MEDIA ADVISORY
For immediate release
May 19, 2008

Ecology on the Edge
SEEDS students head to Earth’s poles

Photo Credits: Bonanza Creek LTER

Students from across the continental US and Puerto Rico will soon be heading to the interior of Alaska to participate in a special field trip sponsored by the Strategies for Ecology Education, Development, and Sustainability (SEEDS) program.  SEEDS, a program of the Ecological Society of America, strives to diversify and advance the profession of ecology through opportunities that stimulate and nurture the interest of underrepresented students.

From May 25 - 31, nineteen students and two faculty members will learn from, and perhaps contribute to, scientific research programs taking place at the Earth’s poles.  The students—who competed against some 80 other applicants to participate in the field trip—will focus their activities at the Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site.  The research site focuses on Alaska’s boreal forest—a mosaic of forest, grassland, shrubs, bogs, and alpine tundra. 

“SEEDS field trips offer a unique opportunity for students from widely different geographic areas and cultural backgrounds to interact in a highly supportive environment,” says ESA Diversity Programs Manager Melissa Armstrong.  “They may come from a home community that isn’t particularly supportive of their interest in ecology and on the field trip they immediately find a connection with other students who hang on their every word as they talk about their turtle egg counts or grassland sampling methods.”

The students will investigate the effects of fires in Alaska, as well as participate in Athabascan cultural activities and learn about the effects of climate change on Alaskan Natives.  In addition, the field trip will include a career panel discussion as well as present opportunities at Bonanza Creek and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Bonanza Creek LTER is supported and hosted by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, the US Forest Service, and the National Science Foundation.   Terry Chapin and Jamie Hollingsworth, both with Bonanza Creek LTER and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, worked closely with ESA to put together the events in which the students will participate. 

The SEEDS program began in 1996 as a collaborative effort to work towards increasing the number of minorities in the field of ecology.  SEEDS has stimulated interest among underrepresented students to pursue ecology, provided professional development to aid science faculty in creating new ecology offerings, and taken new steps to increase cultural diversity within the Ecological Society of America.  SEEDS also promotes ecological science by supporting field trips, campus ecology chapters, summer fellowships, and ESA Annual Meeting travel scholarships.  The program has been recognized by two awards: the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, the highest award of its kind in the United States, and the Diversity Leadership Award, given by the American Institute of Biological Sciences.  

SEEDS is supported by generous contributions from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Science Foundation.  Ben Meadows Inc. is providing all-weather notebooks for the Alaska field trip.

For more information on the SEEDS program please visit: http://www.esa.org/seeds/.