PAST MEETINGS:

Memphis, Tennessee
October 4-6, 2007

The South Central Chapter held their 2007 Annual Fall Meeting October 4 th through the 6 th in Memphis, Tennessee. The meeting was hosted by Chapter President Gary Pritts at the facilities of EnSafe Inc., an environmental consulting firm. There were 23 attendees which included 7 new members.

The one-day workshop “Overview and Introduction to the use of GPS and GIS” held on October 4 th was lead by Scott Burliegh and Matt Stahman of SWCA. The workshop provided participants with basic knowledge on setting up GPS equipment to collect required field data and how to post-process the data once returning from the field. For the field activity, participants were taken to a site currently being monitored as a wetland mitigation site. This provided everyone the opportunity to collect data on various parameters observed at this type of wetland system. Kevin Bingham (EnSafe) led the section dealing with GIS setup. The introduction to GIS provided information on how the data is used in conducting various analyses and creating final map products.

The technical presentations held in round-table fashion on Friday morning began with Rob Bailey talking on the inter-workings of the Tennessee Stream Mitigation Program (TSMP) and similar programs in other states. Other talks presented by Roger Allen from the Army Corp of Engineers Memphis District included new regional supplement guidance to the 87’ Wetland Delineation Manual and new requirements in determining ACOE jurisdiction brought on by the recent Rapanos decision. The afternoon brought the chapter business meeting followed by a short field trip to the William B. Clark Wetland Preserve and Boardwalk. At the business meeting, members were informed of recent issues voted on by the chapter board such as “Mechanisms for Addressing Future Requests for Meeting Sponsorships/Donations and Student Travel Funds”. This year, the South Central Chapter has received several requests for donations or meeting sponsorships. The SCC board voted to provide $1000.00 annually to be used toward this purpose. In addition to the sponsorships of other organizations, the SCC Board wanted to increase student participation at our meeting and voted to provide $100.00 travel fund for up to 6 students wanting to attend the Fall Chapter meeting, but was unable to do so to lack of funding. In the evening, the Friday night social was held at the local Fox and Hound English Pub where participants gathered to chat with old friends, make new ones, shoot pool and play ping pong.

Saturday brought on the student presentations and competition. Five students from our chapter presented their work in competition for a $600.00 travel award to the 2008 International Meeting to be held Washington DC and the honor to represent the South Central Chapter while presenting their work at this meeting. All five student presentations were excellent; however, only one person can be selected for the award and this year the travel award was presented to Samuel Pierce for his presentation of “Nutrient Concentrations in Mesocosms of Leersia oryzoides (Rice Cutgrass) Exposed to Variable Flooding”.

 As the 2007 year comes to a close, the South Central Chapter is now excepting nominations for two board member positions and the president-elect position that is up for election in 2008. If you like to nominate someone or yourself, please contact Andy Nyman at jnyman@lsu.edu.