Graham Slater, Olaf Thalmann, Klaus Koepfi, Rena Schweizer, John Pollinger, and Bob Wayne discover the origin of the extinct Falkland wolf.

A puzzle since Darwin, the team used historic DNA samples to demonstrate that the wolf arrived on the Falkland Islands before the last ice age. The paper, published in Current Biology, is receiving considerable press coverage including in Science.

Professor Greg Grether interviewed in UCLA Today about work with recent PhD student Chris Anderson on animal coloration. Read more at: More Info

Student Faith Inman of Prof Lawren Sack's lab received a research grant
from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Center for Tropical
Forest Science to support my research studying tree regeneration in
Hawaiian forests.

Professor Blumstein's work described in Science magazine. A recent
paper that Dan published in this month's issue of the journal Animal
Behaviour, is highlighted in this week's Science magazine. The paper
shows that marmots can recognize the sight of wolves despite wolves
being extinct at the study site for over 75 years. Read more at: Science Magazine

Wade Berry, a retired staff member of Prof Philip Rundel's lab recently had one of his papers published in PNAS. For the full article, please visit: PNAS

INDIANAPOLIS --- Jana Johnson, M.S., Ph.D., is one of 29 animal conservationists nominated to receive the Indianapolis Prize, the world's leading award for animal conservation. Johnson, a native of Austin, Texas, has been nominated for her dedication to endangered butterfly propagation and research. Johnson is the founder of The Butterfly Project, a cooperative effort between Moorpark College and The Urban Wildlands Group, which serves as an I.C.U. for endangered butterflies. Over the past three years, Johnson and her students have helped the Palos Verdes blue butterfly population, once presumed extinct, grow from 200 to 10,000. Johnson and her students have released thousands of Palos Verdes blue butterflies and hundreds of Lange's Metalmark butterflies back into the wild.

The Indianapolis Prize nominees' work spans the globe, representing a range of species from insects to mammals, and includes amphibians, elephants, bats, wolves and sharks, among many others. The Nominating Committee will review the applications and select the six finalists, who will be announced in the spring of 2010. The Prize Jury will then determine the winner who will be announced in mid-2010 and honored at the next Indianapolis Prize Gala, to be held Sept.25, 2010, in Indianapolis.

In addition to receiving the 0,000 Prize, the recipient is also awarded the Lilly Medal, an original work of art that signifies the winner's contributions to conserving some of the world's most threatened animals. The 2008 Indianapolis Prize was awarded to legendary field biologist George Schaller, Ph.D. Schaller's accomplishments span decades and continents, bringing fresh focus to the plight of several endangered species - from tigers in India to gorillas in Rwanda - and inspiring others to join the crusade.

"Following in Schaller's footsteps will not be easy, but we believe the current nominees are exceptional," said Michael Crowther, CEO of the Indianapolis Zoo, the organization responsible for initiating the conservation award. "These conservationists are all living an adventure that battles the odds, achieves great victories and builds a future worth living in."

The biennial 0,000 Indianapolis Prize represents the largest individual monetary award for animal conservation in the world and is given as an unrestricted gift to the chosen honoree. The Indianapolis Prize was initiated by the Indianapolis Zoo More Info

Professor Glen MacDonald, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and a professor of geography and of ecology and evolutionary biology, was quoted in a Sept. 21 Financial Times article about California's aggressive approach to climate change and environmental legislation.

More Information

Louis Zeidberg, a researcher in the UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, is quoted today in an article in Oregon's Register-Guard about large numbers of jumbo squid washing up on Oregon's coastline.

For the full article please go to: Register Guard

Professor Robert Wayne was cited in an Philadelphia Inquirer article on the 23rd of September (2009)about an evolutionary biologist who was recently awarded a MacArthur "genius" grant.


More Info

An article co-authored by Lawren Sack, "Hawaiian native forest conserves water relative to timber plantation: species and stand traits influence water use", in the journal Ecological Applications, was the subject of a press release by the Ecological Society of America, and re-posted by several news sources. More Info

Professor David Jacobs co-authored a Commentary in Science on the 28th of August (2009), entitled, "Flourishing After the End-Permian Mass Extinction".

