NEWS RELEASE

10/22/01

Barbara Palmer, News Service (650) 724-6184; e-mail: barbara.palmer@stanford.edu

Committee to advise on Dish recreation use named

President John Hennessy has named nine members to the Provost's Advisory Committee on Recreational Use of the Dish. The committee, headed by Professor Russell Fernald, will begin meeting this quarter.

The committee, which includes three community members, three campus leaseholders, an undergraduate student, a graduate student and an "academic user" ­ a researcher at the observatory in the Dish Area ­ will act as a filter for ideas, said Fernald. Fernald, the Benjamin Scott Crocker Professor of Human Biology, is a campus leaseholder and has jogged in the Dish area for seven years.

"The appointment of the advisory committee is another step in the university's efforts to address issues important to its on-campus community and its neighbors," Hennessy said. "I am particularly pleased that the membership of the committee reflects a broad cross-section of local residents, academic researchers and recreational users. I believe this approach will well serve all of us who treasure the Dish as an important academic and recreational resource."

The Dish is an important part of Stanford's academic lands and also serves as a popular recreational area for the campus and surrounding communities, Fernald said. The committee's first challenge will be to review current recreational use and to identify suggestions for possible changes for recreational use regulations at the Dish that comply with the conservation and use guidelines established in the Conservation and Use Plan for the Dish Area. "We'll consider any ideas that people might have within the conservation and use guidelines," Fernald said.

In addition to Fernald, committee members include Mark Zoback, professor of geophysics and campus leaseholder; Toby Montgomery, campus leaseholder; Jerry Hearn, Portola Valley; Kathleen Much, Menlo Park; John Northway, Palo Alto; Stephen Lindholm, graduate student; Andrew Simons, undergraduate student; and Ivan Linscott, senior researcher at the Space, Telecommunications and Radioscience Laboratory (STARLab). Ex officio committee members include Carol Boggs of the Center for Conservation Biology; Charles Carter, assistant director, University Planning Office; Andy Coe, Stanford's director of community relations; Marvin Moore, chief, Stanford Department of Public Safety; and Bob Reidy, vice provost for land and buildings.

Members of the advisory committee will serve for two years. The committee is expected to meet quarterly, although the chair will convene meetings as needed.

The conservation use plan implemented Sept. 1, 2000, designated several hundred acres of land as a preserve for long-term habitat conservation and continued academic use, established an environmental restoration and maintenance program and outlined conditions for recreational use.

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By Barbara Palmer