DNR undergraduate, Laura Mortelliti, won the Roosevelt Wild Life Station at SUNY-ESF Best Student Poster Award for her poster on her research on terns at the 69th Annual Northeast Fish & Wildlife Conference in Saratoga Springs, NY. This annual event attracts over 500 natural resources professionals in the fields of wildlife biology, fisheries and fisheries management, information and education and law enforcement. The event provides opportunities for education, discussion, and exchanging of ideas. Highlights include: over 50 workshop sessions, keynote speakers, poster displays, and social networking events.
Laura is one Paul Curtis‘s advisees and treasurer of the The Wildlife Society student chapter. She is completing a senior honors thesis with Dr. Curtis using the common tern data from her internship at the Cornell Biological Field Station. Laura has worked on waterbirds at Oneida Lake with Dr. Curtis and Elizabeth Craig for the past two summers.
Tags: Elizabeth Craig, Paul Curtis
DNR undergraduate, Gaby Roman,was nominated by Dr. Linda Rayor for her contributions as a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) Teacher from the NSF-Noyce Scholarship Program. Gaby Roman is one of Paul Curtis‘s advisees who is very interested in environmental education. She borrowed deer hides, skulls, and antlers for youth programs concerning deer biology and management at local schools.
Tags: Paul Curtis
DNR’s Paul Curtis, Gary Goff, and Jay Boulanger, recently published an article in Cornell’s Small Farm Quarterly Spring 2013 issue. The article discusses the difficulty in forest regeneration with the overabundance of white-tailed deer. They explain that the deer will selectively browse and remove tree seedlings up to 6 feet tall, making it hard for young trees to successfully regenerate. They explain the key components for successful forest regeneration, challenges to regeneration, and potential solutions.
Click here to read the full article.
Tags: Gary Goff, Jay Boulanger, Paul Curtis
The Cornell Adirondack Fishery Research Program was recognized with a Stewardship Award by the Adirondack Landowners Association (ALA) for 2012. The Stewardship Award recognizes organizations and individuals for their stewardship contributions to the Adirondacks. DNR’s Cliff Kraft is a researcher at field headquarters at the Little Moose Lodge. The presentation to the Cornell Adirondack Fishery Research Program truly highlights the unique partnership that private landowners in the Adirondacks have with the scientific and educational community. The 62 year partnership between the Adirondack League Club and Cornell demonstrates what can be accomplished through long term collaborative research. The improvement of aquatic ecosystems in the Adirondack Park and the enhancement of a world renowned cold water fishery are part of the lasting legacy of this unique partnership.
Click here to read more.
Tags: Cliff Kraft
Mark Whitmore announced that the invasive species, emerald ash borer (EAB), has been found in the Capital Region in the Albany area. EAB attacks ash trees and eventually kills the trees, causing them to fall and cause damage. Whitemore warns that people with ash trees on their property must make sure they keep a watch out for signs of EAB. He and other officials recommend that people treat their ash trees with pesticides to help prevent EAB from spreading.
Tags: Mark Whitmore
DNR Professor, Joseph Yavitt, has been named the 2013 recipient of the National Association of Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Teaching Award of Merit. This award recognizes excellence in the teaching of an agricultural discipline. Yavitt will be presented with this award at the Dean’s Awards Reception on April 22.
Tags: Joseph Yavitt
Department of Natural Resources Senior Extension Associate, Keith Tidball, recently presented as the keynote talk at the Horticultural Society of New York‘s annual Healing Nature Forum: Planting the Seeds of Health and Sustainability (formerly The Horticultural Therapy Forum). His presentation was entitled Nature and Green Spaces: Sources, Sites, and Systems of Resilience and Other Re-words. This forum focused on information that integrates programming, policy-making, and fundraising with non-profits, social services, healthcare industry, and community groups. Therapeutic horticulture can improve the body, mind and spirit through passive or active involvement.
Tags: Keith Tidball
Two students involved in Natural Resources have been awarded the Goldwater Scholarship, along with two additional Cornell students. Carter Loftus, ’14 majors in Biology (with a concentration in Neurobiology and Behavior) and in Natural Resources (with a concentration in Applied Ecology). He is involved in research on honeybee behavior with Tom Seeley, has done field research on wild dolphin acoustic communication, and volunteers at Cornell’s Center for Animal Resources and Education socializing dogs used in research. Devin McMahon, ’14, is a Biology major who was a research and extension intern in the Department of Natural Resources under Kristi Sullivan and Steve Morreale, collecting data related to forest management and natural gas pipelines as well as studying salamander populations as indicators of forest floor health.
The Goldwater Scholarship is a national award that supports college sophomores and juniors who intend careers in the natural sciences, mathematics, or engineering. Recipients are selected based on academic merit and research experience. The sponsoring foundation is a federally endowed agency established in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater. The scholarship provides $7500 toward tuition, fees, books, room, and board.
You may view the entire list of scholars at http://www.act.org/goldwater/sch-2013.html. This year was more competitive than ever with only 271 scholarships awarded (as opposed to the usual 300+); there were 1,107 applicants from across the country.
Tags: Kristi Sullivan, Steve Morreale
DNR Associate Professor Karim-Aly Kassam was nominated for the CALS Diversity Award, and was selected by the Diversity Committee to receive this award. This award recognizes members of the CALS faculty or academic staff who have made significant contributions toward creating and/or fostering a positive environment for people of diverse backgrounds by promote diversity within their teaching, research and/or extension program.
Kassam will be recognized at the Dean’s Awards Reception on April 22, 2013.
Tags: Karim Kassam
Experts say that autumns could be mostly brown instead of the usual greens, oranges, and reds in 50 years from now if people don’t start paying more attention to what’s going on with the shrubs, bushes and saplings in the forest. Deer are a major problem eating most of the good quality saplings, leaving the lower grade and not-so-pretty varieties of trees such as American beech. There are also invasive species such as buckthorn, honeysuckle and multiflora rose, that crowd out the native, “prettier” species.
A survey of foresters by Cornell’s Cooperative Extension in 2010 suggested that 70 percent of the state’s woodlands are not regenerating in a healthy and diverse way. There are ways to deal with invasive species and deer, too, if controversial. However, the real problem is overcoming what the study’s co-author Gary Goff calls “the Big Green Lie.” This “lie” is that people who see lots of greenery along New York highways think that everything must be fine, but in reality, it’s not.
This story was aired on the radio station WRVO in a short piece.
Click here to listen and read more.
Tags: Cooperative Extension, Gary Goff
