Click HERE for to see the meeting agenda.

MTAFS 2020 Meeting Announcement and Third and Final Call for Symposia, Papers, and Posters:

Celebrating fish diversity in Montana, native and non-native alike, including opportunities and challenges

The 2020 Montana Chapter of AFS annual meeting will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kalispell, MT on February 25-28, 2020.   Blocks of rooms have been reserved, so be sure to make your room reservations by January 24, 2020.  Contact the Hilton Garden Inn at: 1-406-756-4500, and ask for the AFS reserved block of rooms.  Filling the room block reduces costs incurred by our Chapter! The Hilton Garden Inn has provided us a great deal on rooms.  There are Double Occupancy, King and Suites available for $95 per night, on a first serve basis, so make your reservation early!

Registration for the meeting is now open.  You can register for conference attendance, continuing education (see topics below) and the vendor trade show by accessing the Event Brite link below.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/montana-chapter-afs-meeting-2020-tickets-85643521077 [eventbrite.com]

This is the third and final call for symposia, papers, and posters for the 2020 Chapter meeting. 

Here are the dates for future meeting deadlines to watch for:

January 16, 2020: Final deadline for submission for oral presentations (papers) and posters

January 24, 2020:  MT Chapter AFS meeting program finalized and provided to members

February 14, 2020:  Early registration ends (save $$ and register now!)

Something new this year:  We are considering a Lightening Round Session at this year’s conference if we can generate enough interest from presenters.  This session would consist of 7-minute talks that can focus on just about anything interesting and related to aquatic resources. They need not necessarily be limited to study results but could also include interesting or unique field or lab techniques or equipment.  Please email me if you want to present during this session, including an abstract (see below).

Symposia: We have identified the following ideas for symposia this year.  If you would like to present a paper for one of these symposia or have an idea for different symposium contact me.

• ESA: Is it working for MT fishes?
• Managing MT recreational fisheries
• State, Federal and Tribal hatcheries and their contribution to conservation and recreational fisheries

To Submit and Abstract for a paper, poster or lightening talk:

Abstract submissions for papers and posters should be emailed no later than January 16 to me in MS word using the following format: Times New Roman (12 point) font with single spacing.  All abstracts must include the title, author(s), and a concise abstract body that does not to exceed 250-word count.

Volunteers Needed:  If you would like to help out at the meeting, even if you don’t know exactly how, please email me directly.

Continuing Education:  The Chapter is offering two half day education courses on Tuesday February 25.  The morning course (8 am to noon) is R for beginners, and will focus on the ways to load data, data visualization, data exploration, and simple analyses.  The afternoon course (1 pm to 5 pm) will teach DNA based approaches to monitor trend and abundance of fish populations.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

 

Thanks,

Jim Dunnigan

jdunnigan@mt.gov

406-293-4161 x 200