Newsletter: 1st Quarter 2008

Newsletter: 1st Quarter 2008

The Explorers Club Washington Group currently has 288 members and looking for more. If you know of anyone in our area that would like to be a member please have them contact membership chairman, Robert Atwater, at bobalinc1@hotmail.com

The Explorers Club Washington Group currently has 288 members and looking for more. If you know of anyone in our area that would like to be a member please have them contact membership chairman, Robert Atwater, at bobalinc1@hotmail.com Welcome to our newest members, David E. Guggenheim, Ph.D. FN ’08, Max Chmielinski SM ’08 and Daniel E. Schrier SM ’08. Reclassifications include Scott Wallace FN ‘07 and Sandra Tallent MN ’07.

INITIATIVES: Our chapter recently established Scouting Venturing Crew #1904 under the leadership of Dr. Robert Tallent FN ’07 and Sandra Tallent MN ’07. This co-ed scouting program for 14-20 year old scouts provides “positive experiences” through cooperation and teamwork in the areas of Scuba, Sailing, Climbing, Caving, Rafting and more. Thanks to Gary Kopff MN ’01 and Don Gerson FE ’78 for their initiative to provide patients recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with a donation of 40 DVD’s of our chapters recorded lectures.

CONSERVATION: After spending 2 weeks in Guatemala with The World Conservation Union / World Commission for Protected Areas Task Force on Caves and Karst project, Thomas Lera FN ’04, completed the Lanquin Caves National Park Management Plan. Lowell E. Baier MN ’76, was awarded the prestigious and nationally recognized 2008 Budweiser Conservationist of the Year award at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. This award comes with a $50,000 grant to be awarded for a wildlife or habitat conservation project of his choice. Mr. Baier, who has been involved in volunteer conservation efforts for 37 years, was also instrumental in spearheading the successful effort to protect Theodore Roosevelt’s historic 23,500 acre Elkhorn Ranch in North Dakota.

MEMBERS IN THE NEWS: Robert Atwater LF ’05 and Chris Kerzich MN ’06 represented The Explorers Club at the Boy Scouts National Capital Area Council, Order of the Arrow (OA) Lodge 2008 Annual Banquet. Robert Atwater was awarded the Vigil Honor, the highest recognition given by an OA Lodge. Lew Toulmin MN ’04 and volunteer archaeologist Eleanor Pomerat participated in a flag expedition to locate a spring at the “Lost Ghost Town of Washington Court House” in southern Alabama. This spring is the last remnant of the town which was founded in 1820s and disappeared in the 1840s. The town was once the most important town in the area, and is the likely burial place of Lew’s great, great, great, great grandfather, Judge Harry Toulmin of the Mississippi Territory, appointed by Thomas Jefferson.

GRANTS PROGRAM: Our grants program is gearing up for another year of financially assisting graduate and under graduate researchers with their field science. To date our grants program has approved 60 applicants and awarded $ 86,600 ranging from $500 to $3,000. Our April 12th event will feature two grant recipients. Tyler Faith on, “The Bones Of Shompole Conservation Area, Kenya: An Archaeologist’s Perspective On Wildlife Ecology and David Luther, a graduate student at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, on “The Acoustic Community And Its Influence On The Evolution Of Communication: Bird Song In The Neotropics”

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