The Explorers Club Board of Directors conducted its summer meeting in Washington, which coincided with the ECWG May meeting. 

Chris Nicola FR ’04 was the guest speaker for the dinner presentation, which several board members attended.  He gave a fascinating presentation about his research and discovery of a forgotten WWII story about survival of 38 Ukrainian Jews in a very large unknown cave system.  Rediscovery of the story, survivors, and artifact recovery is the basis for his book and forthcoming documentary.

Meredith Muth and Sarah Yukich, two graduate students who were aided by Explorers Club Washington Group Exploration and Field Research Grants, described their work at the ECWG’s annual students dinner on April 17 at the Cosmos Club in Washington.  Full story 

Jason Paterniti, MN’10, carried Explorers Club Flag 24 on a February 2010 expedition to the Cochamo Valley region of Chile to identify previously undocumented stands of the endangered Alerce tree (Fitzroya Cupressoides). Full story.

Lowell Baier, ME76,  has been selected as top conservationist in Outdoor Life magazine’s third annual OL 25 list of people who have had the most positive impact on hunting, fishing and conservation. Baier who is president of the Boone and Crockett Club, received his award in January in Las Vegas. The club was founded in 1887 by Theodore Roosevelt to promote guardianship and visionary management of big game and associated wildlife in North America.” 

On February 22, Dr. Lee Talbot, MED57, returned from a month in the Annamite Mountains of Laos, by helicopter, Land cruiser, dugout, and foot following up on his previous exploratory and conservation work.  One immediate result was the cessation of illegal gold mining and lumbering in the Delaware-size protected area in which he has been working.

Robert Atwater, LF05, spent April 4 through 10 hiking in the mountains of the Leyte area of the Philippines on a successful search for a missing U.S. C-47 transport and the bodies of its eight missing crew members. The aircraft was on a supply mission during the closing days of World War II.  Full story.

Sara Zeigler, whose October-November 2008 work in Brazil was partly supported by an ECWG Exploration and Field Research grant, is one of four authors and the corresponding author of “Identifying Important Forest Patches for the Long-term Persistence of the Endangered Golden-Headed Lion Tamarin,” published on March 31 in the journal, Tropical Conservation Science. Full story.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has established the "Joanne and Bob Simpson Postdoctoral Fellowship" in recognition of the enormous impact that Joanne Simpson, FN00, and Bob Simpson, FE79, have had on the atmospheric sciences, and in particular their untiring efforts in supporting young scientists.  Full story.

Sara Zeigler, whose October-November 2008 work in Brazil was partly supported by an ECWG Exploration and Field Research grant, is one of four authors and the corresponding author of “Identifying Important Forest Patches for the Long-term Persistence of the Endangered Golden-Headed Lion Tamarin,” published on March 31 in the journal, Tropical Conservation Science.

She says the golden-headed lion tamarin, a small primate, is one of many Brazilian Atlantic forest species that deforestation threatens to drive to extinction.