Keith G. Tidball Lab – SPEAR4 – Science & Policy of Ecological Approaches to Readiness, Response, Recovery, & Resilience

Within Cornell University‘s Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, SPEAR⁴ is Keith Tidball‘s lab, and serves as a platform for conducting integrated research, extension, and outreach activities in the areas of ecological dimensions of security, understood from across the national security to human security spectrum, and through the lenses of social-ecological system resilience and conservation social sciences.

SPEAR⁴is focused on natural resources management questions at the leading edge – “at the tip of the spear” – in places and time periods characterized by crisis, trauma, violence, conflict, disaster or war. This work includes human-wildlife conflict, hazard and disaster vulnerability assessment, resilience analysis, risk management and adaptation strategies within social-ecological systems, as well as individual and cultural systems analysis and program management within these contexts, to include veterans and military families. Extension and outreach around these and related topics is a priority for SPEAR⁴.

People

Keith G. Tidball, Phd – Lab Director, DNRE Senior Extension Associate & Assistant Director of CCE

CV here

Francine

Jessie

Trisha

Jenna

Will

Projects & Programs

Hunting for Sustainability

The Woods & Water Prescription is a program that encompasses a suite of related initiatives, all dealing with the therapeutic attributes of time spent outdoors, especially for those who have experienced trauma such as combat-wounded veterans.

Pools of Persistence is a multidisciplinary project in collaboration with Trout Power , Trout Unlimited and Great Camp Sagamore to explore and document the power of citizen science to not only reinforce the resilience of Adirondack brook trout, but to reify the human experience as a part of, not separate from or in conflict with, the rest of Nature.

Greening in the Red Zone is an initiative that asserts that creation and access to green spaces confers resilience and recovery in systems disrupted by violent conflict or disaster. Multiple publications provide evidence for this assertion through cases and examples.

The All-Hazards Preparedness & Response Program is a Cornell Cooperative Extension Program housing disaster related initiatives and resources such as NY EDEN, AG Sentinel, and the CCE DART (Disaster All-hazards Response Team).

We collaborate with DoD and the US Department of Agriculture to provide free and open-access learning opportunities within a full spectrum of family service subject areas. The SPEAR4 Team focuses on Community Capacity Building and Military Family Transitions. We contribute to OneOp’s free and open-access multidisciplinary professional development resources for providers serving military families.

The Wild Harvest Table is at once a culinary resource for wild fish and game cooking and a an opportunity to study and influence citizen’s decision-making about procuring, preparing, and consuming wild fish and game. Research objectives include: 1) determining the importance of wild fish and game consumption to food security in local NYS communities; 2) evaluating why people are motivated to eat, or not eat, wild fish and game; 3) examining the importance or “legibility” of nutritional analysis for wild fish and game, and the way labeling influences consumer choices; and, 4) determining how people learn about processing and preparing wild fish and game, and barriers to finding and adopting this information. Nutrition facts are included, though some species do not have nutrition information available. Part of our research is investigating this gap in nutrition information for wild game and fish species.