In November 2015, I documented the 49th annual Raptor Research Foundation Conference, where more than 400 raptor biologists celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Madison Group Conference. For three days, I video-recorded talks by scientists and researchers from around the world, who were reporting on work they’re doing in the field and in labs, in a wide range of disciplines. All were committed to better understanding raptor biology and ecology and to preserving the world’s spectacular birds of prey.
What a treat it was to hear from scientists who had participated in the Madison Group Conference, the meeting of scientists in Madison, WI, who came together to try to figure out how to save a single species: the peregrine falcon. If you want to hear first-hand accounts of the birth of conservation ecology, grab a cup of tea and settle in for an amazing story (trt: 80 min.)
About the Madison Group Conference
In August 1965, Professor Joseph J. Hickey of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, assembled nearly 60 biologists and other scientists from seven countries to compare data and discuss reasons for the sudden disappearance of the Peregrine Falcon, and other birds of prey, from parts of the world. The Madison Conference is one of the first moments in history where a group of scientists set an agenda toward resolving an urgent conservation problem, two decades before conservation biology was founded as a scientific field.
Although today we take it for granted that conservation and biology should be tightly linked, 50 years ago, the lines between activist and scientist were drawn and tightly guarded. How did participants in the Madison Conference negotiate these boundaries? How did they resolve to dissect the cause of the Peregrine crash? We invited biologists from the 1965 conference to Sacramento to ask them such questions, and to honor their immense contributions toward rescuing a magnificent species from wide-ranging extirpation, if not complete extirpation.
PANELISTS
Dr. Daniel W. Anderson, University of California, Davis
Daniel Berger, Pasadena, California
Dr. Clayton White, Brigham Young University, Utah
Dr. Steven Herman, The Evergreen State College, Washington
Dr. Grainger Hunt, The Peregrine Fund, California
Dr. Tom Cade, The Peregrine Fund, Idaho (by video)
Dr. Stan Temple, University of Wisconsin, Madison (by video)
Sergej Postupalsky, Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin (by video)
David Hancock, Hancock Wildlife Foundation, British Columbia (by video)
OTHER SPEAKERS
Glenn Olson, Vice President, National Audubon Society
Dr. Stan Temple, University of Wisconsin, Madison (by video)
Panel led by Dr. Joel “Jeep” Pagel, US Fish and Wildlife Service
Panel led by Dr. Joel “Jeep” Pagel, US Fish and Wildlife Service
Event produced by Allen M. Fish, Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, and Joel “Jeep” Pagel
ABOUT THE RAPTOR RESEARCH FOUNDATION (RRF)
Founded in 1966, RRF is a non-profit scientific society formed to accumulate and disseminate scientific information about raptors in order to inform the scientific and lay public about the role of raptors in nature and to promote their conservation. The RRF membership, which includes nearly 1,000 individuals from over 50 countries, consists of academic researchers, government employees, and many others interested in birds of prey. The Journal of Raptor Research is issued quarterly to members and contains the latest research results from raptor studies around the world.
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