Reboot!

It's official - I'm restarting this blog. I've actually been intending to restart it since I came back from a trip to Germany two months ago (I promise, pictures WILL go up). However, I've got an even better reason to restart - I will be attending Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation, a gathering of over 1200 people in Madison, Wisconsin.

The purpose of Conserving the Future is to facilitate discussion on the further development of America's National Wildlife Refuges. As someone who has worked on and visited wildlife refuges extensively, I am extremely excited to be a part of a larger effort to examine the challenges and prospects that the refuge system faces.

At the core of the conference is a vision document that is a proposed set of goals and objectives for the 553-member refuge system. In addition to facilitated discussions surrounding various facets of the document, the conference will also include talks from leaders in conservation and workshops and discussions on various issues related to refuges (including one led by one of my colleagues).

I'm extremely excited for what I expect to be an extremely fulfilling week. I plan to be giving updates to my readers on people I meet, discussions I take part in, and things I see. I hear Madison's a cool city, so expect lots of pictures (to be followed by the Germany photos).

To follow the conference yourself, go to http://americaswildlife.org/conference/.

Thanks for reading!