Dec 15 deadline for SWCS annual conference abstracts

The 67th Annual International Conference for the Soil and Water Conservation Society will be held in Ft. Worth, TX, on July 22-25, 2012.

Abstracts for presentations and proposals for symposia sessions will be accepted through December 15, 2011. Go to go to http://www.swcs.org/12ac for more information

The theme for the meeting is Choosing Conservation: Considering Ecology, Economics, and Ethics. As Dewayne Johnson pointed out, both Hugh Hammond Bennett and Aldo Leopold recognized that effective conservation decision-making takes many tools. A shovel, a pen, and a solid handshake were used skillfully by both men to help land managers and lawmakers make sustainable choices for working lands. Leopold was particularly vocal on the need to reunite economics with ecology and ethics. He recognized that each field of inquiry strengthens the study of natural resource conservation and its application on the back forty. Recent movements toward transdisciplinary research and systems approaches mirror Leopold’s thinking. The 125th anniversary year of Leopold’s birth provides us with an opportunity to take cues from Leopold and Bennett as we consider conservation choices today.