Preventing, diagnosing and predicting global and regional environmental problems will be the focus of more than 1,500 scientists, policy-makers, and business and governmental representatives as they gather Aug. 15-20 in Sacramento, Calif., for the International Congress on Ecosystem Health. Hosted by the University of California, Davis, the congress will include six plenary and 40 technical sessions by more than 200 speakers. Fourteen forums also will be held for discussions and recommendations on controversial global issues. Topics to be highlighted during the congress will include: o effects of agriculture on ecosystem and human health; o appropriate responses to invasions by exotic species; o impact of transportation corridors on ecosystems; o restoring coastal and marine ecosystems; o environmental challenges at Lake Tahoe, the Colorado River Delta and the Great Plains of Canada; o the California-Federal Bay-Delta Program for ecosystem restoration; o mitigating the impacts of mining; and o the role of culture and tradition in managing ecosystem health. Key speakers will include Kenneth Olden, director of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Robert Watson, director for environment at the World Bank; Ambassador Ola Ullsten of Sweden; Douglas Wheeler, former secretary of resources for California; and New York Newsday science writer Laurie Garrett, author of the book "The Coming Plague." Field trips will be offered to San Francisco Bay, Lake Tahoe, Monterey Bay, Clear Lake, the Napa and Sonoma wine regions, sustainable agriculture operations and nearby wetlands. Journalists can reserve a space at the congress by returning the attached media registration form by July 15. To reserve hotel accommodations, fill out the form on page 18 of the congress brochure and send it in with the media registration form.