Dear Sir/Madam,  Re-start IENE , 9 - 12 April 2008 Nyíregyháza, Hungary

The Local Organising Committee is pleased to announce the hosting of the
„Re-start IENE” Workshop on 9 - 12 April 2008 Hungary. This Workshop is designed to bring together specialists from all over Europe to present, discuss and debate recent developments in road ecology and offers an excellent opportunity for learning about each others experiences through presentations, formal and informal meetings and re-start IENE activities. The schedule of the meeting with the preliminary list of presentations was sent out earlier by Hans Bekker. This letter gives information about other details of the meeting.
 

Location

Nyíregyháza is situated at an eastern end of European motorways with a recently opened section reaching the city providing an excellent opportunity to see nature conservation-oriented mitigation measures, amphibian tunnel systems, game passages e.g. during the field trip day.
 

General travel information

Nyíregyháza is within an easy reach to Budapest. If you are flying to Ferihegy Airport (Budapest) you can change for a direct train to get there in 2 ⁴² hours. If you are driving you can get to the city on a motorway and there are frequent coach connections there as well. According to the arrival time of participants a help service is planned to be organised for those travelling on public transport (e.g. flight – train). After the arrival of the participants will turn out further information is provided on best travel options and timetables.
 

Conference venue

The Workshop is scheduled to take place in the County and City Library, Nyíregyháza, Hungary. With its convenient location in the main square of the city easy to reach from any hotel in the city even by public transport and its well-equipped conference rooms make it an excellent meeting place. To make your stay more pleasant and effective Internet access is provided free through computers reserved for the use of participants during the meeting. Also, if you take your computer with you WIFI connection is available in certain areas of the building.
 

Accommodation

A large variety of accommodation is available for tourists visiting Nyíregyháza that you can explore using various Internet sites. Still, the Local Organising Committee made reservations at hotels and in the campus of the Nyíregyháza College that were regarded as good options for your stay (this way also promoting road-related discussions even during breakfasts). The names, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, Internet access and home pages of these hotels are the following:
 

Sóstói Szinbád Hotel

4431 Nyíregyháza-Sóstófürdő, Sóstói u. 66.

Tel.: +36-42/506-500

Fax.: +36-42/506-501

E-mail.: hotel@sostoiszinbadhotel.hu

www.sostoiszinbadhotel.hu
 

Svájci-lak/Swiss Cottage

4431 Nyíregyháza-Sóstófürdő, Sóstói u.

Tel.: +36-42/411-194

Fax.:+36-42/411-195

E-mail.: ertesites@sostotort.hu

www.sostotort.hu

http://svajcilak.sostort.hu/eng_index.php
 

Lugas Hotel

4400 Nyíregyháza, Prága u. 3.

Tel/Fax.: +36-42/342-777

Tel.: +36-42/504-460

E-mail.: lugashotel@chello.hu

www.lugashotel.hu
 

Ózon Panzió

4400 Nyíregyháza, Csaló köz 2.

Tel.. +36-42/402-001

Fax..+36-42/402-001

E-mail.: Reservation is possible directly through the web.

www.ozonpanzio.hu
 

Sandra Hotel (College of Nyíregyháza)

4400 Nyíregyháza, Sóstói u. 31/b.

Tel.: +36-42/505-400

Fax.: +36-42/505-400

E-mail.. info@hotelsandra.hu

www.nyf.hu (go to visitors, accommodation, services, Sandra Hotel)

These reservations are valid till 31st March, and sold out in a first come first serve basis, so please, reserve your accommodation fast directly with the hotels and let the Local Organising Committee know about it.

If any problem arises, though, please, also let the Local Organising Committee know about it to help solving it.
 

Food

Food during the „Re-start IENE” Workshop will be organised in a way that helps further discussions. Wednesday evening a buffet dinner will be offered to the arriving participants. Breakfasts will be served in the hotels, coffee, tea, biscuits and snacks will be provided in coffee breaks. To help lunch-time discussions Thursday and Friday lunch can be taken in a separate room of a nearby restaurant. Thursday evening a special dinner is organised in the Tokaj World Heritage site. Friday evening a buffet dinner will be organised. During the Saturday field trip food is provided.

If you have special dietary requirements, please, let us know about them in the registration form.
 

Expenses

The „Re-start IENE” Workshop is planned to be an environmental-friendly meeting also supporting local initiatives and (food) products. Attention is given on the effectiveness of the meeting e.g. by providing as many as possible options for you to discuss IENE matters e.g. during meals. With this approach in mind the financial support of IENE was effectively used for covering common meals as well, only the two World Heritage site visits, the Thursday afternoon trip to the Tokaj (wine tasting and dinner in a wine cellar) and the Saturday field trip (lunch in a csárda, a traditional restaurant in the puszta) are to be paid by the participants (50 EUR (Thursday) and 35 (half day programme on Saturday) or 60 EUR (whole day on Saturday)).
 

Additional programme, day excursion

Nyíregyháza, a lively city of 128,000 inhabitants, can be found between two special Hungarian World Heritage sites, Tokaj, a traditional wine-growing area, that is famous for the „king of the wine, wine of the kings” and Hortobágy, a unique area of Hungarian lowlands dominated by extreme seasonal changes and traditional human use. Naturally, the Local Organising Committee wants to show you both during a Thursday evening out and the field trip day on Saturday. The first event starts after talks finish on Thursday. A 45 minute bus ride takes us to the town of Tokaj, where the unregulated River Bodrog flows into the River Tisza providing a unique microclimate for growing grapes. After a short walk in the town we are heading to a best, family-owned wine cellar for the rest of the evening (another 15 minutes) to have further opportunities to discuss IENE issues in a special atmosphere. The coach expect to take us back to our hotels around 11 pm. The visit of the other World Heritage site, Hortobágy will be combined with the field trip that includes the exploration of mitigation measures of motorway sections opened in 2006-2007. To help the participation of people who have to leave Saturday evening a detour to a nearby railway station is planned around 1 o clock to provide chances to participate for as many as possible. In the second part of the day an introduction to the Hortobágy is given, more mitigation measures are investigated and you can also experience a lunch in a traditional puszta restaurant, the csárda.

