Fall 2000 - Geology and Geography Newsletter

1999-2000 In Review: Notes from The Department

The last academic year was filled with accomplishment, recognition, and change for the Department of Geology and Geography.

AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE
At the 1999 Spring Commencement ceremony, members of our faculty were presented with two of the University's six Awards for Excellence. Dr. Gale A. Bishop received one of the Awards for Excellence in Instruction and Dr. Richard Hulbert was recognized with one of the two Awards for Excellence in Research/Creative Scholarly Activity. At the same ceremony, Dr. Bishop was named Professor Emeritus of Geology, becoming only the second person to be honored with this title. (Dr. Stanley Hanson was the first.)

FIRST GEOGRAPHY DEGREES PRESENTED
Also at the 1999 Spring Commencement, Georgia Southern conferred its first Bachelor of Science degrees in Geography, becoming the fourth institution in the University System to award geography degrees.

UNIVERSITY WELL FIELD
In January 1999, geology faculty oversaw the drilling and completion of the University Well Field. Grants from the National Science Foundation's Course and Curriculum Development Program and Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Program were matched by Georgia Southern University to fund the project. The field consists of 3 well clusters, each containing a deep and a shallow well. Data loggers continuously record water level and water temperature in the wells. The monitoring well network is used for instruction in Environmental Geology and in upper-division hydrogeology courses.

NEW ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY LAB MANUAL
The NSF Course and Curriculum Development grant also funded completion of an Environmental Geology Laboratory Manual written specifically for Georgia Southern University students. The manual focuses on resources, hazards, and planning issues in Georgia and the southeastern United States. Dr. James Reichard and Dr. Kelly Vance completed the first edition of the manual during the summer of 1999. The lab manual was placed in use during the fall semester.

RESEARCH UPDATES
Professionally, faculty and students were highly productive. In March 1999, students and faculty presented 10 papers at the Southeast Regional Meeting of the Geological Society of America in Athens, GA. Four papers were presented at international conferences, 8 at national gatherings, including the annual meetings of the Association of American Geographers and the Geological Society of America, and three more at other regional meetings. In addition, the faculty produced 3 books and 11 other professional publications during 1999. The 2000 Southeast GSA in Charleston included 6 papers by Georgia Southern students and faculty. Dr. Fredrick J. Rich and Dr. James H. Darrell organized the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, held in Savannah on October 26-29, 1999. Professors Rich and Darrell also edited the proceedings of the meeting at which Dr. Rich was elected to the presidency of AASP. The Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America in Reno (November 2000) was the venue for papers presented by Professors Asher, Rhodes, and Rich.

AT THE APPLIED COASTAL RESEARCH LABORATORY (ARCL)
At Georgia Southern's Applied Coastal Research Laboratory (ACRL) on Skidaway Island, Dr. Vernon J. Henry, Dr. Clark R. Alexander, and Dr. Anthony J. Foyle continued two major multi-year research projects funded by grants from Georgia Coastal Zone Management Program ($151,386) and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division ($368,385). In November 2000, the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium awarded $228,000 to a group headed by Dr. Alexander for a three-year study of "An Integrated GIS-Based Approach to Quantifying the Rates of Shoreline Change in the Georgia Bight."

A WHALE'S TALE
The June 1999 edition of Southern Living Magazine profiled Dr. Richard Hulbert and a fossil whale now known as Georgiacetus vogtlensis. Georgiacetus is the oldest whale known from North America and is the most complete fossil whale of its type. The years of research on the Vogtle whale, conducted by Dr. Gale Bishop and the late Dr. Richard M. Petkewich, also were recognized. The whale now resides in the collections of the Georgia Southern University Museum.

TURTLE TALES
The St. Catherines Island Sea Turtle Conservation Program continues to be funded by the Eisenhower Higher Education Program, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the St. Catherines Island Foundation, Inc., and Georgia Southern University. The program, run on St. Catherines Island by Portal High School Teacher Nancy B. Marsh and Professor Gale A. Bishop, integrates conservation of loggerhead sea turtles with applied research into loggerhead nesting ecology and beach processes.

