U.S. Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D-N.Y.) will present the welcoming address to scientists and foresters attending an agroforestry conference hosted by Cornell University on Sunday, Aug. 3, at 6 p.m., in Trillium Dining Hall, Kennedy Hall, on the Cornell campus. Hinchey serves on the U.S. House of Representatives' Resources Committee and is the ranking member of its Forests and Forest Health Subcommittee.

The conference, "Exploring Opportunities for Agroforestry in Changing Rural Landscapes: The Fifth Conference on Agroforestry in North America," will be held Aug. 3-6. It is sponsored by Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Cornell Agroforestry Working Group, the Association for Temperate Agroforestry, National Agroforestry Center (a partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service) and the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations.

The conference will feature two keynote addresses on Aug. 4, at 9 a.m., in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium in Kennedy Hall. Fee Busby, deputy chief for science and technology at the Natural Resources Conservation Service, will discuss the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Riparian Buffer Zone Initiative and how it affects agroforestry. Rob Myers, past director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program and current director of the Jefferson Initiative on Crop Diversification, will discuss how to obtain financial support for agroforestry initiatives.

The conference will be useful to biophysical and social scientists, agricultural and natural resource management professionals, community development professionals, and land and business owners interested in sustainability of combining agriculture and forest resources.

Sessions include economic and environmental benefits of agroforestry, the design and management of a wide variety of agroforestry practices, the current research issues and agroforestry's direction to the future.

EDITORS: You are welcome to cover any part of this conference. To obtain a copy of the program, please contact Blaine Friedlander at Cornell News Service, at (607) 255-3290, for more information.

The conference, "Exploring Opportunities for Agroforestry in Changing Rural Landscapes: The Fifth Conference on Agroforestry in North America," will be held Aug. 3-6, 1997.