We are both excited and saddened to have our Chair, Victoria Sork, step down to become Dean of the Division of Life Sciences. Professor Sork was a transformational chair who, since 2002, led a reorganization of both our undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as searches that have hired a world-class new faculty. Professors Blumstein and Fong are acting as interim co-chairs until a new chair can be appointed.

More information about her appointment is available through the UCLA
Newsroom: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/victoria-sork-named-dean-of-life-100829.aspx

The Ecological Society of America has presented Stephen P. Hubbell, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA, with the 2009 Eminent Ecologist Award.



The award honors “a senior ecologist in recognition of an outstanding body of work or sustained ecological contributions of extraordinary merit.” Hubbell’s nomination was “absolutely astounding,” said Cathy Pringle, chair of the society’s awards committee, and it included letters of support from Jared Diamond and E.O. Wilson.

In 1979, Hubbell argued that the only way to gather enough data to test ideas about tropical forest diversity was to study very large areas of forest, including rare tree species. The first experiment to map, measure and identify 250,000 trees on Barro Colorado Island in Panama has evolved into a long-term, large-scale forest dynamics experiment at 34 sites in 20 countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa—one of the few on-the-ground efforts that offers data on the effects of global change.

“Steve Hubbell’s brilliant idea was to map thousands of individuals of each tree species in a forest because ecology is ultimately about space,” said Stuart Davies, director of the Center for Tropical Forest Science, which coordinates the network.

As a tropical plant ecologist and theoretical ecologist, Hubbell is best known as the author of the Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography. The Neutral Theory filled a theoretical void. Previously, ecologists lacked a general theory to explain the diversity of life. “The fact that the Neutral Theory is refutable—that it could be tested—has fundamentally advanced the science of ecology,” said Davies.

Author of three books and more than 160 papers, Hubbell has contributed to the careers of ecologists as an academic advisor and colleague—writing countless grants to support students and to repeat forest measurements in order to give long-term perspective to forest dynamics studies. He also founded the National Council on Science and the Environment, now a 10,000-member organization with the mission of improving the science underlying environmental decision making.

For more information please go to Hubbell presented with the Eminent Ecologist award

Former friend and colleague "Bill" Wilbur T. Ebersold passed away Saturday 25 July after an extended illness. Bill was the second chair of Biology, following the merger of Zoology and Botany. Soon after Bill stepped down as Chair in the late 1970s, he suffered a major stroke, but returned UCLA, retiring in 1991. He received his Ph. D. from Stanford University and did post doctoral studies at Dartmouth and Harvard before coming to UCLA. His research focused on Chlamydomonasgenetics. Although Bill has been away from UCLA for a long time he will be missed.

There will be a memorial service for Bill on 14 August at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills at the "Old North Church" at 2:30 PM. The family requests that in lieu of flowers contributions be made to the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA for the support of graduate students. Information may be found at Ebersold Memoriam regarding a memorial contribution in memory of Bill.

A book has just been published that honors the scientific and teaching contributions of our distinguished emeritus professor Park S. Nobel, who had a stunning career at UCLA from his start as an assistant professor. Perspectives in Biophysical Plant Ecophysiology: A Tribute to Park S. Nobel, published this year by Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, was edited by two of his doctoral students, Erick De la Barrera and William K. Smith. This 400-page Festscrift includes chapters written by many of the Ph.D.s and postdocs who performed pioneering research in Professor Nobel's lab here at UCLA, and chronicles the vast array of research topics that was spawned by their mentor. Since retiring several years ago, Professor Nobel is still cranking out scientific books and papers, but has the luxury now of lecturing around the world to spread his knowledge, insight, and approaches to research to the current crop of students in ecophysiology.

UCLA's distinguished, sold-out lecture series, "Darwin Evolving," may soon be competing with the likes of PBS' "Nature" for TV viewers in the Los Angeles region.

