DATE: March 17, 2008

CONTACT: Gene W. Eidson, (864) 656-2619 (office), (864) 710-0882
geidson@clemson.edu

WRITER: Peter Kent, (864) 650-7899
pkent@clemson.edu

Clemson hosts Southeastern Restoration Ecologists Conference

CLEMSON — Meeting for the first time in South Carolina, the Coastal Plain Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration is holding its annual conference at the Clemson University's Madren Center. More than 40 restoration ecologists from around the Southeast will present papers and attend field trips from March 18 through 20.

Conferees will present and discuss topics including invasive species along the South Carolina coast, restoration of oaks in bottomland and the impact of land disturbance on fresh-water ecosystems.
Ecological restoration seeks to return an ecosystem to a healthy and sustainable state. The field has burgeoned as public policy has embraced the need to rebuild and revive areas that have been degraded by industry, development or overuse.

The Coastal Plain chapter of the international society includes scientists, land managers, landscape architects, engineers, community activists, students and practitioners in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Their purpose is to promote ecological restoration as a means of sustaining the diversity of life on Earth and re-establishing an ecologically healthy relationship between nature and culture.

For more information, contact Gene W. Eidson, director, restoration ecology, Clemson University Restoration Institute, at (864) 656-2619 (office) or (864) 710-0882 (cell) or at geidson@clemson.edu.

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