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Message from the Director
PUBLIC SERVICE
The Stroud Center has always been about good science - formulating new hypotheses, describing new paradigms, explaining the previously unexplained details of stream and river ecology. But we also ask how our science can most effectively be put to work to ensure proper conservation and management of our stream ecosystems.
Over the years since our founding, the management of ecosystems has shifted from “reactional” (when ecological knowledge was still relatively primitive) to “sectoral” (when knowledge and its application were focused on specific issues) to the current “integrative, predictive and adaptive” approach. At each stage, we have correspondingly expanded the ways we disseminate our research in response to both the increasing knowledge and the growing challenges. To our initial reliance on technical publications and formal university courses, we added education programs and curriculum materials designed to translate our scientific findings for students, teachers and lay people interested in stream and watershed issues.
Today’s approach to ecosystem management calls us to be actively involved in public service in a new way. Stroud scientists have always served on local boards and agencies and participated in pro bono projects, and we will continue to do so. But more and more we are asked to enhance public understanding of water issues and to respond to important ecological challenges at the local, regional, national and even international levels. To do this requires us to invest, often at no charge, our most valuable resource — our people — in areas of significant public concern.
Because we regard our research findings as a public trust, the Stroud staff has adopted a formal initiative which commits us to put our science to work in the public interest.
Bern Sweeney
Director
