circulate news and information in a more timely fashion than is possible with the newsletter, we have set up, via Jim Lynch (webmaster for the main SWS web site), an electronic mail list for all current Canadian SWS members for which we could find an address - many thanks to Bruce Pollard for compiling the list of addresses. The advantage of the mail list is that a single e-mail message sent to the list is automatically forwarded to everyone on it. Unlike some of the "free-for-all" mail lists to which you may already subscribe, our list is moderated so that only messages sent to the list moderator (initially, Gordon Goldsborough) will be posted for distribution to all list members. So if you wish to submit a mailing for the list, send it to Gordon at ggoldsb@cc.umanitoba.ca. If the volume of traffic is manageable (our list currently has only 49 members, as opposed to 440 in the South Atlantic Chapter list, 260 in the South Central Chapter list, and 134 in the Western Chapter list), we may ask Jim to consider making it a public list to which all members may post directly.

If you are reading this newsletter in the printed version and did not receive an e-mail message that preceded the newsletter, we probably do not have your correct e-mail address. If so, please send it to us so we may keep the list up-to-date. Be sure to let us know when your address changes.

In closing, please remember that this newsletter is intended as a forum for all Canadian SWS members. As such, it will only succeed with your active participation and contributions. So take the time to send us wetland-related information for the newsletter. We want to hear about wetland-oriented work in all parts of Canada. How about submissions for a regular column on notable Canadian wetlands? How about photos of your research sites and activities? Anything and everything is welcome! We look forward to hearing from you.