WORKSHOPS
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Beginning your professional journey
Space available – Register Today!
Advanced FAST
Space available – Register Today!
Design, implementation, and analysis of studies to evaluate instream restoration practices
Space available – Register Today!
Workshop Details and Agendas
Beginning your professional journey
Time: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Contact: Rebecca Christoffel, D.J. Case & Associates, (574) 258-0100 or (574) 273-0759, christof@iastate.edu
Instructor: Rebecca Christoffel, D.J. Case & Associates and Jim Schneider, MSU, Dept. Fisheries and Wildlife
Attendance: minimum 20 – maximum 50
Cost: $20
Location: Hilton
Overview: Fisheries and Wildlife (FW) undergraduates take many academic classes to prepare them for their first position in the field. A sentiment often expressed by academics and employers is that students are ill-informed regarding specific skills, prior experience, and personality traits deemed desirable in employees and graduate students. Seldom are undergraduates given opportunities to build networks with professionals and learn detailed information regarding their potential as a future employee or graduate student. Likewise, “unwritten” rules for interacting and corresponding with professionals are seldom discussed with students but are essential for their professional satisfaction and advancement.
This workshop’s purpose is to address the needs of undergraduate FW students to prepare for their first post-baccalaureate position, whether as a graduate student or employee. We strive to demonstrate the workshop’s importance in the professional development of students to participating professionals at the workshop and conference attendees. We continue to hope this pre-conference workshop will become a regular tradition at future conferences.
The workshop consists of four sections: Resumes and Professional Correspondence, Academic and Employer Panels, Networking, and Interviewing. Students and professionals sit and eat together during the workshop. Professional leaders facilitate small group exercises and provide individual input to students. The workshop includes some lecture, interactive discussion, small group exercises and individual work. We work to provide equal gender representation among workshop leaders and speakers, and equal representation from Fisheries and Wildlife professionals. Each participant receives a binder of resource materials for future use and business cards to distribute while networking at the conference.
Agenda:
8:30 – 8:45 Welcome and Ice-Breaker Activity
8:45 – 9:00 Introduction and Logistics of Workshop
9:00 – 9:30 Top ten ways to cut your Journey short (Mike Pagel*)
9:30-10:30 Session 1 – Preparing your Resume’ and other Professional
Correspondence
10:30 – 10:45 Break
10:45 – 12:15 Session 2 – Academic and Employer Panels
12:15 – 1:15 Lunch Break
1:15 – 2:45 Session 3 – Interviewing Skills
2:45 – 3:00 Break
3:15 – 4:45 Session 4 – Networking
4:45 – 5:00 Workshop Wrap up
Advanced FAST
Time: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Contact: Angela C. Grier 
, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, (260) 244-6805, agrier@dnr.IN.gov
Instructor: Dr. Steve Sammons – Auburn University
Attendance: minimum 10 – maximum 25
Cost: $100
Location: Hilton
Overview: The purpose of this short course is to provide registrants with advanced training in the use of the FAST software. Registrants will be expected to have the FAST 3.0 version installed on laptop computers and bring hard copies of Chapters 9 and 10 (Largemouth bass from Lake Eufaula and striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay examples). Registrants should have a basic working knowledge of FAST and be familiar with computations to estimate growth, mortality, and recruitment. During the eight-hour short course, simulation modeling of specific fisheries will be conducted and discussed.
Agenda:
8:00 AM: Quick introduction and begin modeling
9:45 AM: Break
10:00 AM: Resume modeling
12:00 PM: Lunch – not provided
1:00 PM: Resume modeling
2:45 PM: Break
3:00 PM: Resume modeling
5:00 PM: Closing comments and end of workshop survey
Detailed Description of Session Topics:
Case histories of fisheries that have been published will be covered and additional course notes provided. Agenda topics will include:
1) Computation of yield and spawning potential ratio of the channel catfish in the upper Mississippi River: Use of biological references points.
2) Impact of largemouth bass virus and changes in growth and survival on production of largemouth bass greater than 20 inches.
3) Evaluation of low harvest rates on production of trophy peacock bass in the Rio Negro River, Brazil.
4) Effectiveness of harvest restrictions of riverine sunfish fisheries in Georgia.
5) Length and slot limit evaluations for primary catch-and-release tournament fisheries on Lake Eufaula, Alabama: Use of size-specific differences in mortality rates.
6) Evaluation of recruitment overfishing for striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay: Use of the customized recruitment and fishing mortality utilities.
Design, implementation, and analysis of studies to evaluate instream restoration practices
Time: 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM (tentative)
Contact: Steve Pescitelli, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, (630) 553-0164, Steve.pescitelli@illinois.gov; Leslie Dorworth, Purdue University Calumet, (219) 989-2726, dorworth@calumet.purdue.edu
Instructors: Dr. Robert Fischer, University of Alabama, Birmingham and Dr. Luther Aadland, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Attendance: minimum 40 – maximum 60
Cost: $75
Location: Hilton
Overview: Stream restoration has become a very prominent activity in recent years, not only through agency driven efforts but also by private entities as part of commercial development for mitigation. While many different techniques for instream restoration have emerged, critical evaluation of these practices is often lacking or inadequate. Determining the biotic response to these instream modifications is necessary in order to identify the most effective approaches and to provide opportunity for improvements, especially in terms cost benefit analysis. Many funding agencies recognize this problem and have begun including monitoring as part of restoration grants. It is important, therefore, that biologists and managers have proper training in the evaluating biotic response to instream restoration practices. This training should include adequate study design as well as data analysis and reporting. The Sunday workshop will provide the needed training, while the symposium will be a venue to present case studies related to evaluation of biotic response, including fish, macroinvertebrates, and mussels.
Agenda: Under development
