Series of free UNL water lectures begins Jan. 17

Nebraska

A series of 12 free public lectures at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, beginning in January, will examine water-related issues ranging from improving Nebraska's outdoor economy to challenges in developing support tools for deficit irrigation on corn.

UNL's spring semester water seminar begins Jan. 17 and runs through April 18. The weekly lectures are 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. each Wednesday, except March 14, in the first floor auditorium of Hardin Hall, on the northeast corner of 33rd and Holdrege streets, UNL East Campus.

Along with local experts, speakers hail from Columbia and The Ohio State universities as well as from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Mexico, Western Australia and other locales.

"The spring UNL water seminar traditionally has attracted some of the top researchers and water experts in the country and this year's slate is perhaps one of the best and most diverse we've yet put together," said UNL Water Center Director Kyle Hoagland.

W. Don Nelson, state director for U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, begins the weekly lectures with perspective on how Nebraska might better tap its underused outdoor economy. His talk follows closely on the heels of a recent report by Oregon economist Ernie Niemi that says Nebraska's natural resources could be better used to improve the state's economy in ways other than raising crops and livestock.

The following week, Columbia University's Wolfram Schlenker talks about climate change impacts on crop yields.

In February, Gary Ankley of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency talks about environmental effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, Rose Hargrave of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gives an overview of Missouri River reservoirs, and Felipe Chavez-Ramirez of the Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust discuses how ecology and conservation issues are effecting cranes and local rivers.

Also among this spring's scheduled speakers is Jay Stein of New Mexico's Stein and Brockmann law firm. Stein will draw parallels between the Pecos River compact between New Mexico and Texas and the future of Nebraska's Republican River watershed.

His talk is the seminar's annual Kremer memorial lecture, which honors the memory of the late state senator Maurice Kremer of Aurora, who authored groundbreaking water and natural resources legislation in the 1960s and 1970s.

"The lectures are a wonderful opportunity for anyone with interests in water issues to get up-to-date on current issues affecting Nebraska and the region, or to get exposed to some water topics they might not know a lot about," said seminar coordinator Lorrie Benson of UNL's Water Resources Research Initiative.

Lectures will be held in the renovated auditorium of Hardin Hall on the UNL East Campus. UNL's School of Natural Resources and associated units began moving into the rededicated former Nebraska Center for Continuing Education about six months ago.

The seminar is co-sponsored by the university's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Water Center, Water Resources Research Initiative and School of Natural Resources.

Lecture dates, presenters and topics are:

--Jan. 17: Williams Memorial Lecture: W. Don Nelson, state director, Office of U.S. Senator Ben Nelson, Lincoln: Tapping Nebraska's Underutilized Outdoor Economy.

--Jan. 24: Wolfram Schlenker, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.: Estimating the Impact of Climate Change on Crop Yields: The Importance of Non-Linear Temperature Effects.

--Jan. 31: Steven Schultz, University of Nebraska-Omaha, Omaha, Integrating Water Management Research with Land Valuation Modeling Across Nebraska.

--Feb. 7: Williams Memorial Lecture: Gerald (Gary) Ankley, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Duluth, Minn.: Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals in the Environment: Are We Overlooking Androgens?

--Feb. 14: Rose Hargrave, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha: Missouri River Mainstem Reservoir System.

--Feb. 21: Felipe Chavez-Ramirez, executive director and avian ecologist, Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust Inc., Wood River: Rivers and Cranes: Ecological Connections and Current Conservation Issues.

--Feb. 28: Doug Alsdorf, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio: Measuring the Amazon from Space and Modeling Its Flow.

--March 7: Mary Roth, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha: Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee.

--March 14: No seminar (UNL spring break)

--March 21: Valeriy Ivanov, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.: Mechanistic Modeling of Vegetation-Hydrology Interactions: Topographic Controls on Vegetation Dynamics in Semiarid Areas, and Aspects of Hydrology of an Amazonian Rainforest.

--March 28: No seminar due to UNL Water Law, Policy and Science Conference

--April 4: Kremer Memorial Lecture: Jay Stein, Stein & Brockmann, Santa Fe, N.M.: Parallel Lawsuits: New Mexico and the Pecos River--A Glimpse into Nebraska's Future in the Republican River Watershed.

--April 11: Robert Sudmeyer, Department of Agriculture and Food--Western Australia, Esperance, Western Australia: Salinity Issues in the Wheat Belt Area of Western Australia.

--April 18: Haishun Yang, UNL: Scientific Challenge of Developing a Real-Time Decision Support Tool for Deficit Irrigation on Corn.

Date: 12/20/06

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