Margulis and the Autopoietic Forest   Gary A. Beluzo
  Apr 24, 2007 11:28 PDT 

ENTS:

I had the pleasure of spending the day with Lynn Margulis yesterday at the
College. Yep, she gave the institutional host of the ENTS FOREST SUMMIT a
full day of her time! "Margulis Day" included a short tour of the Campus; a
luncheon with about 30 admin, faculty, and students; a multimedia
extravaganza in the HCC Forum ("GAIA: THE NEW SCIENCE The Living Earth from
Space"), and finally a book signing in the Bookstore.

Lynn convinced me to spend some time at the University when I am on
sabbatical next semester to assist in one of her grad courses and also
present my thoughts on forests. In my introduction I mentioned the
"Autopoietic Forest" and she picked up on it during her talk. She also
believes that "ecologics" could be a an effective way to shift the general
public away from the negative connotations of "MAN-aged" and "silvaculture"
to something more positive when discussing any human involvement in NATURAL
forests. She agrees that the term "silvaculture" is obviously still valid
when growing trees for harvest (i.e. subset of "agriculture").

I am looking forward to having her getting out with Bob Leverett and I this
summer. She also hinted at the possibility of being able to attend the 5th
Annual Forest Summit in the Fall. Couldn't have hoped for more!

Gary
RE: Margulis and the Autopoietic Forest   Robert Leverett
  Apr 24, 2007 12:27 PDT 

Gary,

   Congratulations. That is extremely good news. What a feat you pulled
off! This fall's Summit Lecture Series event may very well prove to be
the best of all the forest summits. As of now we have the following
speakers lined up:

   1. Dave Stahle (Always informative and entertaining - ala southern
style)

   2. Lee Frelich (Always informative and entertaining - ala Minnesota
style)

   3. John Davis (Remember John? More to say about John later.)

   4. Will Blozan (Tsuga Search Project)

   5. Tom Diggins (Right Tom? Naturally you would follow Dave Stahle and
Lee Frelich.)

   We have room for one or possibly two other speakers and Gary and I
are very much open to suggestion.

   Monica will be putting together another superb ENTS concert, and of
course we'll have a field day on Saturday with a tree climb if Will is
able and willing. On Saturday, I am thinking of a second climb and first
modeling of Saheda. If Will has a couple of extra days up here, we could
also have a field trip to either Hemmenway State Park and a climb and
modeling of the huge Tamworth Pine or a trip to the Adirondacks and a
climb of the huge pine in the Elder's Grove that Howard measured to 160
feet. Both would be equally great, but I'm inclined to prefer the Daks.
Everything is open at this point in time. Heck, I'm game for both.    

Bob