Western International Forest Disease Work Conference

Please join us on September 9 - 13, 2023 in Santa Fe,New Mexico for the 69th Western International Forest Disease Work Conference (WIFDWC)! You can also visit www.wifdwc.org for more information.

Registration 

Register online by August 9th at:

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/westerninternationalforestdiseaseworkconferencewifdwc

$400 regular registration*

$200 student registration*

$200 retiree registration*

Note: Registration will be open until September 9th, but will include a late fee of $100 after August 9th.

* Registration includes the full-day field trip with transportation, boxed lunch, and snacks. Committee meeting meals and the banquet must be purchased separately. If you need to pay for meals separately from the registration fee, please select the Meals Only Registration and then pick the committee meeting meals you'd like to attend. Guests are welcome to join the field trip and banquet. Guest registration is free, but tickets for the full-day field trip and banquet must be purchased with member registration.  

Location

Santa Fe, the oldest state capitol in the United States (also the highest in elevation), is nestled between the volcanic Jemez Mountains and the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost subrange of the Rockies. The Santa Fe National Forest and Jemez Mountains host a diversity of ecosystems including large portions of spruce-fir, montane grasslands, riparian, aspen forests and woodlands, and an array of forest pathogens. 

Lodging & Conference Location (same venue!)

Hotel Santa Fe

1501 Paseo de Peralta 

Santa Fe, NM 87501

Phone: (855) 825-8976

**Reserve your rooms before August 10th and ask for the ‘WIFDWC hotel block’ to get the Federal per diem Government Rate ($162/night). Also, if the hotel asks for a deposit, please let them know that it is supposed to be waived for our group ** 

Travel Options

Airports serving Sonoma County include the following:

• Santa Fe Regional Airport (SAF), 14.5 miles southwest of the conference location, hosts American and United airlines. 
• Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) is 65 miles southwest of the conference location and is served by multiple airlines.
• The Santa Fe Regional Airport does not offer shuttle services, but does have rental car companies located in the airport and is served by multiple taxi companies. Transportation services for the Santa Fe Regional Airport can be found here.
• Groome Transportation provides airport shuttle service to and from Albuquerque International Sunport. 
• Hotel Santa Fe does not offer airport shuttle service but does provide shuttle service within one mile of the hotel.
• For those that wish to rent a car, ride-share from the airport can be coordinated using the form provided when you register.

Additionally, the Santa Fe Trails bus system offers a comprehensive service for navigating the city, and the Rail Runner Express is New Mexico's commuter rail system connecting Santa Fe and central New Mexico. 

USFS Registration Specifics

• WIFDWC is listed on the annual Conference Plan.
• USFS employees should express interest in attending to Supervisors and ROs.
• Gregory Reynolds (j.reynolds@usda.gov) has collected USFS employee information for the Attendance Cost Spreadsheet. If you would like to change your role, please contact Greg.

Agenda (still evolving)

• Monday, June 5: Afternoon pre-meeting hike/field trip, registration, and welcome social.
• Tuesday, June 6: Registration, graduate student Flash-n-Dash, three panels, two committee meetings, graduate student special papers, and an evening poster session / ice cream social / silent auction. 
• Wednesday, June 7: All-day field trip, one committee meeting, and an evening banquet with the Outstanding Achievement Award and presentations from previous recipients.
• Thursday, June 8: Three committees, three panels, two special paper sessions, and a special presentation.
• Friday, June 9: One committee, a special paper session, business meeting, and adjourn by 11:30 am.

Papers (contributed and special)

• Note:  “Contributed papers” are those panel organizers invite speakers to present. “Special papers” are those given by people requesting a non-panel time slot.
• Please contact Danny Norlander (norlander@odf.oregon.gov) if you would like to present a special paper on a forest pathology subject matter. Send a title and brief description of your proposed paper by July 31st.
• If more requests are received than we have time for, we will review the date of receipt and titles, in order to select papers for presentation. Authors will be notified before closing of early registration.
• As an alternative, remember that brief presentations (as arranged with the committee chair) may be given during committee meetings.

Posters

• You are invited to submit a title and a brief description for the poster session. Posters may address any forest pathology-related topic.
• Email abstracts to Patrick Bennett (bennett@usda.gov) by Friday Friday August 9thto reserve a space for your poster.

Graduate Student Introductions (“Flash-n-Dash”)

• All graduate student attendees are asked to give a brief introduction (five minutes) of you and your research program.
• Students should contact Brad Lalande (lalande@usda.gov) by Friday August 9thwith their name, university, and project title.
• Graduate students are also encouraged to present more details on their work in either the poster session (see below) or as a paper (see above).

Committee Meetings

The following committees are scheduled to meet. Please contact the moderator by  Friday August 9th  if you wish to have time on the agenda for a short presentation.

Silent Auction

The WIFDWC silent auction raises $1,000+ per year to support student travel. Betsy Goodrich (anne.goodrich@usda.gov) will be helping organize the auction. Start thinking about what you can donate and bring to the meeting for the auction. Ideas include: handmade items, books, rare journal articles, photos, jewelry, tree and fungi swag, or WIFDWC swag from years past!

Outstanding Achievement Award

• Congratulations to  Blakey Lockman for receiving the Outstanding Achievement Award in 2023!
• Nominations for the 2024 WIFDWC Outstanding Achievement Award are now open and will remain open until July27th. See the Call for Nominations webpage for details.
• Questions should be directed to Kristen Chadwick (Chadwick@usda.gov).

Student Travel Awards

• Travel awards are available for qualified graduate students to subsidize travel-related expenses. Interested graduate students should visit the ‘Graduate Student Travel Award’ web page at wifdwc.org for more information and the application form.
• The application deadline is Friday July 5th.
• All graduate students that receive this award are expected to participate in the Graduate Student Introduction (Flash-n-Dash) and are also encouraged to present an oral or poster presentation.
• Questions should be directed to Betsy Goodrich (goodrich@usda.gov).

Pre-meeting Field Trip (Monday afternoon)

• Arriving over the weekend or Monday morning? Join us for a pre-meeting field trip on Monday from 1 pm to 5 pm (exact times may change).
• The pre-meeting field trip will be on the Sangre de Cristo side of the Santa Fe National Forest and will highlight aspen cankers and root diseases in mixed conifer and spruce-fir stands.
• There is no registration fee, so:
  • Participants will need to bring their own food and water.
  • Carpooling from Hotel Santa Fe will be required.
• If interested, please contact Greg Reynolds (j.reynolds@usda.gov)

Field Trip (Wednesday)

• Join us on Wednesday from 9 am to 5 pm for a field tour focusing on local forest pathology issues.
• The all-day field trip will loop through the Jemez Mountains and will highlight local tribal forestry concerns, riparian cottonwood forest along the Rio Grande (the bosque), southwestern dwarf mistletoe of ponderosa pine, and fire history of the Valles Caldera National Preserve. 
• Transportation and lunch for this field trip is included in your registration costs.
• Transportation will be via coach, not school buses, and bathroom stops are planned!

WIFDWC Planning Committee Contacts

• Chairperson, Lori Winston (winton@usda.gov, 907-717-5736)
• Program Chair, Danny Norlander (norlander@odf.oregon.gov,  503-945-7310)
• Treasurer, Holly Kearns (kearns@usda.gov, 503-668-1475)
• Secretary, Adam Carson (carson@oregonstate.edu, 541-737-3826)
• Local Arrangements: Greg Reynolds (j.reynolds@usda.gov, 612-275-6087) & Nick Wilhelmi (nwilhelmi@fs.fed.us, 928-556-2075)

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This message brought to you by Western International Forest Disease Work Conference