I appreciate Kali's post and the posts that have followed. As a researcher at a research station with a commitment to outreach and extension to landowners and the general public, I can say that bringing ecology to people can be done, but it takes a lot of hard work. In particular, the effort has to carefully consider its target audience, just as an advertiser does in selling a product. Although opening the doors of ESA meetings to the public is an admirable thought, I do not think that many people would come, and of those who come few would understand or appreciate most of what they see. To be honest, I felt that way during the first few ESA meetings I attended as an undergraduate and graduate student. It would probably reinforce the perception that ecologists are elitists who speak their own language present barriers to understanding. The simple reason is that ESA meetings are designed for professional ecologists, which is appropriate.
I think if ESA were to get serious about public outreach, it would need to have special conferences or workshops designed for that purpose. There may be such efforts of which I am not aware. They would need to be local or regional rather than national so that people could easily attend them, free (supported by external funding sources) with free snacks and coffee, have a theme of interest to some subset of the community, and contain presentations and posters especially designed for that audience to make connections to things that attendees can relate to in their lives and professions. Organizations such as ours (Tall Timbers Research Station), The Longleaf Alliance, etc. do these kinds of workshops and seminars fairly regularly, and they are well attended. The interesting thing about them is we invariably learn as much or more as the attendees by listening to people who live at the interface where our concepts are supposed to be making their impact, whether in a home, a farm, a nearby state forest, etc. To me that is the most important part of Kali's post, that ecologists would be greatly broadened and educated by breaking down the walls. I know I have since leaving the halls of academia and interacting with foresters, hunters, agency managers, etc. in conjunction with our research efforts, and I know my research and writing is better because of it. Kevin Kevin Robertson, PhD Fire Ecologist Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy 13093 Henry Beadel Drive Tallahassee, FL 32312 [email protected] office: 850-893-4153 ext. 254 mobile: 850-508-5499 -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Wayne Tyson Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 10:57 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Reply to: 'a few thousand ecologists meet... does anybody know or care?' -- A perhaps radical suggestion Ecolog: I hope that the details and the messages between the lines are not lost from Kali's most courageous and intelligent first post. I hope she keeps it up. I also hope that the discussion is not sidetracked from the principles involved to a few (or a few thousand) cases where something simply went wrong. I do hope that greater attention is paid to the issues of deeply-imbedded attitudes that undermine the understanding, by as wide a "public" as possible of what ecology is and is not. While it may be true that "most people" are ignorant of ecology, they are not all, as Kali points out, stupid. In order to convey the impression to those who, like Kali's mother, do absorb truth quickly (or, for that matter, slowly), that ecology is not out to "take jobs away" or other nonsense, but is dedicated to maintaining and improving a better world for all. Calling or implying that "most people" are stupid or even ignorant, intentionally or unintentionally, may not be the best way to convey. Might opening up discussion with folks like Kali's mother might be something of a start? WT ----- Original Message ----- From: "Madhusudan Katti" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 10:33 PM Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Reply to: 'a few thousand ecologists meet... does anybody know or care?' -- A perhaps radical suggestion > Thank you, Kali, for not keeping your mouth shut! You make some very > important points and I love your suggestion of having more opportunities > for local public to participate for free. A free family ecology day like > the science day they have at AAAS meetings would be a fantastic way to > engage with the public. This particular meeting does have a couple of free > events for the public, but I don't think they've been advertised well > enough to actually draw many members of the public. > > As for media coverage, a local science reporter, JP, who heard about this > meeting via someone's tweet about my blog post, is keen to cover the > meeting - but got a real runaround trying to contact someone for > credentials! JP left several comments describing his/her efforts, and the > rather inadequate media outreach efforts from ESA - I hope Nadine Lymn and > anyone else from among ESA officials read the comments and think about how > to improve communications. Here again is the link to my post where you > will find the comments: > > http://leafwarbler.posterous.com/a-few-thousand-ecologists-meet-in-the-city-to > > We clearly need to do a better job of outreach, and I am glad my post has > generated some discussion about the issue. > > Madhu > > __________________ > Dr. Madhusudan Kat > Associate Professor, Dept of Biology > California State University, Fresno > > On Aug 8, 2011, at 1:58 PM, Kali Bird <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> I have never posted to Ecolog before, but I felt I couldn't keep my mouth >> shut about this one. >> >> First, I don't think we can necessarily know why the news doesn't pick >> up >> on ESA more. Likely, it's because the general public doesn't care, but >> perhaps it may be that they are tired feeling like ecologists tell them >> that >> their lifestyles and values are wrong. Personally, I think it's because >> people don't care. In my experience speaking with the public, I always >> proffer an explanation of what I do immediately after saying that I am a >> 'microbial ecologist,' because most people I speak with don't even know >> what >> ecology is. >> >> Second, if these thousands of ecologists really want to engage the >> public, how about letting the locals come to ESA? I know that >> non-members >> are invited to attend, but honestly, you have to be wealthy or have a >> wealthy grant pay for you to come to be able to pay 500$ and take off >> days >> to a week from work to be involved in the meeting. My mother reads my >> Frontiers magazine religiously. She loves it. She is also part of a >> 'sustainability' group at her international corporation. She lives very >> close to Austin, has the ability to take time off of work, but as a >> middle-class citizen, simply cannot afford it. If these thousands of >> ecologists are really interested in engaging with the public, how about >> creating events at ESA for the locals that are affordable? My mother has >> no >> scientific background, but is smart, learns fast, and loves to learn. >> There >> are a lot of people like this everywhere we have meetings. Yet we preach >> engagement with the public from our over-air-conditioned conference >> rooms, >> doors closed and barred to those we wish to engage with. Phenomenal. >> I know our over-air conditioned convention centers cost a lot of money >> to >> rent and ESA is an expensive venture to host, but surely we can create >> some >> sort of scholarship fund for locals, special free events for public >> engagement (THIS is how you get in the news), or even a lottery for >> one-day >> passes to attend talks. Let's help people understand what in the world >> it >> is we do. If I could have afforded to send my mom to ESA, I would have >> done >> it in a heartbeat. She would have loved it and told all her friends, >> co-workers, and her church group all the things she learned. Do we want >> to >> engage more with people across religious boundaries? In the heart of a >> red >> state, what a boon actually engaging with the religious public would be. >> >> >> >> Kali Bird >> >> Graduate Student >> Kellogg Biological Station, >> Michigan State University > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 10.0.1391 / Virus Database: 1520/3821 - Release Date: 08/08/11 >
