The speaker for the next Rachel Carson Forum on September 21 will be Krista Nelson, the Watershed Restoration Coordinator for the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.

The Forum will be held at noon in the auditorium of the Rachel Carson Building in Harrisburg.

Nelson will talk about “The Guide to the Natural Communities of the Delaware Estuary” and its companion, “Key to the Delaware Estuary Ecological Systems and Natural Communities,” tools for conservation planners and practitioners. The guide describes 185 community types encompassing 35 broader-scale ecological systems known to occur in the Delaware Estuary region.

The natural community types were identified using the National Vegetation Classification System, approved by the Federal Geographic Data Committee as the U.S. vegetation standard. Each of the three estuary states’ vegetation classifications was cross-walked to the NVC, providing a common language across multiple jurisdictions.

The guide was created to help protect, preserve, and restore many of the species and habitats that comprise the Delaware Estuary Watershed. The information contained in the guide can help growth management decision-making, steering development away from ecologically sensitive resources. It can aid land acquisition prioritization, answering questions of rarity and representation in protected areas.

The Rachel Carson Forum on Future of the Environment is a monthly mid-day speakers series that seeks to stimulate discussion on important environmental and sustainable development issues.

The Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Office of Conservation Science, and the Pennsylvania Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Policy are organizing this series.

9/15/2006