Yellowstone National Park will host the Seventh Biennial Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem at Mammoth Hot Springs on October 06 - 08, 2003. The theme of the conference is, "Beyond The Arch: Community and Conservation in Greater Yellowstone and East Africa".

The goal of the conference is to generate, in non-technical language, a publicly oriented discussion of issues that draw together national parks in the Greater Yellowstone and East Africa. We will make comparisons and foster dialogue across boundaries marking the intersections of global and local, private and public, natural and cultural, and scientific and social spheres.

Managers, scientists, policymakers, and the public will come together to discuss and consider the interdependence of both nature-society relations and natural and cultural history in local and global contexts. The conference will promote understanding of the ecological and social challenges facing parks in the Greater Yellowstone and East Africa, and initiate the development of useful strategies for sustaining the national park idea at the dawn of the 21st century.

Featured speakers at this event will include Dr. Richard Leakey of Kenya; Dr. Dan Flores of the University of Montana; Dr. Steven Sanderson, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Dr. A.R.E. Sinclair, Director of the Centre for Biodiversity Research at the University of British Columbia; Dr. Charles Preston, Founding Curator of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center's Draper Museum of Natural History; Dr. Robin Reid, Systems Ecologist for the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi; and Dr. Lee Talbot, professor of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University.

In addition, more than 30 papers and 15 posters will be presented by academic researchers and land managers from across the United States and Africa. For more information or to register for the conference, go to www.nps.gov/yell/technical/conference.htm or call: 307-344-2230.

NEWS MEDIA INFORMATION: News media planning to attend the conference may obtain free day passes at the registration desk at the Mammoth Hotel to attend conference sessions. The day pass does not cover any meals, so media planning to attend banquets should pre-register and pay the conference fee of $ 220.00. Media who do not pre-register can check on meal availability when they obtain a day pass; individual meal tickets may be purchased if still available the day of the event.