This will be a first-of-its-kind of specialty conference focused on hydrology and management issues on forested wetlands. The conference will be held April 8-12, 2006 in the historic town of New Bern near the Neuse River estuary in North Carolina, USA. The conference site is also near a vast amount of forested wetlands on a coast where the challenges of forest management and urban sprawl are becoming acute. In the last two decades, there has been a growing concern over the impact of both human activities (urbanization, land use
conversion, forest management and agriculture) and natural disturbances (droughts, fire, floods, and hurricanes) on the hydrologic and nutrient cycling, and export processes of forested wetlands. Commercial forestry is predicted to increase in the southern United States over the next 20 years, increasing the need to document the impact of silvicultural management practices on water quality. The conference will explore the
effects of land use and management practices on hydrology and pollutant loads, as well as impacts of regulatory and incentive programs for conserving the functions of wetlands. It will also celebrate 20 years of research by University, Industry and Forest Service Scientists on
Weyerhaeuser Company’s nearby Carteret 7 research site.