Undergraduate Students Crash Postgrad Environmental Research Event!
In early December , the students of 'Team Stream', Sophia Findlay (MSc(Hons)), Christopher Ives (BEnvSc), Elizabeth Lamaro (BSc/LLB), and Stefan Loehr (BSc) and their leader, Dr Mark Taylor (Senior Lecturer, Dept. Physical Geography) of Macquarie University attended the 9th Annual Environmental Research Event (ERE) in Hobart, Tasmania. Considered to be Australia's largest postgraduate environmental conference, this year the theme was "Environmental Change: Making it Happen".
After Mark presented a keynote lecture on the impacts, values, challenges and opportunities facing riparian zones in urban landscapes, Chris presented his paper " How wide is wide enough? The relationship between riparian buffer width, condition and biodiversity: An assessment of urban creek systems in the Ku-ring-gai Local Government Area, North Sydney , NSW ", clearly attracting a lot of interest evidenced in the extensive questions from keynote speakers and peers alike. Stefan presented his paper, "The utility of the Rapid Riparian Assessment tool for predicting fish habitat in urban streams. A preliminary study in Ku-ring-gai Local Government Area, North Sydney , NSW" also attaining much positive feedback. Liz gave her paper entitled "Do we need legislative reform for protecting riparian resources and ensuring effective environmental management? Assessing the boundaries of rivers in NSW to ensure sustainable development" and was awarded a prize for The Runner-Up Best Oral Presentation (overall voting). Sophia Findlay gave a poster presentation on " The condition of urban streams in Northern Sydney ".
These papers were blind peer-reviewed and published in the Conference Proceedings to the Environmental Research Event.
The conference attracted big-name keynote presenters including Pete Bethune, Director of Earthrace, Danny Kennedy, Campaigns Manager Greenpeace Pacific, Dr Wayne Meyer, Chief Scientist CRC Irrigation Futures and Deborah Tabart, Executive Director Australian Koala Foundation to name a few. Participants were also invited to attend a cocktail reception at Government House by His Excellency, The Honourable William Cox, the Governor of Tasmania.
From the excellent Macquarie University student attendance at this year's conference Macquarie University has been singled out to host next year's ERE. Elizabeth Lamaro and Mark Taylor have been appointed to the ERE 2006 Organising Committee in the roles of Secretary/Venue Co-ordinator and Academic Advisor. In it's 10th year, the committee hopes to open the ERE internationally and make ERE 2006, Macquarie University , Sydney the biggest and best yet.
"Team Stream": (L-R) Stefan Loehr; Liz Lamaro; Spohia Findlay; Dr Tubby Taylor; Chris Ives
Story written by Elizabeth Lamaro (BSc/LLB student)