How to Get Involved:
Proposing an Initiative for the Natural History Network
The Natural History Network invites proposals for initiatives that advance our mission. The Network can potentially support efforts by providing thematic context, institutional affiliation, and communication with our growing network of practitioners.
Proposals should be sent to Tom Fleischner, president of NHN
tfleischner@prescott.edu and address the following points:
1. What is the name of the initiative?
2. What is the purpose of the initiative?
3. How does the initiative advance the goal of promoting the values of natural history?
4. Who is involved (as an “Action Team”), and who is the contact person?
5. What specific types of support are you seeking from the Natural History Network?
6. What benchmarks will be used to evaluate success of the initiative?
Proposals will initiate a dialogue with the Board of Directors of the Natural History
Network, who will decide if the proposal is logistically feasible and concordant
with the organization’s strategic goals.
Initiatives of the Natural History Network include:
¤Ecological Society of America annual meeting;
Albuquerque, NM, August 2009
At the largest annual gathering of professional ecologists, we are coordinating
an Organized Oral Session on the importance of natural history and a Workshop to
explore practical steps that can promote natural history in research, in education,
and in society.
¤Natural History: The Basis for Ecological Understanding
and a Global
Sustainable Society
Organizer: Joshua Tewksbury (University of Washington)
Natural history – the observational, descriptive, and comparative study of the
natural world – forms the foundation of ecological research, the grist for the
creation of both ecological and evolutionary theory, and the backbone for
conservation. Natural history is also a key pathway to nurture fundamental human
emotional connection to the non-human world. Our sense of place, and our society’s
willingness to prioritize open space, natural landscapes, and the species that
inhabit these areas, depends upon a broad base of amateur and professional
naturalists. Yet in the last 75 years, we have seen a steady loss in the practice
of natural history in research, education, and in society. In this symposium, we
will bring together naturalists from across disciplines and with different
perspectives to examine the consequence of the loss of natural history, and to
discuss the future of natural history in society, research, and in education.
We are particularly interested in exploring the importance of the professional
naturalist in the field of ecology.
The symposium will begin with an exploration of the deep roots of natural
history, and a critical examination of the causes and consequences of the
decline in natural history from a contemporary (Thomas Fleischner), and
historical perspective (John Anderson). We will then bridge to examine the
importance of direct experience in creating ecological knowledge (Anne Solomon),
and the consequences of the loss of this direct experience, taken from an
anthropological perspective (Paul Dayton). These talks will allow us to explore
the consequences for conservation research and communication (Dee Boersma), for
the mission of global environemental NGOs (Peter Kareiva) and the furtherance
of conservation policy (Jane Lubchenco) and for the future of agriculture,
education, and sustainability (Gary Nabhan). Finally, we will hear about natural
history from the perspective of a President of a Major research University
(David Schmidly) and we will close with a proposal for a natural history
curriculum for our country (Carlos Martinez del Rio and Tewksbury).
The symposium will end with a panel discussion focused on the future of natural
history in ecology and the importance of natural history for sustainability.
We will pose explicit questions to the audience, and inviting them to help chart
a course for a new initiative – the Natural History Network
(www.naturalhistorynetwork.org)
- dedicated to the promotion of natural history.
We will bring together leading practitioners of natural history from a broad range
of disciplines and ask them to collectively contemplate a series of questions:
What is the future of natural history in the 21st century? How are natural history
and sustainability related? What can we do today to insure that the tradition of
deep natural history understanding is not lost from the field of ecology?
Natural history has been the spark that ignited intellectual and emotional
passion in a great many ecologists. The session draw on a diversity of speakers
that see the importance of natural history from different perspectives, as we
have speakers focused on natural history education in small liberal arts colleges
and in large research academies, we have speakers from major NGOs concerned about
the loss of natural history knowledge in the people joining their organizations,
and we have speakers from institutes committed to sustainability and ecology,
focused on the role of natural history research in the preservation of biodiversity.
Society for Human Ecology annual meeting; September 2008, Bellingham, WA
At this interdisciplinary conference on the relationship between humans and nature,
we organized a symposium on the importance of natural history.
¤Society for Human Ecology annual meeting;
September 2008, Bellingham, WA
At this interdisciplinary conference on the relationship between humans and nature, we organized a
symposium on the importance of natural history.
A Renaissance of Natural History in Human Ecology
Chair: Thomas L. Fleischner (Prescott College)
Thomas L. Fleischner (Prescott College)
What is Natural History, and Why Does it Matter?
John Anderson (College of the Atlantic)
Philosophical Issues: Is Natural History Discovery Really Science?
Joshua Tewksbury (University of Washington)
Practical Issues: The Relationship of Natural History to Primary Research
Saul Weisberg (North Cascades Institute)
Taking Children of All Ages into the Woods: Why and How?
Open Discussion with Audience and Panelists
What role does natural history play in the political landscape?
Can natural history survive in the academic landscape?
Linking arts, sciences, and humanities in natural history
¤We created and edit
the Journal of Natural History Education
and
encourage your submissions!
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