The field trip will begin with an aquatic ecology overview followed by a tour of the Calgary Zoo and its conservation biology program. The next several days of the field trip will feature the Kananaskis Field Stations. Research highlights of the Barrier Lake Field Station will include small mammal population studies, forest ecology, fish ecology, glacier ecology, and bats in addition to a greeting from the Nakoda First Nation. Research highlights of the R.B. Miller Station will include large mammal/Bighorn Sheep behavior in addition to an evening career panel. The field trip will conclude with a trip to Kootenay National Park, featuring wildfire behavior and ecology and a trip to Banff National Park to learn about grizzly bear research.
Students participating in the field trip come from around the United States and Puerto Rico, including: Arizona State University; California State University, Fullerton; College of Menominee Nation; College of San Mateo; Florida A&M University; Humboldt State; Oakwood College; San Diego City College; Stanford University; Skyline College; Tomball College; Tuskegee University; University of Arizona; University of Kansas; Universidad Metropolitana; University of North Dakota; and University of Texas, El Paso. Faculty and staff from Johnson C. Smith University, Livingstone College, United Negro College Fund and the Ecological Society of America will accompany the participants.
Previous field trips include Northern California, highlighting Stanford University's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve and other local ecological sites and Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in East Tennessee.
The SEEDS program began in 1996 as a collaborative effort to work towards increasing the number of minorities in the field of ecology. SEEDS has stimulated interest among minorities in pursuing ecology, provided professional development to aid science faculty in creating new ecology offerings, and taken new steps to increase cultural diversity within the Ecological Society of America. SEEDS also promotes ecology by supporting field trips, campus ecology chapters, summer fellowships, and ESA Annual Meeting travel scholarships. For more information on the SEEDS program visit: http://www.esa.org/seeds/.