Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Meeting was called to order by Dennis Neuman at 9:00 am, 4 June. Members of the committee in attendance introduced themselves. Dennis Neuman delivered a presentation on Reclamation in the Anaconda Mine Region of Montana. This presentation led to a thorough and interactive discussion of important issues for our group, including what restoration is, distinctions from reclamation, etc. This then led into a discussion of degree programs and training of practitioners, job opportunities, and our role in training. The business meeting was started at 10:15 am. First order of business discussed was the status of executive positions of the committee and the election of new officers. Members in attendance elected Eugene Schupp as president for another year, Peter Stahl as vice president, and George Vance as secretary. The WERA poster was briefly discussed: Pete has the poster but nobody knows if it was updated last year. This will be checked into. The location of the 2007 Annual Meeting of WERA-21 was discussed. Possible meeting times and locations brought forward by the committee were: meet in conjunction with the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Society for Range Management (SRM) in Reno, NV, in February; meet in conjunction with the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mining and Reclamation (ASMR) in Gillette, WY, in June; meet in conjunction with the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) in San Jose, CA, in August. The committee voted to meet at the SRM Conference in Reno in February if this could be arranged at this date. The committee also voted as an alternative to meet at the ASMR Conference in Gillette in June if a meeting in conjunction with SRM could not be arranged. Stahl was designated to contact WERA Committee member Jeanne Chambers to inquire about the feasibility of meeting in conjunction with SRM in Reno. This discussion led to a more thorough discussion of how we can get better participation at the annual meeting  it was in fact the participation aspect that led the group to vote for meeting with SRM as a first choice since many of our members attend those meetings anyway. The final issue was a discussion on what we should be doing in the future as a committee. The major outcome of the discussion was a consensus that the first thing we have to do is increase participation, after which we can work more on our role. The business meeting was adjourned at 11:25 am. We concluded the annual meeting with an afternoon field trip to the Bridger Plant Materials Center led by Mark Majerus.

An annual report was compiled, containing an impressive list of publications from participating institutions (see "Publications" window); An annual field tour was held at the Bridger Plant Materials Center, Montana (see minutes); Options are being considered for incorporating the annual WERA-21 meeting with a special symposium at the 2007 SRM meeting in Nevada (see minutes); The WERA-21 poster is being updated, and so is the photo database; A primary task identified by the WERA-21 committee in 2006 was to recruit additional membership from a broader range of institutions.

A full list of publications from each participating institution is provided in the attached report.