Brennan, Leonard A.

English

University of Tennessee, Knoxville: Trace

National Quail Symposium ProceedingsVolume 4 Article 12000Fourth Herbert L. Stoddard, Sr. Memorial GameBird Lecturer: Dr. G. R. PottsLeonard A. BrennanTall Timbers Research StationFollow this and additional works at: http://trace.tennessee.edu/nqspThis Fourth Stoddard Memorial Game Bird Lecture is brought to you for free and open access by Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. Ithas been accepted for inclusion in National Quail Symposium Proceedings by an authorized editor of Trace: Tennessee Research and CreativeExchange. For more information, please contact trace@utk.edu.Recommended CitationBrennan, Leonard A. (2000) "Fourth Herbert L. Stoddard, Sr. Memorial Game Bird Lecturer: Dr. G. R. Potts," National QuailSymposium Proceedings: Vol. 4 , Article 1.Available at: http://trace.tennessee.edu/nqsp/vol4/iss1/1FOURTH HERBERT L. STODDARD, SR. MEMORIAL GAME BIRD LECTURER: DR. G. R. POTTS Leonard A. Brennan Tall Timbers Research Station, 13093 Henry Beadel Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32312-0918 The Stoddard Memorial lectures began during the 1994 Game Bird Seminar at Tall Timbers. The purpose of the lecture is to bring a distinguished biologist to Tall Timbers and have him or her speak about how Stoddard's ideas influenced his or her research pro-gram and development as a scientist or manager. Since Tall Timbers was hosting Quail IV, I thought it made sense to incorporate the Stoddard Lecture as part of the Fourth National Quail Symposium. Dick Potts is the preeminent game bird researcher alive today. As you will see in his paper, Stoddard's ideas had a significant impact on Dick's predecessors at the Game Conservancy, an organization that is a leader in game bird research on both sides of the At-lantic. Dick's record of research has been essential for moving game bird biology out of the realm of tradi-tional descriptive natural history and into the modem era of quantitative ecology and controlled, manipula-tive field experiments. Such concepts are being em-braced by game bird researchers in America, thanks in no small part to the seminal work of Dr. Potts. In 1986, Dick Potts published a classic book The Partridge: Pesticides, Predation, and Conservation, which made me, and many of my contemporaries, completely rethink our approaches to game bird re-search, especially in the context of modem agricultural and forest environments and how the present condition of these environments affect wildlife. The effects of pesticides, (especially the indirect effects of modem chemicals that do not bioaccumulate, but can be prob-lematic for wildlife), to say nothing of predation, are both hot button topics that engender conversation and debate which quickly outstrip the inferential bounds of published information. Dick tackled the nefarious problems of pesticides and predation head-on as fac-tors responsible for the vexing decline of gray par-tridge (Perdix perdix) in England. Because Dick took an approach to his partridge research that incorporated long-term data collection, field experiments, and mod-eling, he was able to advance a conservation agenda for partridge population recovery based on sound sci-ence. Herbert Stoddard's ideas influenced the develop-ment and direction of both Tall Timbers Research Sta-tion and the Game Conservancy. The Game Conser-vancy was founded the same year that Stoddard pub-lished his "big book" on bobwhites. By correspon-dence and in personal visits, Stoddard communicated his ideas about game birds and their management to the founders of the Game Conservancy, and thus had a great impact on the development of this important organization. Having Dr. Potts deliver the Stoddard Memorial lecture is yet another example of Stoddard's ideas and inspiration coming full-circle. As the host of Quail Iv, I cannot think of an individual more suited than Dr. Potts to be the 4th Stoddard Memorial Lec-turer. 1Brennan: Fourth Herbert L. Stoddard, Sr. Memorial Game Bird Lecturer: Dr.Published by Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange, 2000

Fourth Herbert L. Stoddard, Sr. Memorial Game Bird Lecturer: Dr. G. R. Potts

https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1118&amp;context=nqsp

Fourth Herbert L. Stoddard, Sr. Memorial Game Bird Lecturer: Dr. G. R. Potts

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