Plenary Session

Prairie Conservation and Management

Dr. Wes Burger is a Professor of Wildlife Ecology in the Mississippi State University Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture. He also serves as Associate Director of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and Associate Director of the Forest and Wildlife Research Center at Mississippi State University. He has B.S. degrees in Biology and Mathematics from Murray State University, and a M.S. degree and Ph.D. in Wildlife Biology from University of Missouri-Columbia. Wes was the National Project Leader for the NRCS Bobwhite Restoration Project and the Coordinator for the National CP33 Monitoring Program. Over the past 18 years, his research has focused on evaluation of wildlife response to conservation practices in working agricultural and forest systems. His research interests include bobwhite population ecology and response of early successional and pine/grassland bird species to forest and agricultural management regimes.

Prairie Natural Biota

Dr. Reed Noss is the Provost's Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Central Florida and President of the Florida Institute for Conservation Science. He has a M.S. degree in Ecology from the University of Tennessee and a Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Florida. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of Conservation Biology and President of the Society for Conservation Biology. He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as one of the 500 most highly cited authors in all fields and in the top 250 in ecology and environment. He just finished writing a book on southern grasslands and is conducting research on sea-level rise and the response of species and communities to urban-rural-wildland gradients in Florida.

Prairie Working Grasslands

Dr. Patrick Keyser is an Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee and Coordinator of the Center for Native Grasslands Management. The Center provides regional and national leadership in developing comprehensive research and outreach programs focused on a broad range of issues pertinent to managing native grasslands. Dr. Keyser has initiated work on integrating forage production, biofuels, and wildlife habitat with a team of University of Tennessee researchers, along with developing management systems for restoring oak savannahs. Prior to coming to UT in 2006, Dr. Keyser worked within forest industry where he lead an innovative research program at the 8,400-acre MeadWestvaco Wildlife and Ecosystem Research Forest. The recipient of several national awards during that time, the research program focused on the integration of actively managed forests with wildlife conservation. Dr. Keyser earned his B.S. degree in Forestry in 1982 from Virginia Tech and his M.S. degree in Wildlife from Louisiana State University in 1984. He worked for the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources before returning home to Virginia in 1989 to work for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. In 1999, he joined Westvaco Corporation. In 2001, he completed his doctorate at Clemson University.

Banquet Invited Speaker

Philip Juras is a native of Augusta, Georgia, and has long been interested in the natural landscape. In 1990, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drawing and painting and, in 1997, a Master of Landscape Architecture degree, both from the University of Georgia. His MLA thesis examined the pre-settlement savannas that once flourished across the southeastern Piedmont, a subject that has informed much of his artwork since then. Now living in Athens, Georgia, Philip focuses primarily on remnant natural landscapes that offer a glimpse of the Southeast before European settlement. He combines direct observation with the study of natural science and history to depict, and in some cases recreate, these landscapes. The sensory impressions conveyed by his paintings invite the viewer to step through the picture plane and into the landscape beyond.

In 2011, Philip exhibited more than 60 paintings at the Telfair Academy in Savannah, Georgia, and the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia, portraying the southern wilderness as William Bartram experienced it in the 1770s. In conjunction with the exhibit, the book Philip Juras: The Southern Frontier, Landscapes Inspired by Bartram's Travels was published by the Telfair Museums and is distributed by the University of Georgia Press.

For more information and to view artwork by Phillip Juras, please visit www.philipjuras.com.