casiopa.mediamouse.ca
ca.linkedin.com/in/casiopa
@CASIOPA_ON
stephen.murphy@uwaterloo.ca
3rd Circular & Draft Agenda of the 2015 Annual General Meeting of the
Centre for Applied Sciences in Ontario Protected Areas (CASIOPA)
Theme: Managing for Ecological Connectivity
Sponsored By The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources & Forestry
Co-Sponsored By:
University of Waterloo - Centre for Ecosystem Resilience & Adaptation (ERA)
University of Waterloo - Department of Environment & Resource Studies (ERS)
Wednesday April 8 & Thursday April 9
at the University of Waterloo Summit Centre for the Environment at Huntsville ON
87 Forbes Hill Drive Huntsville ON: https://uwaterloo.ca/waterloo-summit-centre/

Audience - Professionals and students from private, public, NGO and academic sectors interested in expert
advice, roundtable participation on a practical exercise working with ecological connectivity analysis and
planning, and contributing presentations

Overall Agenda - Day 1 will be presentations from two experts who work on ecological connectivity;
attendees then engage in a practical exercise on connectivity in the afternoon. Day 2 will focus on
contributed presentations from attendees.

Formal Registration Opens Feb 23 - The Registration Fee is either $40/person/day or a 2-day flat rate of
$50/person [= $25/day] (this covers part of the cost of breaks, lunch, and facility rental). We accept
cheques (payable to the University of Waterloo) either given to staff on site before each day starts or sent
to Stephen Murphy, Department of Environment & Resource Studies, University of Waterloo, 200
University Avenue West, Waterloo ON, N2L 3G1. stephen.murphy [at] uwaterloo.ca.

Accommodations - We have a block booking with the Holiday Inn Express at Huntsville. Phone 1- 705-7889500 and use code UOW for reduced rates - this offer is valid until March 9 and first come, first served. You
may also book basic and budget minded accommodation in the dorms at the University of Waterloo
Summit Centre for the Environment. Contact Mr. Jody Andruszkiewicz at 1-705-571-0259 or jandrusz [at]
uwaterloo.ca. Attendees can avail themselves of other area hotels as well.
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Day 1. Plenary sessions on Ecological Connectivity & Practical Exercise on Connectivity.
Objectives: Day 1 is focused on understanding the theory, methods, and applications of ecological
connectivity led by two excellent practitioners. The afternoon is focused on a workshop style
approach - a practical exercise for participants to work with connectivity.
0830-0900
0900-0915
0915-1000
1000-1045
1045-1105
1105-1215
1150-1300
1300-1430
1430-1500
1500-1600
1600-1630
1630-1730
1730-onward
Arrive & Mingle: Coffee, Juice, & Light Snacks Provided
Introduction and Context for Day 1
An Overview of Ecological Connectivity
Jeff Bowman, OMNRF / Trent University
Ecological Connectivity Planning in Urban Protected Areas
Namrata Shrethsta, Toronto Region Conservation Authority
Coffee Break (provided)
Circuit theory and Circuitscape
Jeff Bowman, OMNRF / Trent University
Lunch Break (provided)
Practical Exercise for Participants (Part I): Working with Connectivity
Refreshment Break (provided)
Practical Exercise for Participants (Part II): Working with Connectivity
Wrap of Outcomes of Practical Exercise
Free time (pre-dinner)
Dinner - Kelsey's (near the hotels; location tentative)
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Day 2. Contributed Presentations - Open Sessions
Objectives: The objective of Day 2 will be to provide researchers, practitioners, and graduate students
with the opportunity to present applied case studies pertaining to the role of protected areas in
serving natural, social, and physical scientific research, policy, and/or practice. We do encourage
presentations that address the implications for current policy, planning and management. Each
speaker has 15 Minutes + 5 Minutes for questions. We allow for breaks, lunch, and departure at a
civilized time. The agenda below will, of course, be filled as people apply to be presenters.
Those wanting to present, please fill in the template on the next page (also provided as a separate file
on the CASIOPA AGM page on the website
0800-0815
0830-1000
Coffee, Juice, Light Snacks Provided to Start the Day
Open Session 1
1000-1030
1030-1200
Coffee Break (provided)
Open Session 2
1200-1300
1300-1500
Lunch Break (provided)
Open Session 3
3
Submit an abstract for a contributed presentation for the 2015 CASIOPA AGM.
Contributed presentations will be delivered verbally with power-point slides as the main visual aid.
Each speaker will have 15 minutes for their presentation + 5 minutes for questions. We encourage a
variety of topics – while it is useful if the topic dovetails with our day 1 theme, this is not a
requirement. We are interested in the wide scope of topics – social issues, policy, visitor
management, economics, and ecology to name but a few keywords – that relate to parks and
protected areas. We do get asked if we accept submissions that deal with case studies outside
Ontario; yes, we do accept them – we simply ask that presenters relate the wider rationale for the
study or lessons learned to what we in Ontario might benefit from their study.
Send a free-form Word document by email to Stephen Murphy (stephen.murphy@uwaterloo.ca).
These should be sent by March 25 2015. We will inform participants if their presentation is accepted
soon after submission; we anticipate sufficient room for participants to present but we do vet
submissions for quality. The format is below.
***
Surname First Name of Presenter, Surname First Name of 2nd author, (et seq). Affiliations (e.g.
Department of Environment & Resource Studies, University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON). email of
presenter.
Talk title (as pithy as possible).
Standard abstract of talk focusing on brief context/rationale, clear statement of a research question
or topic of relevance, clear statement of methods or relevant approaches, clear statement of results
or outcomes and explanations for these outcomes, brief statements on implications for parks and
protected areas in terms of the case example(s) presented – where relevant – and the wider,
generalizable or comparative implications. The presentation can be more op-ed style and the format
above adjusted to reflect that slant; basically, we simply want to tell attendees what to expect about
your presentations and what they may glean from it.
***
Limit is 500 words.
Save your file as surname_casiopa_hphp; format should be in Word
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