Ears Wide Open

Current Activities Highlights

It's been a relatively quiet three months here at the Institute's World Headquarters (a sunny room in my house in Lower Cañoncito). While continuing with AEI's core projects of maintaining the News Digest and corresponding with the ever-increasing numbers of people who write AEI for contacts or information, I also spent a fair amount of time on some other related projects.

The final copy-editing of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology's Soundscape journal, which is being co-edited by my Santa Fe colleague Steven Miller and me, is nearly complete; it should be out by early December.

I was asked to serve on the founding board of an exciting new non-profit organization, Ocean Conservation Research. OCR was founded by my good friend Michael Stocker, an acousticican with special interest in ocean noise; its aim is to support marine biological and technological research that promotes conservation priorities. Michael has put together a great website, as well, featuring a fantastic sound library, complete with sonograms and useful interpretation. [WEBSITE]

I've also volunteered to help organize an International Marine Conservation Congress, to be hosted by the Society for Conservation Biology in 2009. Naturally enough, I'm on the Communications and Outreach committee, and will be content editor for the conference website, as well as helping to spread the word about the conference, and writing/editing some of the material that comes out of the meeting. I'm sure I'll have more to share about this event as it comes closer.

In September, a volunteer intern from Allegheny College submitted a paper that addresses some of the controversy about the noise impacts of wind farms. I still am working on putting together a more comprehensive Spotlight Report on this important topic, and Sam's summary of various news sources and reports is a good start for anyone interested in learning more. It's now posted online as our first AEI Community Commentary. [GO THERE]

A few months ago, we added a nifty little image to AEI's Home Page, that shows where in the world our visitors come from, and I've been thrilled to see that we do have a truly global reach: less than half our visitors are US-based, with the balance pretty much split between Europe and the rest of the world combined. Check out the AEI "Clustr-Map" here: [GO THERE]

If you find the resources being generated by AEI useful, or if you feel our commitment to providing accessible, in-depth information on the impacts of human noise on wild habitats is an important contribution in this time of ecological crisis, then I ask that you consider helping us to generate the support we need to continue this good work. You can help by renewing your membership, by making a larger contribution, or by pointing other possible benefactors our way.

The Institute is seeking funding to keep me on salary so all these balls can continue rolling.....in October and March, we received two donations, totalling $25,000, which has allowed me to stay on full-time salary. The Board of Directors is aiming to find 5-10 family foundations and individual benefactors who are sufficiently aligned with the Institute's mission and approach to offer annual pledges toward our modest annual budget of about $50,000.

We've set up a brokerage account that allows us to receive donations of publicly-held stocks; this option is especially useful for those who hold securities that carry large capital gains burdens, as the donation is credited at the full current value of the stock, with no capital gains tax imposed.

Thanks to AEI's collaborative relationships (see our recent activities, above) and role as a source of information and resources for other organizations, agencies, and researchers, support of our work pays dividends far beyond the concrete work done here. If you know someone who may like to support this work, we would be happy to send you a concise letter of introduction to pass on to them.