The following invited speakers have been confirmed for plenary presentations each morning of the conference:

Monday, June 9th

Dr. Curt Meine Curt Meine is a conservation biologist, historian, and writer based in Sauk Prairie, Wisconsin. Meine serves as Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin and with the Chicago-based Center for Humans and Nature. He is also a Research Associate with the International Crane Foundation and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Meine received his B.A. in English and History from DePaul University in Chicago and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Land Resources from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work has involved projects across Europe, Asia, and North America, with a wide array of conservation organizations, agencies, universities, and businesses. He is also active in his local landscape as a founder and member of the Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance. Meine is the author and editor of several books, including the biography Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work (reissued in 2010 a new edition) and Correction Lines: Essays on Land, Leopold, and Conservation (2004). In 2013 the Library of America published his edited collection of Leopold’s writings, Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac and Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology. He also served as the narrator and on-screen guide of the Emmy Award-winning documentary film Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time (2011).

Dr. Larry Weber Dr. Larry Weber is a Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Iowa, the Edwin B. Green Chair in Hydraulics, and the Director of IIHR—Hydroscience & Engineering. He is co-founder of the Iowa Flood Center and was instrumental in the establishment of the Iowa Nutrient Center. His research expertise includes fish passage facilities, physical modeling, river hydraulics, hydropower, computational hydraulics, and ice mechanics. Most of his current research activities focus on the measurement and computational modeling of water quantity (i.e. flooding) and quality (sediments and fate and transport of nutrients) at the watershed scale. He has over 20 years of experience in design, development and analysis of fish passage systems and ecosystem assessment for population enhancement.

Tuesday, June 10th

Dr. Richard Beilfuss Dr. Richard Beilfuss, Ph.D., is President and CEO of the International Crane Foundation (ICF). Rich first joined ICF in 1988, conducting his graduate research on the restoration of important crane sites in Vietnam and Mozambique. From 1992-2005 he developed and directed the ICF Africa Program, spearheading long-term efforts to restore the water-stressed Zambezi River Basin for people and wildlife, and contributing to wetland conservation efforts and capacity building in more than a dozen African countries. From 2005-2009, Rich lived with his family in Mozambique, where he served as Director of Scientific Services for Gorongosa National Park. He speaks Portuguese and Nepali. Rich is a leader in the emerging field of environmental flows, which focuses on managing water flows to sustain rivers, wetlands, and the human livelihoods and well-being that depend on these ecosystems. He serves as a Senior Advisor to the World Wildlife Fund and an Affiliate of the Natural Heritage Institute on water issues, and is an Adjunct Professor for the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering and for the University of Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique, where he teaches courses and supervises students. Rich lives with his wife Katie, and their two sons, in Madison. He is an avid runner, wetland-stomper, and dart-thrower, but not all at the same time.

Dr. Luther Aadland Dr. Luther Aadland is a river ecologist and fluvial geomorphologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Stream Habitat Program. Luther has studied microhabitat preferences and hydrodynamics of stream fish and his program has developed one of the largest databases of empirically derives habitat suitability criteria for fish and mussels. He has nearly 30 years of experience in river restoration, including re-meandering channelized rivers, restoring natural channels in sediment laden reservoirs following dam removal, and design of nature-like fish passage. These projects have been designed to restore ecological processes and functions based on natural channel morphology where both physical and biological functions can be assessed. Aadland has designed numerous nature-like fish passages in Minnesota that have effectively restored fish passage and upstream fish and mussel communities previously extirpated by dams. Systematic re-connnection of entire river systems through dam removal and nature-like passage have been at the core of efforts to restore lake sturgeon and other imperiled species. Aadland’s Rock Arch Rapids design eliminates the dangerous hydraulic undertows associated with low-head dams, restores fish passage and provides spawning habitat for sturgeon and other rheophilic fish species. Variations of this design are being applied on the Cape Fear, Savannah, Susquehanna, and other Eastern U.S. rivers to restore Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon, American Shad, striped bass and other species extirpated or depleted by barrier dams. Current research has involved assessments of species sensitivity to fragmentation-induced extirpation and implications for invasive species management. Aadland received a Ph.D in biology from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks in 1987.

Wednesday, June 11th

Dr. Robert McLaughlin Dr. Robert McLaughlin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. His research program is diverse, but the overarching theme involves using the movements of animals to assess the significance that individual behaviour has for the biology of populations and communities and, ultimately, biodiversity. In one main component, his students are using studies at the assemblage, population, and individual levels to examine changes in the biodiversity of stream fishes caused by in-stream barriers used to control sea lamprey in the Laurentian Great Lakes, the role of restrictions on movement in bringing about these changes, and methods of minimizing any change (e.g. improved trapping of sea lamprey and passage of other fishes). His position and this research are supported by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission to increase its science capacity. In a second main component, his students are using smaller scale approaches focused on diversification in the foraging and migratory movements of brook charr (Salvelinus fontinalis) to understand the role that individual differences in behaviour have in facilitating population divergence in physiology, morphology, and life history (resource polymorphism), and the creation of new biodiversity. His research program has two, additional minor components. Several students have been and continue to conduct studies assessing the effects of agricultural practices on stream fishes. They continue to examine basic research questions related to animal movement. Differences in the nature, approach, and subject matter of these components creates a unique and interesting combination of research opportunities that is rich biologically and intellectually, and creates a productive synergy in terms of addressing the overarching theme of his program.

Dr. Paul Kemp Dr. Paul Kemp is the founding director of the International Centre for Ecohydraulics Research (www.icer.soton.ac.uk) at the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton. His research interests relate to the application of behavioural ecology to understanding and solving challenges in water engineering. Particular interests relate to how the physical environment (e.g. hydrodynamics and acoustics) influence the behaviour and physiological performance of fish, and how manipulation of that environment by engineering means can be used to mitigate for negative impacts of water resource development. Specific applications include fish pass and screening design, assigning compensation flow regimes, and improving habitat restoration strategies. Past and current research funding sources includes EPSRC, NERC, EU Framework 7, ESRC, Environment Agency, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, CEFAS, SNIFFER, Scottish Natural Heritage, River Trusts, Swedish Hydropower Industry, US Army Corp of Engineers, Native American Tribes, CEH, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, and the Spey District Salmon Fisheries Board. Paul has extensive experience advising governmental and non-governmental organisations on fish passage and screening, including the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, DEFRA, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Executive, EU, the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources, US regulatory agencies, and the Brazilian Hydropower Industry.