Email from John Pickering to Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund, 28 February, 2005

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 13:09:17 -0500
To: conservation@disneyhand.com
From: John Pickering
Subject: Request for invitation -- Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund Award
Cc: l.alonso@conservation.org, dl@discoverlife.org

Dear Sir, Madam, or Computer,

This is to request an invitation, login, and password so that The Polistes Foundation, the 501-c-3 umbrella organization of Discover Life (http://www.discoverlife.org), can apply for a Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund Award. I apologize for the rush. Leeanne Alonso, one of your current awardees, just recommended that we contact you to seek funds for Ant Hunt!

Ant Hunt! is a new citizen science project to teach discovery in schools, to study, monitor, and map species, and to share high-quality data for understanding and managing nature. It is being organized by individuals at the California Academy of Science, Conservation International, Discover Life, Harvard University, Missouri Botanical Garden, National Biological Information Infrastructure, Smithsonian Institution, and others following a meeting on 21-22 February on "How to study & monitor life on Earth" (see http://www.discoverlife.org/pa/ev/me/2005dc).

We plan to launch Ant Hunt! at multiple sites across the United States and Canada on Ant Day, 10 June, 2006, Ed Wilson's birthday. We seek funds from DWCF to develop and test methods in schools and with community groups in the meantime. We will use Discover Life's online Web tools to coordinate the project and to help participants identify, report, and map species. These tools include identification guides and high-quality images to over 700 North American ant species that everyone can access through http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/tx/Insecta/Hymenoptera/Formicidae.

In addition to our educational and scientific goals, we are particularly interested in studying invasive ants and their impact on native communities.

I will serve as the grant's P.I. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Cheers,
Pick
_________________________________________________
John Pickering Office: 706-542-1115
517 Biological Sciences Building Lab.: 706-542-6676
Inst. of Ecology, University of Georgia FAX: 706-542-3344
Athens, GA 30602-2602 Home: 706-353-7076
e-mail: pick@discoverlife.org
URL: http://www.discoverlife.org/who/Pickering,_John.html
_________________________________________________

>Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 14:16:49 -0500
>From: Leeanne Alonso
>Subject: RE: DC workshop -- thanks to all -- follow-up to Peter
>To: John Pickering
>
>Hi Pick, good to see you. I'm following up on a few ideas- I'll keep you
>posted.
>
>Meanwhile, check out http://www.dwcf-rfp.com/ to apply to Disney's
>conservation fund. They have a focus on education. Applications are due
>March 1 (next Tuesday)! I can't apply for you since we another
>application going in. YOu could get around $20,000 for the ant hunt!
>
>cheers, Leeanne
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: John Pickering [mailto:pick@discoverlife.org]
>Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 10:24 PM
>To: praven@nas.edu
>Cc: peteralden@aol.com; peteralden@comcast.net;
>l.alonso@conservation.org; gary_alpert@harvard.edu;
>andelman@neeas.ucsb.edu; woodward.d.bailey@aphis.usda.gov; mball@cn.edu;
>rboger@globe.gov; a_gordon_brown@ios.doi.gov; Gladys_Cotter@usgs.gov;
>scover@oeb.harvard.edu; sam_droege@usgs.gov; GarnettT@si.edu;
>ian.giddy@nyu.edu; gowaty@uga.edu; farrellb@oeb.harvard.edu;
>pfirth@nsf.gov; bfisher@calacademy.org; shubbell@plantbio.uga.edu;
>meirwin@uiuc.edu; Chaba.Kingwood@East.sun.com; dsk@georgetown.edu;
>pkoleff@xolo.conabio.gob.mx; fli@nsf.gov; lovejoy@heinzctr.org;
>c.lyal@nhm.ac.uk; clydeard@nsf.gov; magill@mobot.org; emata@inbio.ac.cr;
>ed@topozone.com; meyerson@heinzctr.org; tmoritz@amnh.org;
>napatterson@mindspring.com; pat.raven@mobot.org; l.rogo@bionet-intl.org;
>rosenberg@acnatsci.org; russellr@si.edu; samper.cristian@nmnh.si.edu;
>Peter@NCSEonline.org; schultz@onyx.si.edu; asimpson@usgs.gov;
>jsoberon@xolo.conabio.gob.mx; Mike_Soukup@nps.gov; jim_tate@ios.doi.gov;
>bthiers@nybg.org; gtonkovich@fmnh.org; mtulig@nybg.org;
>rsturner@utk.edu; pswhite@unc.edu; heike@colpos.colpos.mx;
>mvonkonrat@fieldmuseum.org; Edward O. Wilson;
>george.yatskievych@mobot.org; kay.yatskievych@mobot.org;
>dl@discoverlife.org
>Subject: DC workshop -- thanks to all -- follow-up to Peter
>
>
>Peter,
>
>Very much enjoy seeing you too. Thanks for your input, support, and
>cautions. Sorry that you had to dash off and that Pat couldn't make it.
>
>Quick report. Tuesday's follow-up went well. "Plants for the People" has
>the buy in we need to move it forward. Our initial target is to put images
>of vascular plants of North America on-line within a year. Consensus was
>that we should not target Cyperaceae, Poaceae, and Mexico, yet.
>
>Trust that Patricia and folks in Mesoamerica will play, as will other
>regions, but no targets or promises until BioNET, International, Conabio,
>INBio, and others sign on. After we merge images in Mobot, NYBG, and
>Smithsonian databases, we'll have a much better idea of how messy names are
>across collections and what's involved in going global. Once folks see
>200,000+ images come together, suspect that we'll have the momentum to ask
>them to help with grasses. Ditto for bryophytes -- Bob Magill is in with
>Tropicos; we should include his other love.
>
>Cristian, Ed, and Mike offered to help us open private doors. Sure that
>Annie, Chuck, and Gladys will help with funding too. Plans also include
>asking Pat to get a few tricks from the grand master over breakfast.
>
>Shells? After speaking with Gary Rosenberg, keep wondering how and when
>they should further join our cause. Only an additional 100,000 known
>species to tackle. Easy to photograph. Lots of collectors. Little
>overlap in personnel... Oops. Mind wandering. Back on task.
>
>Will be in touch after I turn my wheels and line up a few more things.
>
>Cheers,
>Pick
>
>P.S. Share with friends through
>http://www.discoverlife.org/pa/ev/me/2005dc
>http://www.discoverlife.org/pa/pr/plantsforthepeople.html
>which we'll update as folks join our effort and we move forward.
>
>>Subject: Workshop
>>Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 19:42:47 -0500
>>From: "Raven, Peter" PRaven@nas.edu
>>To: "John Pickering" pick@pick.uga.edu
>>
>>Pick,
>>
>>I really enjoyed my brief visit, and meant what I said about support. Let
>>me know the conclusions as soon as possible, and we'll go from there!
>>
>>All the best from Pat and me, and congratulations on your ongoing and very
>>important enthusiasm,
>>
>>Peter
>

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