FROM XXXXXXTHE EDITOR’S DESK Now we’ve reached the midpoint of the year, things are beginning to feel more like normal for many of us. We just completed our annual meeting via live or virtual participation in the 2022 Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting. The July issue of WSP is largely dedicated to presenting abstracts from our annual meeting, so this year it includes abstracts from presentations that our Ralph Tiner members delivered. WSP Editor From the personal perspective, I’ve begun to travel more and am teaching face-toface again, while still using zoom for some aspects of instruction. I feel like I’ve come out of hibernation. The creaky joints are loosening up and I’ve begun to feel more like my old self…hope you can say likewise. While I haven’t ventured back to the gym, I have been more active and am inspired to take on some writing assignments. Back to normal isn’t occurring everywhere. What is normal anyway, especially in this day and age? While the weather in New England has been wonderful, my friend Warren from Albuquerque says things aren’t going well for New Mexico as enormous wildfires are active and strong winds don’t appear to be letting up and the region is drier than normal, suffering from extreme drought. Strangely enough, two of the wildfires began as prescribed burns by the U.S. Forest Service that are designed to reduce the likelihood of such wildfires. This event will place more scrutiny on fire management practices. The weather conditions across the region have been linked to climate change. The wildfire season is now longer than it used to be. This makes planning prescribed burns even more challenging. This is a problem faced by most Western states. A
170 Wetland Science & Practice July 2022
few years ago, I was in Grand Lake, Colorado attending a meeting of the National Technical Committee on Wetland Vegetation. On my drive there I noticed all the dead or dying evergreens in the Rocky Mountain National Park and thought that is a lot of fuel for a future wildfire. A couple of years later, I learned that the house we had rented burned down in the October 2020 wildfire that started in Arapaho National Forest; it was one of 366 homes destroyed. While fire is an important ecological factor, past fire suppression seems to have had an unanticipated role in providing more fuel for more intense fires. In New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, the lack of fire has eliminated many of the wet savannas that were present before the age of Smokey the Bear – they are now covered by trees and shrubs. With climate change, a new normal is underway and one that will challenge policy makers and land managers to address the societal and ecological issues related to fire. Back to this issue, besides the meeting abstracts, we welcome our incoming president Bill Kleindl and thank our outgoing president Greg Noe for his leadership – see their messages. We also extend our congratulations to presidentelect Susan Galatowitsch from the University of Minnesota and to winners of this year’s SWS Awards and the winners of our Wetlands Month photo contest. Two online wetland books by Joy Zedler have been added to our Wetland Bookshelf. This issue also contains a notice on the Society’s procedure for recognizing and honoring recently deceased SWS members and renown wetland scientists. Thanks to all our contributors and especially to Aubrey Swanson and Moriah Meeks for assembling all the abstracts and other SWS news. Their work is vital to the success of WSP. Happy Swamping! n
