 | Tuesday, January 17, 2006 |
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Tuesday, January 17
Wednesday, January 18 |
 Chance of Snow 31º/21º
Extended Forecast |
Secon Level 3 |
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Tuesday, January 17 -Creamy Turkey Vegetable -Chicken Gyros -Salisbury Steaks w/Mushroom Au Jus -Chicken Cacciatore -Italian Panini w/Provolone - Philly Cheese Stromboli - Chipotle Chili & Queso Nachos Supreme The Wilson Hall Cafe accepts Visa, Master Card, Discover and American Express. |
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Wednesday, January 18
Thursday, January 19
Chez Leon Menu |
| Fermilab Today is online at: http://www.fnal.gov/today/ Send comments and suggestions to today@fnal.gov Fermilab Today archive Fermilab Today PDF Version Fermilab Result of the Week archive Fermilab Safety Tip of the Week archive Linear Collider News archive Fermilab Today classifieds Subscribe/Unsubscribe to |
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Culling Deer Herds Means
Flora Up, Accidents Down
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If you've been onsite at Fermilab regularly throughout the past decade, you may have noticed you don't see many deer these days. It's not a bad thing, explains Rod Walton, Fermilab ecologist. "They're nice, they're pretty, but they can be a real problem. They were literally eating us out of house and home." The Fermilab white-tailed deer population reached a peak of around 700 in 1998, well beyond the optimal density of 150. By then they had consumed a vast majority of the forest flowering plants, leaving nothing but mud. After careful studies, Fermilab ecologists arranged for USDA culling of Fermilab's deer population to help restore habitat. "The main thing we've noticed since we started this program is the return of understory vegetation in the forest," Walton says. Forest ground vegetation has increased from 30 percent coverage in 1998 to 81 percent coverage in 2005. Walton notes another apparent benefit of culling the Fermilab deer herd: A reduction in vehicles hitting deer. He cites 15 to 25 yearly accidents onsite involving deer during the peak of the population, which has dropped to 2 to 3 yearly accidents now that herds are actively managed. The next count will happen in early 2006.
White-tailed deer live in wooded areas and give birth to offspring in the spring or early summer. Natural predators such as wolves and mountain lions often keep deer populations under control; however, herds such as the one at Fermilab, which don't have many nearby predators, are prone to overpopulation.
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Scientist, Inventor, Writer Ben Franklin
Turns 300
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Benjamin Franklin turns 300 today, and festivities at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia will kick off a year-long celebration across the country. Renowned as an
When he was enlisted as a diplomat, first by the Pennsylvania Assembly and later by the Continental Congress, Franklin’s fame among natural philosophers in England and France was invaluable in making important social and political connections.
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From Woonsocket (RI) The Call,
January 12, 2006:
School program to put ‘Physics First’ If all goes as planned, next year’s high school freshmen will be the first to experience a completely new way of teaching science known as Physics First.
The program, which is being paid for by a state grant, would change the sequence of science classes so that students will take physics first, then chemistry and then biology. Students now progress from biology to chemistry with an option of taking eleventh-grade physics. The program also would require entering students to take an additional year of science.
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| Form Follows Function | ||
In the biological world the functions that organisms perform
Last week I announced some restructuring steps based on advice from a committee I appointed to review our organization. This committee included members with vast experience in industry, government labs and government agencies. I have implemented those parts of their advice that were clearly good practices commonly accepted today. These include elevating the reporting of our ES&H organization to the director's level, separating the oversight functions of the present ES&H organization from operational aspects such as site security and creating a Chief Financial Officer position entirely devoted to financial matters. Fermilab Today last Thursday described some of these steps, including the elimination of the position of Associate Director for Operations. Jed Brown has held this position with distinction for the last four years and we are indebted to him for his contributions to our laboratory. I have shared the report of the committee with division and section heads and have asked them to engage all of you in discussion of whether we should implement further changes in our organization. This exercise is very important. I hope each of you will contribute thoughtfully and take advantage of the opportunity to suggest changes that will make us more effective. This exercise can also lead to changes that will signal the importance that the laboratory assigns to certain functions. If in a Panglossian twist we decide that we live in the best of all possible organizations, then after this analysis we will know why and we will be able to explain it. I will be available to discuss these issues at divisional meetings. After these discussions, all the division and section heads will come together with members of the directorate to narrow down the options and make recommendations to me. The outcome I seek from this process is a structure that enables us to be the best-managed laboratory in the DOE complex. |
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January 11 - 13 - During the 48 hour period, operations established two stores that along with a previous store provided the experiments with 35 hours and 15 minutes of luminosity. Read the Current Accelerator Update Read the Early Bird Report View the Tevatron Luminosity Charts |
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Rocketry Meeting
Photo Developing
Brown Bag Seminar
Additional Upcoming Classes |
