DETAILS

1. BOARD OPENINGS

We have 2 Chapter Officers and 1 Committee Chair up for election this spring.  Please consider nominating someone for these positions below (2 year terms with duties as described in our by-laws)

1. Treasurer:  The Treasurer shall be responsible for the receipt and disbursement of funds of the Chapter and shall submit financial reports to the Board of Directors at all Chapter meetings and an annual financial report at the end of the fiscal year.
2. Secretary shall be responsible for recording the minutes of all meetings and the issuance of meeting minutes and of the maintenance of the membership records.
3. Outreach Committee Chair shall organize public lectures, workshops, and festivals and shall work with the Treasurer to solicit external support for such activities

Our agenda will include an update on the Ser 2025 International Conference.  Registration is now open!   Go to https://ser2025.org/ for information on that.  

Serving on our Board is a great way to be involved in the development of the Society and the Board and, in doing so, supporting your fellow restoration ecologists!   

1. WYOMING RESTORATION SUMMIT – hosted by TNC Wyoming

The workshop organizers are being extremely gracious in helping me organize a meeting of SER members who work in Wyoming to discuss Wyoming restoration issues, and Wyoming member issues.  Info on the workshop can be found at 

https://preserve.nature.org/page/163782/event/1

 Date: April 23-24, 2025              Location: Lander

The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, invites practitioners to the Wyoming Sagebrush Restoration Summit. The 2025 meeting focuses on upland sagebrush habitat in Wyoming, and will be an in-person event. This year’s themes are: restoration following surface disturbance, native seeds and seed supply, invasive annual grasses, and conifer encroachment.

Click here to subscribe for updates

 (or contact Anika Mahoney, Restoration Technician.      anika.mahoney@tnc.org

1. WORKING UP TO SER2025 BUT LOOKING BEYOND

Given our investment in the SER 2025 Conference, the Chapter Board has emphasized outreach over the past year.  We have done member events including Pinedale WY, and also tag-teamed with other organizations to have information tables at their meetings, such as the Colorado Native Plant Society (Durango) and Colorado Conservation Districts (Colo Springs).  We will be continue to do this to encourage attendance at the conference by not only members but other individuals or groups who are involved in restoration work but haven’t joined SER  – yet.  The Conference is going to be fantastic, but it is not an end to itself.   I am seeing it as a great way to explore areas that we could develop as a chapter.  These are

Building Restoration Partnerships

Building on one of Brock’s initiatives during his term as president, we are going to work harder at developing partnerships with organizations that are implementing and directing ecological restoration.  This is an effective way of raising awareness, encouraging sound restoration practices and maintaining communications with you as members AND a much broader audience.  I see it as a path towards working with these partners to conduct periodic Restoration Partnering Workshops where we could explore and kickstart work on issues such as common disturbance agents, focal ecosystems or sub-regions within the Chapter, science needs, and coordination across organizations, or even other SER Chapter areas.  We aren’t looking for formal agreements, but avenues to mutually promote each other’s work.  The direction of these partnerships will be a product of the groups involved.  If you want to suggest your company, organization, or agency to be involved, contact Greg!  

Micro-communities

Not in the formal sense described at https://www.ser.org/page/microcommunities,  but along the same lines.  In many informal conversations I have had with members since I joined the Board in ’22, many of you have suggested things you are interested in (related to restoration) and / or like to see the chapter engaged in.  First response is, the Chapter is US!!  Every one of us has a lot to juggle and it is great that you are contributing as members – just by doing the great work you do.  But what are some other things we could try to help us achieve some of our Chapter objectives? 

I am proposing this:  For non-Board members, identify your interest in any of these topics and we will connect you with other members interested.  We will focus on activities that have more than a couple of folks expressing interest.  Some basic instructions are:

• Develop the link to ecological restoration and chapter objectives
• Draft some goals, outcomes and objectives of what we want and could do with this topic – we need to be clear about the Chapter’s role and obligation.
• Have at least one member of your group present out at the Chapter meeting we will have as part of SER 2025

For any of tese, we will connect you with partners who are more directly involved in the topic area.  Based on how these develop, we can explore turning these into a Sub-Committee per our Charter, and / or propose a new Committee for the Chapter.

I have listed a number of topics raised by members, and / or topics I see as relevant strategies to help us with our mission to raise awareness, support members, and promote high quality restoration.   Feel free to suggest others!!

NOT YET BUT SOON:   Students and Emerging Professionals – we are waiting on developments this spring with SER’s uber committee that should facilitate chapter level efforts.

Please indicate your interest in any of these, or make suggestions through SER Connect!

Questions?  (Likely).  Contact Greg Eckert at gregeckert1@gmail.com