Ecologist to Give Talk on 'The Role of Science in the Management of National Parks'

Ecologist Steven C. Fradkin will be give a lecture titled “The Role of Science in the Management of National Parks” on Oct. 3 at 4 p.m. in Smith Labs 154 at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is free and open to the public.

America’s National Parks host incredible biodiversity and encompass some of the largest wilderness areas within the lower 48 states. Using the marine and lake ecosystems of Olympic National Park in Washington State as an example, Fradkin’s lecture will examine the nature of park science, how it is used to frame and inform management strategies, and the role that park science plays in the broader ecological and cultural context.

Since 2000, Fradkin has been the coastal ecologist and limnologist at Washington’s Olympic National Park. He is the chief scientist and natural resource manager for the park’s marine and lake resources. He conducts research and long-term monitoring on intertidal resources in Olympic, as well as at San Juan Island National Historical Park and Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. He also conducts research and monitoring in the 650 mountain and large, lowland lakes of Olympic.

Fradkin received his doctorate from Dartmouth College in 1997 after previously earning a master of science and bachelor of science from Michigan State University. Prior to working at Olympic, Fradkin conducted post-doctoral research on barnacle life-histories at the University of Oregon’s Institute of Marine Biology in Coos Bay, Ore.

The lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies program.