IN THE FIELD GEORGIA SOUTHERN'S EVERYWHERE
Off-campus activities continued to play a major role in the educational opportunities offered by the department. In May 1999, Professors R. Kelly Vance, Pranoti M. Asher, and Charles H. Trupe led a 16-day geology field trip to the southwestern U.S. "Summer Study Abroad in Ecuador" was a 20-day biogeographic field workshop led by Dr. Mark R. Welford. Geography professor Samuel L. Couch directed the "Summer Study Abroad in Ireland" program offering instruction in Irish language, culture, and biogeography.

NEW HANDBOOK FOR STUDENTS
Faculty and students worked together to produce a Student Handbook for the Department of Geology and Geography. The handbook draws together information from a variety of sources providing students with an overview of: the faculty, department policies, student responsibilities, student activities, the senior thesis experience, preparing for graduate school and employment, and a history of the department and its programs. Copies of the handbook were printed and distributed to majors and are available through the Department's web site: (http://cost.gasou.edu/geography /SH.html).

GIS PROGRAM DEBUTS
The Department developed a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) program for Georgia Southern University. Dr. Dallas D. Rhodes chaired an ad hoc Committee on GIS appointed by College of Science and Technology Dean Jimmy Solomon to investigate the issue and make recommendations. The committee's report proposed a three-phase process for creating a University-wide GIS program. The first two phases of the program already have been accomplished. A dedicated Spatial Analysis and Geographic Information Systems (SAGIS) laboratory was built with more than $150,000 from the University (see accompanying article for more information).

PUTTING STATESBORO ON THE [WEATHER] MAP
Last year, Dr. Daniel B. Good conducted negotiations that literally placed Statesboro and Georgia Southern on the [weather] map. Dr. Good's effort led to an agreement by which the University became the site of a National Weather Service station to enhance meteorological data collection for the area.

GOING STRONG
We look forward to another full and productive year. You can keep up with what's happening by visiting our Web site at http://cost.gasou.edu/geography /G%26G.html and checking the Bulletin Board.

The faculty and staff of the Department support Georgia Southern University through their gifts to the annual Day for Southern campaign. For the second year in succession, 100% of the Department participated. We hope you will join us in supporting the University and the Department. As you think about your end-of-the year giving, we hope you will consider one of the Department's four endowed funds. Contributions should be made to the Georgia Southern University Foundation and may be sent to either the Department or directly to the Foundation. Please be certain to indicate which fund should be credited with your tax deductible contribution.

The Department of Geology and Geography Fund
This is the Department's general endowment fund. It used for a variety of purposes including support student travel for field trips and conferences and the annual awards dinner.

The H. Stanley Hanson Geology Scholarship
This scholarship honors the career and services of former Department Head, H. Stanley Hanson. The purpose is to provide a means by which outstanding geology majors can be recruited, recognized and assisted.

The Daniel B. Good Geography Scholarship
This scholarship was established by Dr. Dan Good to award scholarships to qualified geographymajors. The first award will be made when the fund's principle exceeds $10,000.

The Richard M. Petkewich Service Award
This award was established in honor of Dr. Petkewich's many years of unselfish service to the Department and the Georgia Southern Museum. This fund also needs a minimum endowment of $10,000 to begin making awards.

New Geographical Information Systems Program

Georgia Southern University has made a substantial commitment to developing a strong GIS program, centered in the Department of Geology and Geography. In addition to the faculty already in place, we added two full-time tenure-track positions to provide expertise in GIS and its application to a range of fields. We also built a dedicated GIS laboratory with 20 workstations, a server, full-color roll scanner, plotter, and printer. To support GPS and automated mapping, we purchased four Trimble GeoExplorer 3 data loggers and a Trimble base station. Our lab operates through Windows NT and provides access to ESRI ARC/INFO (all modules) and ArcView, ERDAS Imagine, and Trimble's GPS Pathfinder Office. In addition to the BS in geography, which requires students to have a working knowledge of GIS, we now offer a minor in GIS. A GIS certificate program is in the planning stages.
We are working to make the campus community aware of the power of GIS to assist in answering an ever-expanding range of problems. Although our program is new, we are pleased by the positive responses from our colleagues throughout the university and their students. We are also very interested in reaching out into the larger community, providing assistance where we can and giving Georgia Southern students experience in solving real problems. We are working on internship programs that will expand as the number of qualified students increases.

