The Ithaca Journal wrote an article on David Weinstein‘s home, which has been converted to using solar and geothermal energy. His experience converting to renewable energy is discussed in this two-page article. The home was part of the Solar Tour Dryden open house on May 20.
The Atkinson Center just announced the 2013 Academic Venture Fund selections. Twenty researchers from the college were awarded funding in this year’s competition. 9 of 33 proposals were accepted for a total of approximately $860,000 in funding.
Steve Wolf‘s winning proposal is Monarchs: Conservation and Controversy.
Help celebrate the 2013 Senior Class graduating with Distinction in Research
Friday, May 24 12:30 pm-3:00 pm
102 Mann Library
Posters and Oral Presentations
Students and Thesis Titles
1) Emily Bialowas (NTRES): The impact of Didymosphenia geminata (Didymo) on macroinvertebrate communities in Esopus Creek, New York
2) Kelsey Erickson (NTRES): Secondary effects of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (Adelges tsugae) infestation on Hemlock stands and implications for their management in Ithaca, NY
3) Cassandra F.L. Garcia (NTRES): Quantifying the effects of Marcellus Shale gas development on forest salamanders
4) Tianjun Hou (SNES): The effects of soil calcium restoration on the growth rate and annual mortality of sugar maples in Hubbard Brook Experiment Forest (HBEF)
5) Mou Jian Lee (NTRES): Possibilities for the emergence of Civic Ecology practices in response to social-ecological disturbance: The Case of nuisance Chironomids in Singapore
6) Margaret M. Luebs (NTRES): A comparison of predation on Soft-Shell Clams (Mya arenaria) and Stout Razor Clams (Tagelus plebeius)
7) Sarah A. Maclean (NTRES): The sound of danger: Threat sensitivity to predator vocalizations, alarm calls, and novelty in gulls
8) Erica Merritt (NTRES): Management of Chicago’s Lincoln Park ash trees in the face of Emerald Ash Borer: A spatial plan using ArcGIS 10.1
9) Emma Schnur (NTRES): Deploying the Conservation Awareness Index in New York: Do family forest landowners know their conservation options?
10) Jennifer Sun (SNES): Investigating the environmental source and function of thiaminase I
11) Olivia Walton (NTRES):
On May 10th, NYFOA President, Jim Minor, and DNR’s Peter Smallidge, also a NYFOA board member, were interviewed on Susan Arbetter’s Capitol Report, a NPR program out of Albany, regarding NYFOA’s Restore New York Woodlands (RNYW) initiative. To listen here’s a link to the program. Smallidge and Minor are on in the last 15 minutes of the hour-long program so move the slider over 3/4 of the way.
Jay Boulanger and Bernd Blossey were recently prominently featured in a new PBS Nature documentary, The Private Life of Deer, to be premiered on Wednesday, May 8 at 8pm EST.
Here is a link to a video preview at the PBS website: http://video.pbs.org/video/2365005652/. DVDs are available at PBS or Amazon.com.
After two years of renovations, DNR’s home of Fernow Hall is now open! The renovated building now has a rain garden to control stormwater runoff, a garden terrace for use by the faculty and staff, and solar panels. Renovated Fernow has 4 floors and two classrooms, one of which was built as a modern extension to the historic building with floor to ceiling glass windows.
Click here to read the article in the Daily Sun about Fernow’s transformation: http://www.sustainablecampus.cornell.edu/blogs/news/posts/natural-resources-building-opens-to-praise-excitement-after-renovations
DNR PhD student Laura Martin has been invited to join the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network’s terrestrial species monitoring working group. The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) was launched in 2002 in response to the widely identified need for adequate information to support environmental decision making. GEO is a voluntary partnership of 73 national governments and 46 participating organizations. It provides a framework within which these partners can coordinate their strategies and investments for Earth observation. This summer Laura will travel to Lisbon, Portugal, to work with GEO BON participants.
DNR grad student, Darrick Evensen, recently won a Jewish sermon contest for his interpretation of the Torah, other Jewish literature, and rabbinic responses as they relate to individual and societal obligations associated with shale gas development.
The contest came with a $1800 cash award. Evensen plans to donate a few hundred dollars of the winnings to “Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light”, an interfaith organization (Jewish, Christian, Muslin, and several other religions) that works to increase stewardship of God’s earth by mitigating the consequences of climate change. This group has put forth a nicely nuanced position statement on “Marcellus Shale Drilling.”).
DNR graduate student Nirav Patel was nominated and selected to be the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Core Biology Program (BIOG 1440) for 2012-13. The award values the important contribution made towards the core biology instructional program and recognizes the distinguished performance in this vital role.
Nirav Patel is a graduate assistant at the Human Dimension Research Unit (HDRU) working with Dr. Richard Stedman on his doctoral work. His research is focused on the role of community perception, specifically the attitudes of Educators and Students towards Renewable Energy Systems (RES) and its impact on assessing Renewable Energy Literacy (REL). He has been actively involved in teaching various biology courses at Cornell University. He has also served as a visiting lecturer for PSP introductory biology courses and served as an instructor for the introductory biology cluster-writing program. He has also worked as a teaching fellow at the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) for new graduate students, a position that involved instruction in methods of teaching, development of course materials, and evaluation of new graduate instructors.
Nirav Patel will be recognized at a lunch reception on May 08, 2013.
Several articles by The Human Dimensions Research Unit were included in the recently published textbook Essential Readings in Wildlife Management and Conservation. The book is edited by Paul Krausman and Bruce Leopold, and includes forty-two essential papers on wildlife management and conservation, each with a commentary and associated publications. Daniel Decker and Barbara Knuth, along with former NTRES faculty Charles Krueger, Richard Baer, Jr., and Milo E. Richmond, have an article entitled “From Clients to Stakeholders: A Philosophical Shift for Fish and Wildlife Management” in the philosophical section of the book. Dr. Decker also has two other articles in the human dimensions section: “Human Dimensions of living with wildlife– a management challenge for the 21st century” written with Lisa Chase, and “Public Attitudes Toward a Suburban Deer Herd” written with Thomas Gavin.
