2.23.05
News Release
Contact:
Dr. Constance Millar, USDA Forest Service,
Pacific Southwest Research Station, Albany CA
ph: 510-559-6435; email: cmillar@fs.fed.us
Dr. Henry Diaz, NOAA, Climate Diagnostics Center
Boulder, CO USA; ph: 303-497-6649
email: Henry.F.Diaz@noaa.gov
Dr. Lisa Graumlich, Montana State University,
Big Sky Institute, Bozeman, MT USA
ph: 406-994-5320, email: lisa@montana.edu
Experts Convene to Discuss Alarming Trends
in Western Climate Change
BOZEMAN, MT, February 22, 2005--Scientists from participating agencies and
universities will convene in Montana to discuss alarming trends related to climate change
in the West. Those trends include water shortages, massive forest dieback, major
wildfires, and an alteration in the amount of biodiversity and wildlife in certain areas,
which have been linked to climate change.
The MTNCLIM 2005 conference will be held March 1-4, 2005, at Chico Hot Springs
Historic Resort, in Pray, Montana, and will provide an opportunity for unprecedented
cooperation between researchers, policy makers, and resource managers to further discuss
these issues and their effects on the western states.
MTNCLIM 2005 is dedicated to the mountain climate sciences and effects of climate
variability on ecosystems, natural resources, and conservation in western North American
mountains. It is open to all scientists, students, managers, policy makers and other
professionals interested in mountain climate sciences, their effects on ecosystems and
interactions with resource management, conservation, policy, and society. The
conference will feature invited and contributed talks, poster sessions, and action-oriented
working-group sessions. A post-conference workshop, “Climate 101” will address
implications of climate variability and change to natural resource managers.
-more-
The practical application of mountain climate research is to help improve land
management of landscapes in western North America and to assist policy makers and
land-use professionals in managing risks and opportunities related to climate variability
and change. The consortium will make their research available to scientists, forest
managers and other interested audiences, with data provided in easily accessible Internetbased databanks.
MTNCLIM is organized and sponsored by the Consortium for Integrated Climate
Research on Western Mountains (CIRMOUNT), which has a membership of some of the
most prominent scientists in the western US. These scientists and others, concerned
about the increasing urgency of climate change issues in the west, formed the grassroots
CIRMOUNT as a meeting ground to discuss the issues and share ideas.
Agencies involved include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station and Pacific
Northwest Research Station, the US Geological Survey (USGS), and the Big Sky
Institute at Montana State University, among others.
For more detailed information, please visit: http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/mtnclim/