Alumni News

The Geology/Geography Department hosted an open house and alumni gathering on April 1, 2000 as part of a Georgia Southern alumni weekend event. A short notice limited attendance to a small but very interesting group including Kim Booth (97), Stewart Dixon (96), Bill Good (98), Joe Governale (97), Howard Hughes (71), Jonathon King (97), and Cardwell Smith (76). Kelly Vance and Dallas Rhodes represented the department. This group of alumni represented a wide range of skills, occupations and organizations including geotechnical and environmental work, education, geophysics, small business, geologic engineering (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), and the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission.
A second alumni gathering took place during the Georgia Southern Homecoming. On Saturday, October 14, the GeoClub hosted a Herty Open House and pre-game cookout with about 30 attending including alumni and family, faculty and staff, current geology students and guests. Special thanks to Geo majors Nancy Holt, Sara Helfrich, Pippi Cowan, Jason Stringer, Eric Wink and Brandi Walzer and capable assistants Sarita Warren and Lisa Vance for a great cookout.
Alumni festivities continued after the game with a Low Country Boil and party at the home of Dan and Julie Good. Prodigious volumes of good food and beverages, reunion of friends, and a beautiful setting with gracious hosts made for a great event. Approximately 40 attended the evening event. The two events brought alumni from Texas, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia together. Three administrative regimes in the Department of Geology and Geography were represented as Stan and Macy Hanson, Fred and Sherri Rich and current Chair Dallas Rhodes attended with wife Lisa Rossbacher. Lisa is also a geologist and was, in fact, an undergraduate at Dickinson College at the same time Sherri Rich was earning her degree in geology there. Additional faculty and staff attending the events included Gale Bishop, Denise Battles, Jim Darrell, Dan Good, Susan Langley, Chuck Trupe, Kelly Vance, Sarita Warren and Mark Welford. Alumni attending the afternoon and/or evening event included Kim Booth (97), Amy Callaway (97), Andy Davis (98), Stewart Dixon (96), Bill Good (98), Joe Governale (97), Amanda Johnson (2K), Matt Petkewich (90), Mehmet Samiratedu (93), Amy Samiratedu(92), Michael Smith (96), Ed Sheley (98), Isaac Standard (2K), Ann Tanner (97).
Please count on regular alumni gatherings during the Georgia Southern Fall Homecoming and in the spring. We enjoyed our reunion during homecoming and hope to see many more of you at the next alumni reception. Please update your address, phone number and e-mail through our web site, a letter, or a call to the Department Secretary, Ms. Sarita Warren, or stop in for a visit. If you are looking for a job, "shopping your skills" or have information on job openings please keep in touch. There is currently a strong demand for geologists to fill environmental and geotechnical positions. Funding has accelerated for many major environmental projects and federal and state openings are also increasing. Stay in touch!

Kelly Vance
Alumni Coordinator
rkvance@www2.gasou.edu
(912) 681-5640

First Annual Awards Ceremony and Picnic

Students, faculty and staff attended the first End-of-the-Year Awards Ceremony and Picnic last May. The department has established Outstanding Student Awards for majors in geography and geology. Tracy Zayac was named the Outstanding Geology Student. Tracy was previously selected as Georgia Southern's campus nominee to The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Tracy began her graduate program at University of Nebraska this fall. Claudia McAllan received the award for the Outstanding Geography Student. The winners received plaques and gift certificates. Permanent plaques recognizing their awards are now on display outside the department office. Isaac Standard was presented with the "Burning the Midnight Oil Award" for his excellent senior research project, and Bilal Harris was named the Department's Rookie of the Year.
Students and faculty also presented less serious awards. Fred Rich received the Chair's Award as "Clydesdale of the Year," to recognize the fact that he taught more student credit hours than any other member of the faculty. Students presented their "Damn Good" Award to none other that Dan Good. They also recognized Obie Wan (Dallas Rhodes' Doberman) as the Best Dressed member of the department. She wears only formal black.

Faculty Changes

Dr. Richard Hulbert, Associate Professor of Geology, resigned his position last summer to accept a research/curatorial position at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, Florida. His time will be fully devoted to fieldwork, research, and collection management.

Dr. Susan K. Langley joined the Department as Assistant Professor of Geography in Fall 2000. Dr. Langley, a native of Oklahoma, completed her Ph.D. in botany at North Carolina State University during summer 2000. At Georgia Southern, she will teach courses in GIS, cartography, biogeography, and ecology. Dr. Langley plans to continue her research on the effect of fire on long-leaf pine ecology.