If there is enough interest, there is also a plan to make an additional trip to visit sites of a planned multi-country World Heritage candidate (Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine), wooden churches of the Carpathian Basin and their natural surroundings of bogs, lowland forests and riverine landscape protected in a landscape protection area on Sunday.
 

Information exchange, poster presentation, literature exchange

This Announcement also serves as an invitation to authors to bring additional material to the workshop to increase information exchange through poster presentations to be discussed in coffee breaks and any additional material published nationally, that other participants may find useful. The Local Organising Committee provides poster boards and further space at the information desk for this purpose. A title for poster presentations for the inclusion in the „Re-start IENE” programme is needed in advance. Similar to previous IENE meetings and other road related congresses, participants are free to choose their topics within road ecology e.g. the impact of linear infrastructure on the environment, methods and approaches, conservation strategies and action plans for selected species, populations and communities, etc. There are no strict regulations given that already existing posters presented elsewhere may well also be valuable to see for other participants. Also, if you have any material you want to distribute electronically, please, send its title for circulation and take it with you for copying for other participants.

The list of posters and additional material will be circulated before your arrival.
 

From now on, the Local Organising Committee will regularly provide you with further information on organisational issues to make your stay pleasant and effective. The latest information on the Workshop will also be available on the Re-start IENE website: www.varangy.hu/RestartIENE. 

 
 To start with, we need to know details about your arrival, departure, accommodation, etc.  To help us organising the meeting smoothly we are kindly asking you to make the following steps:

1., Consult your programme and decide how long you are planning to stay and what programmes you participate in.

2., Check accommodation and make your reservation directly with your hotel.

3., Decide how you will travel. Make your reservation, if necessary.

4., Decide what additional material you are planning to take to the meeting (poster, book, pdf files of your work or your colleagues achievements, etc.).

5., Let us know about your decisions by filling in and sending over your registration form to help us making your stay as effective and pleasant as possible.  

Registration Form          -           RestartIENE's Pictures
 

Dear Participant,

We are looking forward to your coming to Nyíregyháza! It will be a unique meeting with specialists coming from at least seventeen countries and we do hope the IENE tree will have new leaves this spring! 

To help you having a pleasant time and us organising everything smoothly some further communication is needed. We would like to get precise information on your arrival and departure. The first would help us organising help for you wherever it is needed, the second we need to know to plan the fieldtrip the best possible way (to take people leaving Saturday evening to a railway station in time to catch their flights and still make the best possible programme for those, who are staying for the afternoon as well). Please, if you has not sent these data, please, write us where, e.g. Ferihegy Airport terminal 1. (terminals are crucial) and when you arrive and when your departure will be. Do not forget, if we do not get them, or only too late, we shall not be able to send charming ladies and handsome gentlemen to your service. 

Also, please note, that Ilona checked taxi prices for different companies and recommend Főtaxi at Nyíregyháza (444444). They are aware of IENE already. 

In case you are stuck somewhere halfway and need help her telephone number is 06-20-4128939 (from Hungary).
 

Some more practical information:

Weather

It is still not the nicest over here, 10-15 °C during the day, around 5 °C during the night but the forecast is promising even with some low twenties for the second half of next week. We shall be back with more information later, alternatively, you can also check weather homepages www.met.hu.

Clothing

No matter what the weather is like, those who are coming to Tokaj Thursday evening, please, note that the temperature in the cellar is always 13 °C so take whatever clothes are the best for you under those conditions before the wine warms you up. 

During the field trip strong shoes or boots might be a good idea to wear and you can also have a chance to get into aquatic habitats if you really want to, so wellingtons might be taken as well. 

Money exchange

In Hungary forint (HUF) is the official currency. The meeting place, as you know is in the heart of a 128,000 city, so banks will be near to you all week. However, there are not great differences between the exchange rates. Naturally, you can also make your exchange at the airports. 

See you in five days,
Miklós Puky

Dear All,

Enclosed, please, find the city map! In it you can see the hotels, the venue of
the conference and the railway station.
I suggest furthermore that you use the "Google Earth" program. On it you can see Nyíregyháza.

The conference venue (Szabadság tér 2.- in the heart of town) is opposite the
Roman Catholic Church. It is in the Kossuth Square, Hotel Korona, next to the
Town Hall.

Enclosed, please, find the bus timetable, too.
Bus tickets you can buy at the kiosk in front of the railway station, or in the bus. The price is about 1 EUR.

You can also take a taxi.

Railway station - Szinbád Hotel about 7-8 EUR
Railway station - Svájci-Lak about 7-8 EUR
Railway station - Ózon Panzió about 5-6 EUR
Railway station - Sandra Hotel about 5-6 EUR
Railway station - Lugas Hotel about 4-5 EUR
Railway station - Conference venue about 4-5 EUR
Lugas Hotel - Conference venue about 4-5 EUR
Sandra Hotel - Conference venue about 3-4 EUR
Ózon Panzió - Conference venue about 3-4 EUR
Szinbád Hotel Conference venue about 3-4 EUR
Svájci-Lak - Conference venue about 3-4 EUR
Prices in euros are just estimates because you can only pay in HUF. 

Please, direct your letters to Dr. Ilona V.-Lukács (iene@citromail.hu).