"Rethinking Protected Areas in a Changing World"
The George Wright Society Biennial Conference on Parks, Protected Areas & Cultural Sites

April 16-20, 2007 * Crowne Plaza Riverfront Hotel, St. Paul, Minnesota

conference website: http://www.georgewright.org/2007.html

Deadline for abstracts: October 6, 2006

We invite you to join us April 16-20, 2007, for "Rethinking Protected Areas in a Changing World," the biennial George Wright Society Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural Sites. GWS2007 will be a week of reflection, reconnection, and renewal along the banks of the Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. Professionals from every field in natural and cultural resources will gather at GWS2007 to create America's premier interdisciplinary meeting on parks, other kinds of protected areas, and cultural sites.

By these three overlapping terms we mean a broad array of places -- both "cultural" and "natural" -- managed by different entities under a variety of designations: parks and protected natural areas at all levels; historic, archaeological, and other cultural sites; cultural landscapes; research areas and designated wilderness on public lands; tribal reserves; marine, freshwater, and other aquatic sanctuaries; private land-trust reserves; and similarly designated areas. The GWS conference also encompasses disciplines and activities that support the work of parks, protected areas, and cultural sites, such as ethnography, GIS, and museum work. The conference is international in scope. Proceedings will be published.

GWS2007 will feature 6 challenging plenary sessions, over 100 concurrent sessions, an expanded 3-day poster session, a variety of field trips, a 1-day exposition highlighting the region's parks and organizations, and numerous special events. We are accepting abstracts for proposals to:

* Organize a 2-hour session of Invited Papers
* Organize a 2-hour Panel Discussion
* Organize an audience-interactive "Day-Capper" session
* Organize a 2- or 4-Hour Workshop
* Organize a 2- or 4-Hour Side Meeting (includes Affinity Meetings)
* Present a Paper in a concurrent session
* Present a Poster or a Computer Demo in the poster session
* Present an Exhibit in the "Welcome to the Neighborhood" regional exposition

For full information on GWS2007, including conference background, the complete Call for Proposals, on-line abstract submission forms, and much more, please go to http://www.georgewright.org/2007.html.