Faculty Profiles

As chair of a department full of active professors and students, Dallas D. Rhodes is learning the fine art of juggling. He reports that: "Managing budgets, personnel, schedules, facilities, and deans fills most of my days. The department is thriving, so this is also the most rewarding part of my job." Last year, he also served on the University Honors Program Council and was appointed to the University's Information Technology Task Force. At the national level, Dr. Rhodes was elected to the Board of Directors for the American Geophysical Union's Committee of Heads and Chairs of Earth and Space Science Departments.
Fieldwork and research have been slowed by all the administrative activity, but his work on the tectonic geomorphology of California strike-slip faults continues. One of the highlights of the last year was a field trip Dr. J Ramon Arrowsmith and Dr. Rhodes ran for students and faculty from his department at Arizona State and the 12 faculty and students from Georgia Southern who spent their fall break on the San Andreas fault.
A major personal accomplishment of the year was to set foot in Alaska, which completed Dr. Rhodes' quest to visit all 50 states.

Dan Good continued to hit the trail with several significant trips that included 10 days in Costa Rica last Thanksgiving, during which he attended a professional meeting, and rented a 4x4 for field work around several volcanoes, national parks, and other sites along the Pacific Coast. In June 2000, he attended an educational conference in Washington, DC. Upon returning to Georgia, he flew to southwestern Wisconsin to study the lead mining district. Information gathered there will be used in his Historical Geography of North America class. In July, Dr. Good went to the Dominican Republic for 10 days on a medical humanitarian project. He conducted some research on the Haitian sugar cane workers who live in bateys in the country.
The department has installed an official National Weather Service
Weather station. GSU weather data can be seen on the web page under "News, Sports, and Weather."
The Daniel Good Geography Scholarship continues to grow, and as soon as it is fully endowed ($10,000), we can begin awarding scholarships to geography students. Your support of this scholarship will be much appreciated.

Fred Rich continues to enjoy his role as a full-time faculty member. No job is too big compared to being department head. He spent considerable time in 1999-2000 working with two seniors, Tracy Zayac and Jason Lennane, on their senior theses. Tracy studied the sedimentology and paleoecology of a middle Holocene buried forest near Douglas, GA, while Jason conducted shallow seismic surveys of the mouth of the Savannah River. Both students are in grad school (Tracy at the University of Nebraska, and Jason at the New Mexico Institute of Mines and Technology). Both projects are being prepared for submission to Southeastern Geology.
Fred is deeply involved in a debate that centers on a proposed Savannah Harbor deepening project. His work on the distribution of fracture systems in the Miocene of the Coastal Plain resulted in considerable discussion about the potential effects of harbor deepening on aquifer contamination. While he never planned on establishing a reputation as a structural geologist, the presence of the joints is well established and is the result of fieldwork that he conducted over the last three years.
Fred is also President of the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, so he has been instrumental in providing guidance for that organization. The joint meeting of AASP with the Geological Society of America in Reno has required a lot of planning but promises to be a great experience.

Mark Welford continues to explore innovative approaches to geographic education. He will run his third Study Abroad to Ecuador in July 2001. In addition to these trips, Mark has spent many weeks researching bird utilization of abandoned pastures in Ecuador. He has published three peer-reviewed papers on this work. His responsibility as Associate Editor of the Journal of Geography ended in August. He concludes his stint with the journal by guest-editing an issue on Education Theory within Geographic Education.

Environmental Geology has become our largest introductory geology course, and Kelly Vance is shouldering his share of the load in lecture and labs. He also co-authored the department's Environmental Geology Laboratory Manual with Jim Reichard during the summer of 1999 and continues to work on improvements with Jim. Kelly's other activities include resurrection of the Regional Field Geology course during the Spring semester of 1999, team-taught as a vulcanology course with Dr. Pranoti Asher. The course began with lectures and culminated with a sixteen-day field trip through New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado, studying volcanic rocks that ranged from 1.8 billion years old to 10,000 year-old "youngsters." Fourteen brave students took the challenge, and Chuck Trupe and Mehmet Samiratedu assisted Asher and Vance as they all enjoyed outstanding geology and southwestern scenery. Planning is underway for another western field course for the summer 2001 short session. The fall Mineralogy class reflected growing enrollments in geoscience with 19 students registered.
Dr. Vance's recent research activities include investigation of pegmatite-aplite genesis in the Sparta Granite with student Kevin Collins and initiating a study of some Georgia outcrops of Mesozoic diabase with Dr. Pranoti Asher.

