June 18, 2014

Dr. Dick Warner provides Keynote Remarks

On June 3-5, the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units National Meeting was held at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV.

The CESU Network is a national consortium of federal agencies, tribes, academic institutions, state and local governments, NGOs, and other partners working together to support informed public trust resource stewardship.

The CESU Network, along with its 17 eco-regional units, is well positioned to support natural system platforms for research, technical assistance, education and capacity building that are responsive to long-standing and contemporary science and resource management priorities.

On June 4, Patrick McGinnis, THG Senior Advisor for Water Resources Policy & Practice, accompanied Dr. Richard Warner, Senior Scientist at the National Great Rivers Research & Education Center (NGRREC), as Dr. Warner provided keynote remarks highlighting NGRREC’s role as a leading convener, educator, and research organization located near the confluence of the Mississippi, Illinois, and Missouri Rivers, as well as thumbnailing NGRREC’s participation in the Great Rivers CEDU Unit and the significant impact and opportunity the CESU Network provides for critical research deployment for universities, researchers, and other non-governmental institutions to provide technical capacity and expertise to the Federal family of resource managing agencies.

THG’s Pat McGinnis has been an ardent fan of the CESU process and Dr. Tom Fish’s leadership of the program.  “Under Tom Fish’s leadership, CESU has proven to be a very nimble, effective tool for Federal program managers, providing them access to our nation’s best research universities, labs, and field stations.  Furthermore, CESU is fostering a necessary dialogue between Federal program managers and research scientists that should prove sustainable.  CESU research products are also extending the program managers’ buying power which in turn is driving greater efficiency into the procurement of good science which promotes better decision making.”

For more information on the CESU National Network, click here: http://bit.ly/1sj4wdw.

The National Meeting Agenda can be accessed here: http://bit.ly/1oxg4IJ.