The popular lecture series, which is running on campus through May 20, is slated to become one of many UCLA programs being offered to viewers of the University of California Television cable channel, UCTV, which is extending its reach to more than 660,000 new households in the Los Angeles region. On May 6, the 24-hour channel that broadcasts educational and enrichment programming from UC campuses, including UCLA, went live in metropolitan Los Angeles on Time Warner Cable. The rollout across the entire city will be completed in the coming weeks.

As the city-designated education channel, UCTV, which is overseen by the University of California, offers Angelenos a wide range of general interest programming from throughout the UC system on topics ranging from science, health, public affairs, humanities and the arts, as well as specialized programming for both health care professionals and K-12 teachers.

Among the programs that have been available to more than 22 million households nationwide on the Dish Network and on cable in cities around California, including San Diego, San Francisco, Riverside and Sacramento, have been UCLA's two most recent Faculty Research Lectures, featuring Professors Thom Mayne and Gregory Schopen.

Most recently, UCLA Education Professor Connie Kasari discussed her research on how higher-functioning children on the autism spectrum interact with their fellow students in mainstream classrooms. In another UCTV lecture, UCLA cosmologist Ned Wright described the state-of-the-art tools being used to find out more about the origin of the universe.

Viewers have watched programs from the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on urology, transplant surgery and childbirth. Coming in the future will be "Darwin Evolving," the series of lectures sponsored by the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Center for Society and Genetics.

UCTV is also exploring the possibility of showcasing student work from the School of Theater, Film and Television.

An established television presence in the country's second largest media market is a significant boost for UCTV, which began nine years ago as a non-commercial, public interest channel on EchoStar's Dish Network satellite service.

"This is a spectacular opportunity for us to start a conversation with Angelenos on so many topics — from the latest scientific developments that will keep all of us healthy, to the arts, to finding tangible solutions to global warming — you can find all of this and more on UCTV," said UC President Mark G. Yudof. "I'm proud that the university can provide programming of such extraordinary diversity to Los Angeles viewers."

The goal is for this local channel to become a home for content produced by Los Angeles' higher education institutions — both public and private — as well as from local arts and cultural organizations. While these local entities grow their production capabilities and identify funding, UCTV will keep the channel fully programmed with content generated by the campuses, laboratories and UC-affiliated institutions.

UCTV will air on the following Time Warner Cable channels in Los Angeles:
Channel 25: West Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks, Eagle Rock, Boyle Heights/East Los Angeles
Channel 28: Hollywood/Wilshire, Westchester, South Los Angeles
Channel 37: West San Fernando Valley
Channel 97: East San Fernando Valley
Channel 99: Sylmar, Sunland/Tujunga, Harbor

For more details, go to http://www.uctv.tv/.

Congratulations to graduate students, Rachel Clausen, Keith Gaddis, and Stephanie Steele for receiving Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation. There three year awards pay an annual stipend of ,000 plus tuition and fees.


Rachel Clausen will study the impact of changes in nutrient levels in species composition and community structure in marine intertidal ecosystems of New Zealand and California. Rachel also recently received a Fulbright award to support the New Zealand work.


Keith Gaddis will investigate gene flow and pollinator communities of Acacia senegal populations among oases of Mauritania, Africa, that are becoming increasingly isolated by desertification. Keith worked in Mauritania as a Peace Corp volunteer.


Stephanie Steele's research explores the impact of lekking species of Manikins on seed dispersal and seedling fitness of tropical forests of Ecuador, integrating behavioral, ecological, and genetic techniques.

Why do nearly half of North American wolves have black coats while European wolves are overwhelmingly gray or white? The surprising answer, according to teams of biologists and molecular geneticists from Stanford University, UCLA, Sweden, Canada and Italy, is that the black coats are the result of historical matings between black dogs and wild gray wolves.

The research, federally funded by the National Science Foundation, appears Feb. 5 in the online edition of the journal Science and will be published later in the journal's print edition.

