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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 5, 2008

Purdue Speaker Series Hits Home with "Nature Preserves" Seminar

Nature preservation will be the focus of the third installment of the Go with the Flow-- Get to Know Our Indiana Coastal Resources seminar series on Wednesday, August 13 at 6:30 p.m. at Purdue University Calumet.

In his seminar entitled “Managing Nature Preserves in a Fragmented Landscape,” Paul Labus, Northwest Indiana region director of the Nature Conservancy, will discuss the effects of a highly industrialized landscape, such as the Calumet region, on the ecological processes that create and sustain native biodiversity. He will address the inherent problems in managing highly fragmented preserves and offer potential solutions.

Labus is also the program director for the Nature Conservancy Southern Lake Michigan Rim Project Office. He and his office work with a variety of partners to help protect the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and other natural areas throughout Northwest Indiana.

The Go with the Flow seminar series is intended raise awareness of land use practices on Lake Michigan’s coastal resources in Indiana. Upcoming seminars in the series are:

     Sept. 10, “Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products: The Impact on Our Water      Systems”

     Oct. 8, “The 21st-Century Battle Between Precipitation and Evaporation in the Great     Lakes Water Cycle”

The series is being funded through a grant Purdue Calumet received from the Lake Michigan Coastal Program. Other sponsors are Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

The seminar series will take place at the Calumet Conference Center. For directions, go to www.calumet.purdue.edu/thecenter. For any additional information, contact Leslie Dorworth, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant aquatic ecology specialist, at 219-989-2726 or dorworth@calumet.purdue.edu .

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The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program is one of more than 30 National Sea Grant College Programs. Created by Congress in 1966, Sea Grant combines university, government, business and industry expertise to address coastal and Great Lakes needs. Funding is provided by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U. S. Department of Commerce, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University at West Lafayette, Indiana.