Coupling Humans and Complex Ecological Landscapes is the theme of the 2009 annual conference of US-IALE (U.S. Regional Association, International Association for Landscape Ecology). The conference will be held in Snowbird, Utah, from April 12-16, 2009. Proposals for symposia and workshops are due September 15, 2008; and abstracts are due November 17, 2008.

Several types of financial support for attending and presenting at the conference are available:

(1) the “Sponsored Student Travel Awards Program” of local sponsors (USGS, Utah State University, and Utah Department of Natural Resources),

(2) US-IALE’s ‘Foreign Scholar Travel Award‘ Program,

(3) the ‘NASA-MSU Professional Enhancement Awards Program‘ (supported by NASA and Michigan State University), and

(4) the ‘CHANS Fellows Program’ of the new International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS-Net, supported by NSF, see background papers in Science and Ambio).

US-IALE conferences are particularly students-friendly, with two popular programs — Lunch with Mentors and NASA-MSU dinner, and a new program — We’ll “Pick Up The Tab!”.

More information about the conference is available from the web site.