National parks delegates meeting in Aiken

Some of the finest minds in environmental research have descended on Aiken County for a workshop to discuss many issues being tackled in the nation's seven National Environmental Research Parks (NERP).

Hosted by the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, representatives from the seven parks came together for a two-day conference to discuss issues such as the impact of climate change, data collection and coordination across the sites, environmental stewardship and how public education and outreach can be best achieved.

The session began Thursday with an overview of each of the seven facilities.

In pairs, representatives from the research parks set out to establish a context for subsequent discussions by talking about their own work and how they were examining local and national environmental challenges.

During the today's workshop, representatives will discuss NERP interaction with the public.

Topics will include formulation of a Department of Energy data collection network, future workshops, publications, education and NERP outreach initiatives.

NERP was put in place in the 1950s to monitor and predict the environmental impact of energy production and the fallout from the weapons complex.

Legislation is currently in a Senate committee that looks to formally recognize NERP and fund them annually.

Contact Mike Gellatly at mgellatly@aikenstandard.com.