Jim Darrell's commitment to the classroom and service continues. His teaching centers on Environmental Geology and Principles of Oceanography. He continues his strong working relationship in Middle Grades Science Methods and College of Education committees. Last April marked his 25th year judging at the state Science Fair. Locally, he has been involved with the Bulloch County Comprehensive Water Use Plan that has been mandated for coastal counties of Georgia. In July 2000, he participated in a conference on coastal water resources in Savannah as well as a public hearing on the proposed deepening of the Savannah River Harbor.

Denise Battles continued her work this year as both a geology faculty member and administrator, serving as Associate Dean for Research and Budget in the College of Science and Technology. While her administrative responsibilities limit her teaching time, she did teach two introductory-level laboratory classes in the past year. Denise continued her service as Project Director of a collaborative, multidisciplinary project, "Environmental Literacy for All Students," an NSF-funded Course and Curriculum Development grant that focuses on environmental science courses in the recently revised core curriculum. She reported on the results of this project at the 1999 GSA Annual meeting in Denver. Denise had two professional articles appear within the past year. She and former Georgia Southern geology faculty member Mark Evans published on their central Appalachian Ridge and Valley research in the December 1999 GSA Bulletin. A single-author article reporting on a teaching technique appeared in the January 2000 issue of the Journal of Geoscience Education.
In the area of professional development, Denise participated in the summer 1999 Management Development Program offered through Harvard University's Institutes for Higher Education. She also was accepted into the 2000-2001 class of the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows Program. The ACE Fellows Program is a year-long leadership development program that prepares participants for positions in higher-education administration. Fellows who are selected into the program spend a year working with senior administrators at a host institution. Auburn University is Denise's host for the 2000-2001 academic year.

Jim Reichard's main teaching responsibility continues to be environmental geology and hydrogeology. The past year he and other faculty members put together a custom lab manual for environmental geology, providing hands-on exercises geared towards environmental issues in Georgia. Jim continues his research efforts in the areas of pedagogy and hydrology. He currently is involved in a study on the Canoochee River where a groundwater contaminant plume greatly increased the stream's nutrient load and severely impacted its water quality. Finally, he is developing a new research project on the Altamaha River that will investigate the relationship between critical sturgeon habitat and possible artesian discharge (springs).

Pranoti Asher kept busy teaching Physical Geology (both lectures and laboratory) and Petrology and Petrography during the last academic year. While petrology is her first love, she finds teaching and motivating freshmen and sophomores enrolled in her introductory courses far more challenging. She continues to stay involved with the Association for Women Geoscientists as their publicist and has just completed her term as an at-large delegate. She recently had a paper accepted by the Journal of Geological Education. Dr. Asher continues to do research on Mesozoic diabase dikes in Maine and Georgia. She is also working with another colleague on understanding the reflectance spectral and compositional properties of zeolites and serpentinites.

Sam Couch continues to seek ways to bring the world to his students and Georgia Southern students to the world. During the 2000 spring semester, his urban geography students were engaged in service-learning projects with the City of Statesboro and the Statesboro Downtown Development Authority. For the second year, the Summer Study Abroad in Ireland program that Couch directs took Georgia students to the Emerald Isle. Plans are underway for a third Ireland summer program in 2001. Last summer, Moscow (not Idaho) and St. Petersburg (not Florida) were "checked off" Sam's list of "places to see before I die." Introductory classes in world regional and human geography were complemented this year with courses in Sub-Saharan Africa and Urban Geography.
This spring Dr. Couch was named co-editor of the Geography of Religion and Belief Systems (GORABS) Newsletter. GORABS is a specialty group of the Association of American Geographers (AAG). Couch remains active professionally in AAG, the Society for Historical Archaeology, the Anthropological Association of Ireland, and the American Conference on Irish Studies. As a result of fieldwork in Idaho, Couch served as visiting assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Idaho during the summer and fall of 2000.

During the last year, Chuck Trupe taught introductory geology courses and was involved in team-teaching a tectonics course with Dallas Rhodes and Pranoti Asher. The tectonics class took a 4-day field trip to southern California to view features along the San Andreas Fault system.
In addition to teaching, he co-chaired a symposium at the Southeastern Section GSA meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, on the geology of the eastern-western Blue Ridge contact. Two of his senior thesis students also gave presentations at this meeting. Chuck continues to conduct field research on structure and metamorphism of the Blue Ridge in western North Carolina, and he is currently supervising senior thesis research in that area.

