Ecotoxicology Component Enjoys a Day in the Field
by David Hinton, Director of the TSR&TP Ecotoxicology Component
Ecotoxicology Component visits Mare Island Naval Shipyard.
Photo courtesy of Yvonne Garrett
On Friday and Saturday, October 17th & 18th, the TSR&TP Ecotoxicology Lead Campus component held their annual fall retreat at Mare Island, a former naval shipyard at the confluence of the Napa River and Carquinez Strait in the upper San Francisco Bay. Friday morning, Dr. Michael Johnson, an investigator in the Ecotoxicology Program, led students and faculty on a tour of the site at Mare Island where his research group is investigating ecological restoration to protect local populations of the endangered saltwater harvest mouse and its sole food, pickleweed. Following Dr. Johnson's tour, they were escorted by John Randell, the Unexploded Ordinance Program Manager of the Explosives Safety Office, and shown details of the ordinance work and reclamation of wetlands from dredge fill sites. At the end of the afternoon, they toured a former hospital building on the Mare Island site which might serve in the future as an environmental research laboratory for training personnel in environmental testing and remediation monitoring. The day ended with dinner and evening presentations. Dr. Johnson began the formal talks with "An Ecologist's View of Ecotoxicology", which led to detailed discussion and set the stage for the following day's program. On Saturday morning, new graduate student trainees presented their research plans for this year, and second year students reported on their progress. Faculty as well as students expressed their desire to continue mutual participation in the Ecotoxicology Program beyond the two-year funding limit for each graduate student. Group faculty are working with each student to identify sources of funding following the time allotted by the UC Systemwide TSR&TP and the Ecotoxicology Training Grant. Joe Billitti, a student in Barry Wilson's laboratory, is one trainee who has finished his two years of Ecotoxicology stipend support but is continuing with other funding and integrating his fecal testosterone studies with Dr. Michael Johnson's rodent field studies. The focus on the future gave the retreat participants ideas of some exciting aspects of direct applications of their team ecotoxicology experiences in helping state agencies meet their environmental objectives.
| <-Fall Issue 1996 |