For more information on Professor Wayne and Bridgett vonHoldt's research: UCLA Newsroom

Professor Emeritus Harlan Lewis, one of the truly outstanding evolutionary biologists of his generation and former Dean of Life Sciences at UCLA, died at home on 12 December, a month short of his 90th birthday. From his home in Pacific Palisades, he never stopped his research on plant systematics, and remained active in horticultural circles right up to his unexpected passing. The campus has lost another eminent scientist.

Even tropical plant and animal species living in some of the warmest places on Earth may face threats from a warming planet, according to new research co-authored by Alex Gilman (PhD. in the laboratory of Professor Philip Rundel, UCLA Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 2007). Dr. Gilman and her colleagues collected data on the altitudinal ranges of nearly 2,000 plant and insect species living on the forested slopes of a Costa Rican volcano that rises some 10,000 feet. They found that about half the species have such narrow altitudinal ranges that a 2,000-foot uphill shift caused by warming temperatures would move them beyond the upper limits of their current ranges. Their research appears in the Oct. 10 edition of Science magazine.

UCLA Newsroom

Professor Blumstein, a long-term researcher at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory near Crested Butte, Colorado, comments on the impact of uncontrolled tourism on the natural habitats in that area. His research studies the behavioral ecology of marmots at that site.
More Information

Biodiversity has long been recognized by EPA as critical for environmental well-being. Humans rely on healthy ecosystems to provide food, clean air, and drinking water. But less understood is the connection between disease and biodiversity (the number and variety of plants and animals found in a geographic region).

The EPA grants, totaling $ 2.25 million, support research programs working to better understand and characterize the mechanisms that link environmental stressors, such as deforestation and climate change, to the loss of biodiversity and the transmission of infections diseases to people. The grants are funded by EPA's Office of the Science Advisor and the Agency’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, run by EPA's Office of Research and Development. The University of California, Los Angeles, CA, Center for Tropical Research, will be receiving $ 749,296 in funding and will be used to investigate the role of migratory birds in West Nile Virus transmission and use earth observations to better understand how climate and anthropogenic changes to the environment might predict risk.More Info

Steven J. McCormick, President and Board of Trustee member of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation will be the speaker at the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology graduation ceremony on Sunday, June 15, 2008.

Steve was most recently the president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) where he served in that capacity from 2001- 2007. As president, he led the organization into a truly global presence, capable of leveraging its resources to achieve tangible lasting results at a scale that will really make a difference, for nature and for people. During his tenure, he oversaw an operating budget of over 0 million, and a highly distributed staff of over 3,000. Under Steve’s leadership, revenues from all sources increased significantly, hitting an all-time high of .2 billion in 2006.

Prior to his role as president and CEO of TNC, from 2000 - 2001 Steve was a partner at Resources Law Group, a firm based in Sacramento, which provides transactional and consulting services in land-use and natural resources law and policy, and creates innovative opportunities for conservation philanthropy.

Steve began his career with TNC in 1976 as Western Regional Legal Counsel, and rose through the ranks to spend 16 years as executive director of the California state program. In that role he led an organization-wide effort that created Conservation by Design, the strategic framework that now guides all of TNC’s work in 29 countries and every state in the US.

Beyond his impressive career at TNC, Steve has served on several boards, including the Advisory Board of the University of California at Berkeley, College of Natural Resources, and the Advisory Board of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative.

Steve has a B.S. Degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of California at Berkeley (1973), where he graduated with honors, and a J.D. Degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law (1976). He also attended the Stanford Executive Program in 1993.

Congratulations to our current student Ranjan Muthukrishnan (Dr. Fong lab) and an incoming student, Jonathan Drury (Dr. Gowaty lab) for receiving prestigious NSF graduate fellowships, and to Keith Gaddis (Dr. Sork lab) for receiving an honorable mention.

Op-Ed Contributors: Blazed and Confused

By C. J. FOTHERINGHAM, JON E. KEELEY and PHILIP W. RUNDEL

It is time to re-evaluate the wildfire problem and how we deal with it as a matter of public policy.
For full article, click here.

I am sad to write that Len Muscatine passed away at home on Tuesday, April 10, after a long fight with cancer. Professor Muscatine was a distinguished scientist and valuable member of our faculty throughout his career.
Memorial services will be in May.

