2010 Meeting of the Midwest–Great Lakes SER Chapter

The Midwest–Great Lakes Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), serving Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, was recognized as the newest regional chapter in March 2008. The chapter's mission is to promote the science and practice of ecological restoration to assist with the recovery and management of degraded ecosystems throughout the Midwestern and Great Lakes region of the United States, and it serves all of the diverse individuals and organizations interested in ecological restoration. The chapter currently has 158 members who receive the following benefits: 1) networking with colleagues and showcasing their work at annual chapter meetings; 2) reduced chapter meeting registration rates; 3) a regional newsletter (Restoration News Midwest); 4) discussions with colleagues via the chapter Facebook page; and 5) advertising their conferences, workshops, and other activities through the newsletter and Facebook page. The chapter's annual meetings are designed provide a forum for the cross-communication on a diverse range of ecological restoration topics. The first meeting was held in April 2009 at Marian College in Indianapolis, Indiana (Smiley and Lyndall 2009).

This year, we held the second annual chapter meeting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum on April 9–10 as part of the Arboretum's 75th Anniversary celebration, making it even more of a special event. Given that the meeting site is considered to be the birthplace of ecological restoration and the chapter is a newcomer to the region, we adopted the theme "Legacies and Upstarts in Ecological Restoration." Restoration projects are implemented as a result of historic degradation, current environmental problems, emerging environmental threats, or a combination of these factors. Thus the meeting theme also provided an opportunity to reflect on the past, consider the present, and look toward the future of ecological restoration in the region.

We had 130 attendees from 12 states (California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin). Meeting attendees represented academic institutions (44%), private companies (28%), nonprofit groups (17%), and county, state, and federal agencies (11%).

Our scientific program consisted of a keynote presentation, two plenary sessions, two workshops, one poster session, six contributed oral presentation sessions, and tours of the Arboretum. All abstracts have been compiled and can be downloaded along with the meeting program from the Midwest-Great Lakes SER Chapter Web site (www.ser.org/content/SERMWGL.asp).

The meeting began on Friday afternoon with an interactive plenary session on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative with a panel that included Terry Heatlie (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), Todd Hogrefe (National Fish and Wildlife Foundation), Amy McGovern (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), and Karen Rodriguez (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). The panel provided updates, gave advice on writing great grant proposals, and answered questions from the audience. After a short break, attendees had the choice of workshops. One, led by Scott Peyton (Stantec Consulting), focused on how to design stream restoration projects using natural channel design techniques. In the other workshop, Lisa Brush (Stewardship Network) and Steve Apfelbaum (Applied Ecological Services) taught how to use high-resolution multi-spectral aerial imaging as part of restoration planning and evaluation.

The evening poster session consisted of 15 contributions that encompassed topics ranging from development of reference plant communities for forested ecosystems to prairie restoration experiments to development of volunteer programs. A concurrent reception also gave the meeting attendees a chance to view sponsors' exhibits and to socialize with colleagues. After dinner, Dr. Joy Zedler (University of Wisconsin–Madison) delivered the keynote presentation titled "Restoration Targets Are Changing." She urged restorationists to clarify their restoration targets and to consider longer time scales (>50 years) for achieving their goals. "Targets for specific states and services are often missed, but if the vision is for full recovery quickly, to date, the only claim for such an outcome is based on opinions and broad, vague targets" (Zedler, forthcoming). Dr. Zedler also called for the use of a "learning-while-restoring" approach as a way of dealing with inevitably moving restoration targets in a changing environment. In this way, even a...