Weekly Report March 28th to April 9th, 2010

Dear Director's Blog Fans,

After months of intensive non-stop action at the Arava Institute, the past two weeks have been incredibly calm, quiet and relaxing. I for one, have really enjoyed the spring break. There are still a few important things to report about the past two weeks:

• Elad Topel, the Director of Eco-Paths for the past 4 years has announced his intention to leave the position by June in order to work full-time as the CEO of Arava Institute subsidiary, Arava Environmental Consulting and Technology (Arava EC&T). Eco-Paths is the department at the Arava Institute which runs the Israel Ride. The Human Resources Committee has begun to look for Elad's replacement. The institute wants to thank Elad for his incredible committment and energy to Eco-Paths and to the Israel Ride and wishes him luck as full-time CEO of Arava EC&T.
• Gail Osman, Director of the Development Department is leaving this week for a Fellowship Program sponsored by the Quebec-Labrador Foundation. The program is called, Developing Strategies for Community-based Natural Resource Managment and is funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participants in the 2 week program come from Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank and North America. The program takes place in Massachussets, Maine and New Hampshire.
• The students left for their spring vacation two weeks ago and regular classes only resume on Sunday. Some students, however, returned early to participate in the short-course, Biodiversity of the Sand Dunes, run by Professor Uri Shanas of Haifa University. The course is a jointly run for Haifa University students and students of the Arava Institute. About 10 students participated in this year's course, half from Haifa and half from the Arava Institute. The students get up early in the morning in order to trap gerbils, lizards, beetles and spiders. Professor Shanas has been working together with the Arava Institute on biodiversity research of the Arava on both sides of the border for many years.
• On Thursday, a number staff members from the Arava Institue attended the monthly regional research seminar jointly sponsored by the Dead Sea Arava Science Center, the Southern Arava Agricultural R & D Center and the Arava Institute. The forum brings together researchers engaged in research in the southern Arava and Eilat. Thursday's seminar was attended by about 30 researchers and included lectures by both Professor Uri Shanas on the biodiversity of the southern Arava and by Dr. Reuven Yosef, Director of the International Birding and Research Center Eilat and one of Israel's leading ornothologists. Both Uri and Reuven are part-time lecturers at the Arava Institute.
• Uri revealed some amazing results of the studies he has been conducting for the past 6 years with Arava Institute students and with Haifa University students, on the biodiversity of the Arava on both sides of the border. One conclusion of the research is that nature apparently does know borders. Uri's research found that, probably due to the cultural differences between the human populations on the Jordanian side of the border from the Israeli side of the border, there is a greater abundance of species on the Israel side, while there is a greater diversity on the Jordanian side. There are certain species which only appear on one side of the border or the other. In addition, Uri and his research assistants have found that some species inhabiting the Samar Sand Dunes have a closer genetic relationship to animals in North Africa then they do to animals living in other adjacent sandy habitats in the Arava. Uri could not give a definite explanation to this phenomenon but emphasized the global scientific importance of this discovery.
• Dr. Reuven Yosef then spoke to the seminar about the importance of the establishment of the International Birding and Resarch Center Eilat on the old Eilat garbage dump. Reuven showed aerial photographs of the Eilat region prior to the establishment of the State which revealed a florishing salt marsh eco-system that was destroyed by the development in the region and agriculture. The salt-marshes at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba were a critical refueling station for birds flying from Africa back to Europe during the spring. The first researcher to make this connection was Professor Uriel Safriel in an article he wrote in 1968. In 1993, Dr. Yosef was able to get permission from the Eilat municipality to reestablish a small nature reserve on a city garbage dump at the entrance to Eilat. Over a half a million birds fly through Israel to and from Africa every fall and spring. Much of Reuven's original research in Eilat was done with the aid of students from the Arava Institute. Using solar radiation data to create a multi-year GIS map of Africa, Reuven showed the seminar how the migrating birds from Europe move in a circular pattern from Europe, to Western Africa, then as the winter progresses, on to Southern Africa and finally when spring arrives heading back towards Europe via Eastern Africa. The first refueling station available to the birds after flying across barren North African deserts is Eilat, thus making the Eilat Israel Birding Center a critical part of the global highway for migrating birds.

David Lehrer