We send our condolences to his friends and family. He will be missed.

Sincerely

Victoria Sork
Chairperson
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Please join us for the Annual Research Symposium and Bartholomew Tribute on May 9 for more information click here

The Committee on Teaching has selected this year's Senate Faculty recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Award. Professor Blaire Van Valkenburgh will receive one of only six such awards for Academic Senate faculty members.

Congratulations to Todd Doherty, Laurel Klein and Neil Losin who received the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships starting in 2007. This is the first year where three students in our program have simultaneously been awarded these highly competitive three-year fellowships.

I am very sad to write that George Bartholomew, a distinguished emeritus professor of our department, passed away on Monday, October 2. We have expressed our deepest condolences to his son Bruce Bartholomew and daughter Karen Searcy. Bart was an amazing scientist who played an important role in shaping the history of our department and never lost his interest in our department. Through the Bartholomew Research Fellowship Awards, he continued to support our graduate students and he enjoyed the reports on the activities of the recipients. I met with Dr. Bartholomew and his wife last year and was moved by his passion for science, field biology, and general wisdom. I have asked Malcolm Gordon, who knew Bart well, to help draft this announcement.

Bart was one of the most significant figures in the post World War II history of our Department (then called Zoology, later Biology). He was a central player in the transition (in the later 1950s) from a department that was run in a somewhat authoritarian and centralized fashion to our present egalitarian, participatory, and shared governance mode. He was a low-key, soft spoken, thoughtful, creative, and balanced observer and participant in departmental and campus affairs for about 40 years. He served terms as chair of both Zoology and Botany (at the time a separate department) and helped facilitate the merger of the two that produced Biology. He was an important influence on the founding of the Molecular Biology Institute and on the recruitment to the department of the first group of molecularly oriented faculty before the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology was formed.

George Bartholomew was one of our best teachers, at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He was presented with a campus Distinguished Teaching Award in recognition of his mentoring of graduate students. A high proportion of his students and postdocs went on to become significant figures in their own fields of study. He worked extensively for many years with the then Film Unit of University Extension (a precursor of part of OID), developing with them a series of teaching documentary films that are still widely used. With Malcolm Gordon and Alan Grinnell (then a member of the department) and two other co-authors he was a major contributor to the development and production of a textbook of comparative ecological physiology that had four editions over 20 years and was both influential in the development of its field and widely adopted internationally.

He was a highly creative and productive researcher, recognized worldwide as one of the three principal founders of the fields of comparative physiological ecology and ecological physiology (the other two being Per Scholander and Knut Schmidt-Nielsen). He had a broad gauge synthetic view of the functional adaptations of organisms (he did some important work on plants in addition to many studies of animals) to natural environments, bringing together the fields of physiology, behavior, and ecology. He was a major pioneer in the study of desert organisms and was a central player in the establishment of his fields of research in both Australia and South Africa. He was a strong advocate for studying organisms in the field as well as in the laboratory. He was flexible in the research methods he used, bringing new technologies to field investigations.

The stature of Dr. Bartholomew's contribution to science was recognized by his elections to the National Academy of Science in 1985 and to the National Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1981. He was the first recipient of the Grinnell Medal awarded by the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California Berkeley. The list of his professional achievements is extensive. George Bartholomew will always be a part of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology who represents the high standards of research and teaching that we strive for. In fact, our current mission to pursue the study of ecological and evolutionary processes through studies of natural populations is epitomized by his own research priorities. I am attaching the most recent version of Bart's research statement as a reminder of his strong commitment to question-driven science through a rigorous integration of field and laboratory research.

Bruce Bartholomew, his son, wrote to me that "if any of his former colleagues at UCLA should happened to ask you about donations in memory of my father, please let them know about The Bartholomew Fund for Field Biology". Memorial gifts may be made to the George A. Bartholomew Fund at UCLA. Checks should be made payable to the UCLA Foundation.

George Bartholomew's has left a lasting legacy to science and to the many, many former students and colleagues who were stimulated and motivated by his passion for science and wisdom about how organisms function.

