Natural Resource Management

Forests could actually turn into a source of CO2, according to a study that paired climate forecasts with an analysis of records on more than two million trees across North America.

The North American Community Environmental Leadership Exchange (NACELE), held October 14-17, 2013, convened Indigenous environmental practitioners from around North America in the Capay Valley, about 90 minutes from Berkeley, California. Thirty indigenous environmental leaders participated: tribal leaders, activists, ethnobotanists, NGO workers, scholars, young leaders, native scientists, cultural practitioners, and restoration ecologists. Attendees then took part in Bioneers 2013, and delivered a panel in its Indigenous Program.

Dr. Tracey Osborne, partnering with Amazon Watch on the Climate Alliance Mapping Project, built a platform that factually and compellingly demonstrates the geographic footprint of Amazonian oil reserves and the human and natural resources its extraction threatens. Specific outcomes of this Switzer Leadership Grant project include:

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About Grove's work and the Baltimore Ecosystem Study:

Fellow J. Morgan Grove writes that within some neighborhoods, scientists are documenting a connection between trees and a specific social improvement: a reduction in crime. These studies combine modern mapping technology with spatial and economic statistics to compare crime levels between similar urban neighborhoods in the same city.

Falmouth is at the forefront of efforts to reverse the spread of invasive plants in Maine. In the past five years the town has beaten back infestations on public land, and it is now in the second year of a program to kill roadside invasives by spraying them with a 2 percent glyphosate solution. Glyphosate is a common herbicide that is sold under the brand name Roundup. ...

Fellow Marissa McMahan is working with Maine locals and Venetian fishermen to turn the invasive green crab into a gourmet dish known in Italy as moleche.

In a study published this month in the journal Ecological Applications, Gary Lovett and 15 colleagues estimated that 63 percent of U.S. forest land, or about 825 million acres, is at risk of increased damage from established pests, and new pests continue to arrive with cargo shipments from overseas. ... "I think there would be resistance from overseas partners that are shipping a lot of material using these wood pallets," said Frank Lowenstein, deputy director of the New England Forestry Foundation, a conservation group based in Littleton, Massachusetts.