Bowling Green, Ky. - Two Western Kentucky University students won first place in the poster competition of the fifth annual conference of the International Society for Environmental Information Sciences Aug. 1-3 in Bowling Green.

The poster by Benjamin Hughes of Louisville and Michael Z. Miller of Chattanooga, Tenn., was titled “Initial GIS Assessment of Riparian Corridor Characteristics and Environmental Variables Along the Upper Green River in Kentucky” with Dr. Ouida Meier, project specialist in WKU’s Center for Biodiversity Studies, as the adviser.

The students received a $250 prize awarded by Dr. Blaine Ferrell, dean of WKU’s Ogden College of Science and Engineering. Kami MacDonald of Owensboro, a recent WKU graduate, also was an author on the poster.

Another poster from the Center for Biodiversity Studies – “Influences of Land Use, Scale, and Weather on Birds Calling,” by WKU student Jonathan Bowers of White House, Tenn., with Dr. Albert Meier and Dr. Ouida Meier as advisers -- placed third in the competition.

Hughes, Miller and Bowers attended the ISEIS conference through scholarship funds provided by the Provost’s Initiative for Excellence. Hughes and Miller also presented work from the WKU lab at the annual Kentucky GIS Conference July17-19 in Fort Mitchell.

The three students are working on research related to the dynamics of riparian habitat restoration in the upper Green River watershed, funded by a collaborative grant to WKU from the Natural Resources Conservation Service to study the impacts of a large-scale Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program being implemented in the Green River basin.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Ouida Meier at (270) 745-6001.

Photo Caption: From left, Michael Z. Miller, Dr. Blaine Ferrell, Benjamin Hughes.
Photo by Karla Andrews

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