Keynote Speakers

2007

 

Thurdsay Keynote: Dr. William DeBuys

8:00 PM to 9:30 PM

“ Rio Grande: River of Connection.”

William deBuys, a writer and conservationist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will discuss the many ways the Rio Grande binds us to our geographic homes and to each other. It is the artery that makes possible the principal oases of New Mexico; it is a source of both economic wealth and spiritual inspiration, a link to the past and a metaphor for the future. Not least, our relationship to the Rio Grande connects us by way of shared experience to people all around the globe who must contend with striking a balance between short term economic development and environmental protection and who struggle with the complexities and frequent injustices of water allocation in an increasingly thirsty world.

DeBuys is professor of the Documentary Studies at the College of Santa Fe and the author of six books: Enchantment and Exploitation (1985), River of Traps (1990), which was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California (1999), which received a Western States Book Award, Seeing Things Whole: the Essential John Wesley Powell (2001), Valles Caldera (2006), and The Walk (2007). DeBuys has long been involved in environmental affairs in New Mexico and the Southwest. From 1997 to 2004 he directed the Valle Grande Grass Bank in San Miguel County, New Mexico, and from 2001 to 2005 he served as chairman of the Valles Caldera Trust, which administers the 89,000-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve under an experimental approach to the management of public lands.

 

Saturday Keynote: Meenakshi “Mini” Nagendran

8:00 pm to 9:30 pm

A Glimpse Into the World of Cranes

Crane calls transport us back a long, long way in time, into the Eocene Epoch, at least 35 mya. They occur in most continents except South America and Antarctica. These wetland birds mate for life, lavish care on their young, and migrate very long distances. They maintain large breeding territories but congregate in large numbers on their wintering grounds. Migratory cranes have been satellite tracked flying over the Himalayan peaks! During this 20th anniversary of the crane festival come and share in the adventures of Mini Nagendran, who has known, loved, and worked with cranes all over the world for almost two decades.

It was love at first sight! A visit to the International Crane Foundation in 1986 convinced Mini Nagendran that she wanted to study the world’s 15 species of cranes, and contribute toward their conservation. She earned her PhD at North Dakota State University, working on costume-rearing and release of cranes to the wild, their developmental behavior and satellite telemetry to study crane migration. She has applied these techniques on the western population of Siberian Cranes, and trained her Russian colleagues in them. She also collaborated with colleagues from Japan, Russia and India on satellite tracking wild and endangered cranes and storks in Asia, documenting their migration routes for the first time. She did projects involving the study of wild Sandhill Cranes, and the non-migratory flock of Whooping Cranes in Florida.

Dr. Nagendran has taught at California State University in Sacramento, and Santa Monica College, and has a degree in veterinary medicine from UC-Davis. She has collaborated with the Wild Bird Society of Japan, the International Crane Foundation, University of Tokyo, Russian Academy of Sciences, California Department of Fish and Game, USFWS, USGS, National Audubon Society and the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. Since 2005 Mini has been with the USFWS Division of International Conservation as the Program Officer for the Asian Elephant Conservation Fund.