KWI Conduit

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Volume VI, Number 2

Fall 1998

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Dave Culver

It has been a busy time for KWI since its last Board meeting in March. (We in KWI seem to have fallen into the practice of not only using calendar years and academic years, which begin in September for most of us, but also KWI years, which begin in March).  The biggest personnel change has been the addition of Dr. Horton H. Hobbs III as Vice President for Education.  Horton got off to a good start with a karst site planning workshop in Lewisburg, West Virginia for employees of The Nature Conservancy.  It was very much a KWI effort, as Hobbs was assisted by KWIers Culver, Herman, Jones, Kane, and White.  Horton is exploring the possibilities of repeating the workshop in other regions, possibly Indiana.

The Communications Department under the able leadership of Dr. Ira Sasowsky continued to oversee the production of high quality KWI publications--including the long awaited Karst Hydrology Atlas of West Virginia, written by Bill Jones, the co-founder of KWI.  The next big event is the karst modeling conference in February, 1999.  This is described in more detail elsewhere in The Conduit.  I just briefly mention the extraordinary success of both Jack Hess and Art Palmer in obtaining three external grants for support of the conference.

The Research Committee under the direction of Dr. Will White oversaw the resubmission of a major grant proposal to the National Science Foundation for an interdisciplinary study of a karst basin.  This also was very much a group effort, with co-PI's Culver, Herman, Hess, Kane, and White, KWIers one and all.  We have not yet heard about the outcome. A small research grant from The Nature Conservancy was awarded to Culver and Hobbs.  This was to aid in the completion of a county list of all cave-limited species in the U.S.

Finally, I am delighted to announce the First Annual Karst Awards Dinner.  It will honor Dr. Derek Ford, world-renowned karst scientists and raconteur.  Derek will give the banquet speech as well as receive the award.  It will be on Saturday, March 13, 1999, at "Claymont", which is one of the old Washington homes near Charles Town, West Virginia.  The dinner will be $50 per person.  This is an excellent way to both honor Derek and to support KWI.  More information will be forthcoming, but please e-mail me (dculver@american.edu) or write me at KWI if you have any questions.

KWI Conduit
(c) 1998 Karst Waters Institute