Morning Plenary: Two TED-style talks on the future of black bear management
Dr. Thomas H. Eason
Thomas Eason works as a wildlife biologist and administrator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). He received his B.S. and M.S. in Wildlife Science at Virginia Tech and the University of Tennessee, respectively, and completed his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Tennessee. He began his career working on black bear ecology and management and subsequently has taken on a variety of duties for the FWC focused on wildlife diversity conservation. He began his career with FWC as the Leader of the Bear Management Section and now serves as Director for the Division of Habitat and Species Conservation (HSC).
Thomas grew up playing soccer and enjoying the outdoors around the suburbs of Washington DC in Vienna, Virginia. Since then, he has steadily moved south for school and work. He has lived in Tallahassee, Florida since 1999. Thomas and his wife, Angel, like tinkering in the yard (a certified monarch butterfly way station), hiking, camping, and kayaking.
Afternoon Keynote: Dr. Timothy Fahey
Earthworms in the northern forest: blessing or curse?
Tim Fahey is Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Natural Resources at Cornell University. He studies the ecology of temperate and tropical montane forests. For the past 30 years he has been Principal Investigator of the well-known project, Long-term Ecological Research at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Much of his work focusses on the feeder roots and mycorrhizae of northeastern trees, their responses to environmental change and implications for forest health. He has been studying the effects of European earthworms on northern forests for 20 years since he first noticed them in his permanent research plots in central New York.
Anthony McBride
Tony McBride is a native New Englander who was born in RI and grew up in southeast MA. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Natural Resource Management from Rutgers University and has worked for the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife since 1994. He currently serves as a Supervising Wildlife Biologist and oversees the Black Bear Research Program, Wildlife Control Unit, Wild Turkey Research Program, and Falconry Program. Tony received his Masters in Biology/ Entomology at East Stroudsburg University in 2009. In his spare time, in addition to hunting and trapping with his two children, he studies borer moths in the genus Papaipema.