PRESS ADVISORY

EDITORS: Advance notice is required for admittance to the embassy. If you plan to attend, call Mike Waring at the number above for clearance.

ANN ARBOR—Rosina Bierbaum, Dean of the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment and former acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will discuss Great Lakes environmental issues at a forum and reception at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC on Thursday (July 18). The event will begin at 6 p.m. in the embassy’s main auditorium. Dean Bierbaum will be joined by the Right Honourable Herb Gray, Chairman of the Canadian Section of the International Joint Commission, who will provide the Canadian perspective. “The U-M and Canada have worked together for almost a century on emerging issues that affect the Great Lakes&#151such as fisheries, invasive species, pollution, habitat fragmentation, and resource management,” Bierbaum said. “The pending issue of climate change is going to make our approach to environmental problem solving much more complicated, and will change the way research has to be conducted in the future.” Some of those changes will include more emphasis on the effect of simultaneous multiple stressors (such as air pollution, water pollution, toxins, etc.) rather than studying them one at a time in isolation; more attention to how extreme events (droughts, floods, fires) might change as climate changes; and an increased need for wider stakeholder participation—the kind pioneered by the U.S. and Canada during their long history of cooperation on Great Lakes issues. Members of Congress and Congressional staff, the heads of several federal agencies and other entities, and many U-M alumni have been invited to attend the event. For more information, call Mike Waring, (202) 554-0578

Related Links:

• Rosina Bierbaum
• School of Natural Resources and Environment
• Herb Gray