CWU To Present 2005 Dumas Lecture In Biology

May 10, 2005

Contact: Dr. Paul James (509-963-1895/Fax 509-963-2730/E-mail: jamesp@cwu.edu)

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Conservation will be the focus of Central Washington University's 2005 "Philip C. Dumas Lecture in Biology" series. It will include two presentations by Edwin D. (Phil) Pister, executive secretary of the Desert Fishes Council, on Tuesday, May 17.

At noon, in Science Building 142, he will take "A Glance Back into the Future: a 1931 Transplant of Colorado Cutthroat Trout into California's High Sierra." At 7 p.m. in Science Building 147, Pister will discuss his thoughts on "Ethical Concerns in Conservation Biology."

Pister is a noted conservationist with numerous accomplishments in the field of conservation biology and environmental ethics. A long-time fishery biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game, he supervised aquatic management and research for thousand of water systems in the eastern Sierra desert regions of California, ranging from the 14,000-foot crest of the Sierra Nevada to the floor of Death Valley, which is below sea level.

As executive secretary of the Desert Fishes Council, which he founded in 1969, Pister has been involved in desert ecosystem preservation throughout the Southwestern U.S. and adjoining areas of Mexico. He has served on the board of governors of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, and Society for Conservation Biology.

He also serves on the president's advisory committee of the University of California's system-wide White Mountain Research Station, near the California-Nevada line in central California.

In addition, Pister teaches regularly at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Conservation Training Center in West Virginia, has lectured at 80 universities in North America and Europe and has authored 79 published papers and book chapters.

He has received numerous conservation awards from groups such as the "Society for Conservation Biology," "The American Fisheries Society" and "The Nature Conservancy."

The lecture series is named in honor of the late Dr. Phil Dumas who was a CWU biological sciences professor from the mid-1960s until he retired in 1989, and was credited as being very important to the department's development and direction. His influence remains evident in the department today.

Dumas served as department chair from 1966-1975 and again in 1980-1984. He died in October 1992. After his death his wife Joan was instrumental in establishing the Philip C. Dumas Lecture in Biology series, sponsored by the CWU biological sciences department and the office of the provost.

For more information about Pister's free, public presentations, or for persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call (509) 963-2731, or (for the hearing impaired) TDD (509) 963-2143.