In sincere sympathy to those of you who feel his loss deeply,

Victoria Sork
Chairperson
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

for more see Dr. Bartholomew's Web page

Stanley Albright, 74; Had Major Role in Expansion of National Park System
By Valerie J. Nelson, Times Staff Writer
August 29, 2006

His efforts in Alaska helped double the size of the national park system in 1980. In the 1990s, he played a key role in the creation of massive Death Valley National Park and was sent to Yosemite to rebuild after an epic flood.

Despite these accomplishments during 42 years with the National Park Service, Stanley T. Albright was known as "the nephew of." His uncle, Horace Albright, co-founded the park service in 1916 and served as its second director.
"Most will never know the full impact of Stan's leadership in shaping the national park system," Michael Tollefson, who was named superintendent of Yosemite National Park in 2003, said in a statement. Albright had been Yosemite's superintendent from 1997 to 1999.

During the Reagan administration, Albright served under Interior Secretary James G. Watt, who was known for favoring profit over preservation when it came to federal land. A resolute conservationist, Albright preserved many national park programs that Watt had sought to dismantle, according to the park service.

Their relationship was so rocky that Albright often joked that Watt kept a sealed envelope on his desk with Albright's resignation letter inside.

"Those were pretty tense times for us," Russell Dickenson, director of the National Park Service from 1980 to 1985, said in a statement.

In 1987, Albright became director of the western region, overseeing national parks in California and five other states for "10 tumultuous years" as park budgets flattened, according to a park service release.

He played a key role in the passage of the 1994 California Desert Protection Act, which expanded Death Valley National Monument into a national park; the park's 3.4 million acres make it the largest national park in the contiguous United States. The act also upgraded Joshua Tree National Monument to a national park and created the Mojave National Preserve.

Tapped in 1997 to return to Yosemite — where he had served on the ski patrol decades before — Albright led an effort to repair damage to the park from a Merced River flood that had washed away buildings, roads and bridges.

With Albright as Yosemite's superintendent, the "wondrous place is in good, gentle hands," The Times wrote in a 1997 editorial.

He also was charged with jump-starting long-stalled plans to restore natural areas of Yosemite and protect it from further damage by automobile traffic.

"Today, we present an opportunity for historic change," Albright announced that November as he unveiled a proposal to deal with the estimated 1.5 million cars that annually crawled through the 7-square-mile valley.

Among other measures, the plan would have required tourists to leave their cars in neighboring communities and take buses into the park — a proposal that was unpopular with area businesses and was later dropped. The plan also called for demolishing three river bridges and razing structures in the flood plain. Lawsuits filed by environmental groups have tied up versions of the proposal ever since.

Two years into his Yosemite stewardship, Albright was replaced. He ended his career as a natural resources consultant before retiring from the park service in 2000 and moving to Bend, Ore., two years later.

Albright was born in Oakland and grew up in Bishop, Calif.

After serving in the Army during the Korean War, he graduated from UCLA in 1958 with a degree in biology. His first job out of college was as a fire lookout in the Inyo National Forest, and he later managed concessions at the Grand Canyon.

As state director of the National Park Service in Alaska in the 1970s, Albright helped lay the groundwork for the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, which created 10 national parks and expanded several others. The 44 million acres effectively doubled the size of the national park system.

As a regional supervisor, Albright was at his best as "a teacher or a coach," said Bill Paleck, superintendent of North Cascades National Park in Washington state. "Stan didn't supervise as much as he taught, and he had a good sense of humor."

He trained the generation of superintendents now running many of the nation's parks.

In addition to his second wife, Kris, Albright is survived by a son, Sean Albright of Walnut Creek, Calif., and a stepson, Jon Finney of Lake Oswego, Ore.

Memorial donations may be made to the Albright fund at Yosemite Institute, http://www.yni.org , P.O. Box 487, Yosemite, CA 95389 or the Willamette Falls Hospice, 1505 Division St., Oregon City, OR 97045.