Jim Henry is the Director of the Applied Coastal Research Lab on Skidaway Island. Jim is working on a number of things, including the Savannah Inlet and Estuarine Processes Study. The study focuses on the geologic processes that shape the estuarine/inlet sand-sharing system. The processes that transport sediment and shape the inlet and estuary are being examined using side-scan-sonar imagery. Modern and historic sedimentation patterns will be determined by seabed sediment sampling and radiochemical geochronologies. The study will provide information about issues that must be addressed when developing an estuary/inlet management strategy that is compatible with economic development and preserving natural resources. Dr. Clark Alexander, Associate Professor at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, is the co-principal investigator. Dr. Henry also serves on several committees and boards, including: the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve Advisory Committee, the Grays Reef National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council (Chair), the Skidaway Marine Science Foundation Ad Hoc Committee, and is Board President of the Center for a Sustainable Coast.

Tony Foyle is a research geologist with the Applied Coastal Research Lab in Savannah and an adjunct faculty member with the Department of Geology and Geography. His primary research and teaching interests lie in coastal environmental geology and marine geology. Tony is co-PI with Jim Henry and Clark Alexander (Skidaway Institute of Oceanography) on a Georgia Department of Natural Resources study of the Floridan aquifer/Miocene aquiclude on the Georgia/South Carolina coast where seawater intrusion poses a threat to the largest aquifer in the southeastern US. He also is involved in a geophysical investigation of structure and stratigraphy in the Gulf Trough
area of onshore Georgia, and in a Georgia Coastal Zone Management study of modern sediment transport processes in the Savannah River estuary. He is very interested in local environmental issues and is a member of the Georgia Ports Authority Stakeholder Evaluation Group's Floridian Aquifer Committee that is charged with identifying the potential impacts of Savannah's harbor deepening on the Floridan aquifer. In his spare time, Tony teaches Ocean Sciences at Armstrong Atlantic State University.

During the past year, Clark Alexander has focused on research both locally and nationally in the area of sedimentary processes and their products in coastal and continental margin environments. He continues to work in Northern California on the STRATAFORM program, which seeks to understand the signatures of geologic events (floods, storms, earthquakes, and mass flows) in the stratigraphic record. A project in Santa Monica Bay in Southern California, which is examining the historical record of pollutant input to the Bay and the processes of sediment redistribution on the continental margin, is about to conclude. Another historical pollution study, this one sited in Delaware Bay, recently was funded. He works with Georgia Southern faculty members Henry and Foyle to examine the processes of sediment transport and erosion on the Savannah River ebb-tidal delta and to determine the integrity of the Miocene aquiclude overlying the Floridan aquifer, the major source of drinking water in the Georgia/South Carolina coastal region. Alexander continues to monitor a wetlands remediation site on the Ogeechee River, where the Georgia Department of Transportation is remediating an old rice impoundment to mitigate wetlands destruction caused during road building. Because of his and the public's great interest in our natural environment, he continues to give about a dozen talks annually to civic and school groups on oceanography, barrier island geology, and earthquakes in the Southeast. He stays involved with local and statewide environmental issues by participating in the Stakeholder Evaluation Group for the Savannah Harbor deepening and the Aquifer Committee and by serving on the Georgia State Shore and Marshlands Protection Committee.

Gale Bishop, although retired from Georgia Southern, remains at his post. The "post" changes locations however. Gale actually is a resident of Spearfish, South Dakota, but he comes back to Georgia to manage the St. Catherines Island Sea Turtle Conservation Program. The web address is as follows: http://cost.gasou.edu/cturtle /001welc.html. Gale spent summer 2000 working again with Nancy Marsh and Fred Rich. The Eisenhower Higher Education Program funded the sea turtle project again this year and funding will continue next year. Last summer was a record breaker for the turtles, with more nests, more eggs, and more baby turtles than any time since the program began in 1992. More than 9,000 baby turtles are known to have hatched on St. Catherines beaches this year. After scampering across the sand they embark on a perilous journey of 20 years or more at sea. With any luck at all, we might just be around to see this years "class" come back to the beach where they originated. After the nesting season is finished, Gale will return to South Dakota, where he continues to work as a geological and educational consultant.