Patricia Kennedy - "Novel Ecosystems: Conservation Tool or Cop-out?"

April 26th
1:30 - 2:20p.m.
College of Natural Resources Room 10

Pat Kennedy is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University (OSU). She has been affiliated with this department since she arrived at OSU in 2002. She recently retired from her position as Director of OSU’s Eastern Oregon Agriculture & Natural Resource Program for OSU which is OSU’s campus in northeastern Oregon. Previously, she was an Associate Professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Biology at Colorado State University. Pat has published > 100 scientific papers and book chapters on a wide range of taxa, but is perhaps best described as an avian ecologist; her studies on northern goshawk are particularly foundational. She hails from Chicago, but completed all of her academic training in the western US.

Her sabbaticals and other travels to Australia led to her very productive collaboration with Richard Hobbs, who is a key founder of novel ecosystem concepts. Pat took the lead on the application of this concept to wildlife management in the recent collaborative book on novel ecosystems. Since that time she has explored its application to several wildlife populations. In her presentation to U of I Pat will describe her research on novel ecosystems on the utility of novel ecosystems as suitable wildlife habitat and the implications of this concept for restoration.