Congressman poses greatest threat to giant sequoias
By Phil Rundel

On April 15, 2000, President Bill Clinton signed a proclamation creating the 328,000-acre Giant Sequoia National Monument. More than half of all the giant sequoia groves in the world are in this monument, with most of the remainder found in the adjacent Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. The popularity and awe-inspiring beauty of the giant sequoia forest led President Clinton to permanently protect it, expanding on orders to restrict logging in Sequoia given a few years earlier by President George Bush Sr.

As one of the few national monuments managed by the U.S. Forest Service, it has become a battleground over timber production, caught between logging interests and those who want to see the Sequoia National Monument's designated protections upheld. California's attorney general and conservation groups recently won a lawsuit to block commercial logging within its boundaries.

This fall, Sequoia National Monument will again become ground zero in the timber wars, with a California congressman proposing legislation to allow commercial logging on areas within its boundaries. Passage of The Giant Sequoia National Monument Transition Act of 2006 (HR 5760) would allow the forest service to proceed with commercial logging projects, ignoring the federal court ruling against such projects, a ruling based on potential harm to the landscape and the rare wildlife that depends on it. Written by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, HR 5760 would perform an ``end run'' around that decision, and defy the legal tenets of the National Environmental Policy Act .

When walking among these giants -- sequoias are the largest living things on Earth -- the importance of their protection becomes clear, and the idea of logging seems, at best, undignified.

The Sequoia National Monument, like other Sierra forests, is suffering from decades of forest management that has disrupted its natural cycle. Exclusion of fire and past logging practices have been identified as the reasons the forest is in poor shape, and most agree that something must be done to restore this California treasure to a healthy and fire-resilient condition. This latest attempt to circumvent protections, under the justification of reducing the wildfire hazard and keeping the local timber mill running, is not a sensible -- or sustainable -- solution. Scientific evidence has overwhelmingly demonstrated that logging large, fire-resistant trees is a poor method to reduce wildfire risks, and only increases future threats. Logging leaves flammable debris on the forest floor, and loss of overstory canopy encourages the growth of brush and thickets of white fir. Canopy loss increases wind speed and air temperature and decreases the humidity in the forest, making fire conditions worse. Giant sequoia ecosystems with their plants and animals evolved with and depend on natural fire cycles for their long-term survival. Preposterous claims by spokesmen for the forest industry that fires in the Sierra Nevada degrade long-term wildlife values are unsupported by any serious scientific data.

Instead of logging the land held in our public trust, the Forest Service should instead look to the monument's next-door neighbor, where the National Park Service has created a model of forest health in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. In a landscape nearly identical to the Sequoia National Monument, prescribed fire has been successfully used to reduce fire risk, promote giant sequoia reproduction and enhance wildlife. Today, after more than 30 years of using prescribed fire to manage overgrowth in Sequoia National Park, nearly natural conditions help young sequoias thrive. The heat from the controlled burns opens the sequoia cones, scattering seeds far and wide. In the spring, sequoia seedlings can be seen sprouting like grass. Logging does not provide for this natural seed rain or the appropriate mineral soil conditions for new seedling establishment. Although thinning small trees may be necessary in circumstances where trees are especially dense, prescribed fire is the management that best mimics nature.

Giant sequoias are survivors. They can live to be more than 3,000 years old, withstanding wind, rain, snow, fire and disease. They have, so far, even survived the intervention of humans. In light of that, we must continue to take the necessary steps to protect the Sequoia National Monument from commercial logging, and Congress should respect the law. John Muir called the sequoias ``nature's forest masterpiece.'' By upholding protection of the monument, these ancient giants can continue to inspire and awe visitors for generations to come.

PHILIP RUNDEL is a professor of biology and a member of the Institute of the Environment at the University of California-Los Angeles, where he has been a faculty member since 1969. He wrote this article for the Mercury News

The UCLA Faculty Career Development Awards for AY’06-’07 provide regular rank junior faculty with research support at a critical time in the pre-tenure stage. This award responds to the need of junior ladder faculty members for support for scholarship and creative activities necessary for promotion to tenure. Special consideration was given to junior faculty who contribute to the diversity of the University through their research or creative activities as outlined in APM 210-d(2).

