On behalf of Auburn University's Center for Forest Sustainability and the USFS Southern Center for Wildland-Urban Interfaces Research and Information, I am pleased to formally announce the Call for Abstracts for our second Emerging Issues conference, to be held at the Sheraton Atlanta April 9-12, 2007.

Conference Objective: We seek to bring together researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to share current research results and to identify knowledge gaps regarding the interaction between urbanization, land-use change, and natural resources. Approaches that focus on integrating socioeconomic and ecological research will be highlighted.

Paper topics of interest include:

1. How ecosystems are being altered by human influences: direct and indirect stressors;
2. Restoring/rehabilitating terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems altered by urbanization;
3. Evaluating changes to ecosystem goods and services along urban/rural gradients;
4. Monitoring and predicting human influences on landscapes and ecosystems;
5. How urbanization alters the characteristics of natural disturbances;
6. The relationship(s) between land-use policies and ecological processes/disturbances along wildland/urban interfaces;
7. Informing policy makers, natural resource professionals, and private citizens;
8. Spatial/scale aspects of land-use change;
9. Ecosystem impacts on human communities (e.g., human health, economic well-being, political action);
10. Application of ecological research in land-use planning;
11. Urban agriculture

For up-to-date news about the conference, including submission of abstracts, please visit our conference web site: http://www.sfws.auburn.edu/urbanruralinterfaces/.

I very much hope that your schedule will permit you to come and contribute. As before, the focus of thisconference is the linking of ecological aspects and human dimensions of land-use science and practice along urban/rural interfaces, with interfaces construed broadly. The Sheraton has excellent facilities and we have the room space to actually expand the conference a bit over the previous one. I am delighted to say that Joe Chamie (former Head of the U.N. Population Division) is returning, to provide another overview of population/urbanization trends around the world to set the stage for the rest of the conference. Joining Joe as keynote speakers:

• Dr. Ann Bartuska (Deputy Chief for Research and Development for the U.S. Forest Service)
• Dr. Art Gold (University of Rhode Island)
• Dr. Bill Shaw (University of Arizona)
• Dr. Mark Eigenraam (Department of Primary Industries, Victoria, Australia)

Before you visit our website, let me offer several items of interest:

• The National Science Foundation has very generously provided supportmoney to permit me to issue travel grants to a sizable number ofundergraduate and graduate students who want to attend the conference. As indicated on our website, these grants will range between $250- -$750, with priority being given to students who contribute actively tothe conference program, by making either a paper or poster presentation. Interested students can apply on-line from our website. I also haveapplied to the EPA for a conference grant to provide support forstudents. So if you know of a student with an interest ininter-disciplinary aspects of urban/rural interfaces and who mightbenefit from attending our conference, please encourage him/her toconsider contributing a paper/poster and to apply for a conferencegrant.
• Abstracts can be submitted electronically from the Submit anAbstract page on our website.
• I am pleased to say that Lisa Ditchkoff is once again handling theconference planning. As many of you will remember, she is superb.
• We will shortly be able to handle electronic registrations. Lisa isworking on this as I type. You will find a click-able link on theRegistration page of the website that permits electronic registrationsthat go straight to Lisa. Alternatively, you can download, print,complete, and mail to us a hard copy of the registration form. Theregistration rates are the same as before: $375 for a full registrationand $125 for a student registration. As before, were planning to makethat worth your while in terms of stimulating speakers and colleagues,great food, and excellent surroundings.
• We will be producing a conference Proceedings volume.
• The Sheraton Atlanta offers great facilities/rooms and Lisa onceagain has negotiated a $99 per night rate. This is an exceptionallyattractive rate and we hope that you will stay at the Sheraton to helpus meet our room commitment, which in turn helps us provide the otherconference facilities. The Sheraton reservation website (which islinked to our conference home page) is extremely easy to navigate.
• Early April is a beautiful, warm time in Atlanta. We have scheduledin a little down time during the middle of the conference. This willpermit you to pay a visit to Atlantas recently opened aquarium, OlympicPark, the CNN Center, or other places of interest.