Sustainability of Our Natural Resources: Efforts of the U.S. Forest Service to Keep Our Forests in Forests
Susan Fox, Assistant Director for Planning at the USDA Forest Service's Southern Research Station. (Susan is also the Chair of the Southern Roundtable on Sustainability, a multi-agency / organization effort to keep our forests in forests and to protect their many, varied resources.)
The Southern Roundtable on Sustainable Forests (SRSF) is a collaborative effort between many individuals and organizations dedicated to improving knowledge and awareness about the opportunities and challenges facing southern forest sustainability. Working towards sustainability means understanding the complex interactions of society, the economy, and the environment. This is a daunting task, but one that is critical to the vitality of southern forests. As population pressures continue to grow, demands for natural resources increase, markets for many forest products move overseas, and other effects of globalization are being felt. This is the time for the South to step forward and embrace these challenges and opportunities. This presentation will describe the goals of the SRSF and how its efforts fit into national and international efforts.
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Leadership, Ethics and Weather Forecasting
Gerry Goertz, Director of Leadership Programs and Adjunct Assistant Professor for the University of North Carolina at Asheville
All of us face tough choices, but public leaders are particularly challenged when dealing with matters of citizens’ well-being. For example, when weather threatens, leaders and forecasters struggle to make decisions which strike the proper balance between minimizing a state of anxiety in the public and diminishing damage by delivering relevant information about storm activity. Typically, tough choices are those that pit one “right” value against another. In this case, it is right to tell the public as early as possible how weather is going to adversely affect them and it is also right that forecasts and warnings should be focused in terms of time, location, possible outcome and should be accompanied by practical instructions as to how the public should react.
In an age of new technology, higher resolution satellite data, high-tech Doppler radar, and scientifically sophisticated computer models, meteorologists know a lot more than they used to know. Nevertheless, it is still difficult, if not impossible in certain instances, to predict specific areas of heavy snow or rain. Yet, in an age of “threat scores” and intense media interest, forecasters are expected to talk in definitive terms. Do we live in a forecasting culture in which specificity routinely exceeds the skill of the science? Should meteorologist subscribe to a “Hippocratic oath” of weather forecasting: “Tell them [the public] what you know, not what you don’t know.” Does Hurricane Katrina offer any lessons about striking the proper balance when deciding to publish public warnings?
Gerry will lead a discussion on this topic and its connection to questions of ethical leadership.
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Multiple Computing: From Labs to Parallel Processing
Steven Anthony, UNCA Computer Science major and NEMAC research student
Computer labs and parallel processing clusters, while different in function, pose similar challenges that require interesting solutions. This presentation will discuss the lessons learned, and the ones that continue to be learned, that will be useful to anyone who wishes to manage multiple computers for any task.