The 2006-07 Recipients are:
Harold Barrett, Anthropology
Amander Clark, Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology
Robert Cooper, Education
Rachelle Crosbie, Physiological Science
John De Figueiredo, Management
Mark Frye, Physiological Science
Langston Holly, Surgery
Daniel Kamei, Bioengineering
Abby Kavner, Earth and Space Sciences
Anna Lau, Psychology
Anna More, Spanish & Portuguese
Vinit Mukhija, Urban Planning
Ladan Shams, Psychology
Rebecca Shipe, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Valda Upenieks, Nursing
Elizabeth Upton, Musicology
Lynn Vavreck, Political Science
Rainer Wallny, Physics & Astronomy
Cheng-Chieh Yu, World Arts & Cultures

For more information, visit:
http://faculty.diversity.ucla.edu/programs/FCDA_recipients.html

http://www.uclalumni.net/NewsLinks. A pioneer in health research and UCLA Alumni Association Award recipient, Cecil Pickett, Ph.D.'76 offers his personal experience and advice to Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology graduates at the Commencement celebration on June 18. View Dr. Pickett's speach here (Real player required): http://www.uclalumni.net/v_Pickett

TEACHING AWARDS

The Faculty Teaching Award is awarded to Professor Blaire Van Valkenburgh.

The Schechtman Award is awarded to a teaching assistant for outstanding merit in instruction and other service to students. The two awardees were Peter Adam and Josh Olson. Peter Adam is completing his last year in Professor Blaire Van Valkenburgh’s lab. Josh Olson has been a graduate student in Professor Don Buth’s lab since Fall Quarter 2000.

BIOLOGY RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM AWARDS

The 9th Annual Biology Research Symposium took place May 10th where 26 posters were presented by graduates and undergraduates. Awards are presented to an overall lab, a graduate student, and two undergraduate students for outstanding poster presentations.

Most Outstanding Undergraduate Overall Poster Presentation was awarded to Jacqueline Ng for "Environmental controls of red tides in the Santa Monica Bay, California" by Jacqueline Ng, Christopher Lin, Jessica Curtaz, Alina Corcoran, Jeff Mendez, Anita Leinweber, Nicolas Gruber, and Rebecca Shipe.

Most Outstanding Undergraduate Poster was awarded to Elizabeth Rhoades for "The Economics of Fear: Costs and Benefits in Marmot Hiding Behavior" by Elizabeth Rhoades and Daniel T. Blumstein.

Most Outstanding Graduate Poster Presentation was awarded to Jaime Chaves for "The role of geography and ecology in shaping the phylogeography of the speckled hummingbird (Adelomyia melanogenys) in Ecuador by Jaime A. Chaves, John P. Pollinger, Thomas B. Smith, and Gretchen LeBuhn.

Most Outstanding Laboratory Poster Presentation was awarded to the Smith Lab.

RESEARCH AWARDS

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Undergraduate Research Award is awarded for outstanding research accomplishments by an undergraduate student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The four awardees were Sophie Gilbert, David Lin, Elizabeth Rhoades, and Bobby Walsh.

The Lasiewski Award is awarded to a graduate or undergraduate student for exceptional research accomplishments in Organismic Biology. The two awardees were Rachel Cohen and Matthew Lurie.

The Scherbaum Award is awarded for distinguished research by a graduate student in Biology. The award went to Julianne Kalman.

SERVICE AWARDS

The Special Faculty Award is awarded to a graduate student in recognition of outstanding service to student and faculty in matters other than instruction. The award went to Benjamin Wang.

The Chair’s Award was awarded to Jonathan Rodgers.

The Ten Year Service Pin was awarded to Tony Smullen.

Congratulations to Stunt Ranch for their 10th Anniversary and Botanical Garden for their 75th.

The Committee on Teaching has selected this year's Senate Faculty recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Award. Professor Kenneth Nagy will receive the award that honors an Academic Senate faculty member who has provided superb mentorship to undergraduate students engaged in research and/or creative scholarly projects.