"Geoheritage, Economic Development, Geotourism" is the sixth webinar of the America's Geoheritage Workshop II Fall Distinguished Speakers Program. To watch the recorded video of this webinar, please visit: https://vimeo.com/478636882
Speaker: Conrad Anker
Title: Himalayan Glaciers and Eco-Geotourism in the Khumbu Himal
Description: An overview of glaciers in the Mount Everest region and their effect on local agriculture and tourism economies
Bio Sketch: Conrad Anker is an American rock climber, mountaineer, and author. He was the team leader of The North Face climbing team for 26 years until 2018. In 1999, he located George Mallory's body on Everest as a member of a search team looking for the remains of the British climber. He has summited Everest 3 times, once without supplemental oxygen.
Speaker: Robert C. Burns
Title: Taking the Long View: Developing the Appalachian Geopark, West Virginia (USA)
Description: The Appalachian Geopark Project is situated in three southern West Virginia counties: Fayette, Greenbrier and Raleigh. They include the components of rivers, caves and coal; and transportation modes, including rail, and country roads. Perhaps most importantly, the Appalachian Geopark Project includes the heritage of the people living in the Appalachians. As the United States is no longer a member of UNESCO (and cannot have a Global Geopark), the discussion will focus on potential funding mechanisms and changes in focus, in preparation for a future in which US Geoparks are once again a possibility.
Bio Sketch: Dr. Robert C. Burns is Director of the Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, Professor of Recreation, Parks and Tourism Resources, and a former career military officer. His research scholarship involves collecting and using data to support decision-making for public lands planning and management. With Dr. Moreira, he is sponsoring all support for the Appalachian Geopark Project, an aspiring member of the Global Geopark Network. He has secured over $9 million in external research funding (as a Primary Investigator) from various federal agencies over the past two decades, domestically and internationally. Within Appalachia, he is PI of an innovative land reclamation education methodology, involving WVU, Hocking College (Ohio) and Allegheny College (Maryland). He is co-primary investigator for a five-year effort to improve the state’s water quality, working collaboratively with WVU’s Institute for Water Safety and Security, and focuses on user perceptions of lands harvested for bio-materials.
Speaker: Jasmine Cardozo Moreira
Bio Sketch: Jasmine Cardozo Moreirais Professor at Ponta Grossa State University, in Brazil. She is head of LABTAN, an University laboratory that focuses on tourism, outdoor recreation and public use in protected areas. Her expertise is on human dimensions of tourism planning in Brazil National Parks and Geoparks. She is also an adjunct faculty member at West Virginia University’s Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources Program, and a member of TAPAS Group (The Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group), and Geoheritage group from IUCN. Since 2007, she is researching about geotourism and Geoparks, developing the Fernando de Noronha Geopark proposal and working in carrying capacity projects for Azores Geopark, in Portugal.
Speaker: Erika Vye
Title: Building Community-based Geotourism Opportunities in the Keweenaw Peninsula
Description: Jutting out into the vast expanse of Lake Superior’s pristine waters, Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula hosts a wealth of geologic and cultural resources affording outstanding opportunities to advance geoheritage and geotourism. This work has initially been driven by a robust and prolific education and outreach campaign that has since galvanized the local community to explore and develop sustainable economic opportunities rooted in our rich geologic underpinnings. This presentation shares the ways geoheritage shapes and influences a range of tourism and conservation initiatives within the Keweenaw community.
Bio Sketch: Erika Vye is a geologist and geoheritage specialist with expertise in formal and informal place-based education initiatives that broaden community Earth science and Great Lakes literacy. As the co-founder of Keweenaw Geoheritage and Keweenaw Geotours, she is active in the development of sustainable economic opportunities and enriched connections with the natural environment centered on significant geologic features and our relationship with them. She works with many dedicated community partners on conservation efforts and is working toward Global Geopark and National Marine Sanctuary designations rooted in the region’s rich geoheritage.
Speaker: Bill Rose
Bio Sketch: Bill Rose is a volcanologist who has supervised 57 MS and 23 PhD students in geology at Michigan Tech over 45 years, many of whom are now leaders in the field of volcanology. His research brought him to active volcanoes around the world, most frequently those in Central America, and focused on how volcanoes work, volcanic gases, and volcanic ash. A particular focus was ash clouds, a hazard to jet aircraft. He worked with many students to demonstrate how remote sensing tools can be used to map the dispersal of ash clouds and how resultant data can mitigate aircraft encounters. This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation, NASA and the US Geological Survey. He helped develop a unique Geological Hazards Peace Corps program and two foreign exchange programs, one of which enabled students to obtain dual international graduate geological degrees, the first of its kind in the US. He also helped develop MTU’s atmospheric science program. Recently, he has been active in varied geoheritage initiatives in the Keweenaw and continues to advance the designation of a Keweenaw Global Geopark.
We encourage all participants to complete our survey following the webinar here: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6003001/Geoheritage-Economic-Development-Geotourism-November-10