Natural Resource Management

Of interest to everyone, but especially to those who attended the West Coast spring retreat: FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A California agency on Thursday unanimously adopted a broad, long-range plan to manage the ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. After several hours of public comments and protests by opponents, the Delta Stewardship Council voted 7-0 to approve the final version of the Delta Plan, a blueprint for restoring the delta's ecosystem and improving water supply reliability.

“Primum non nocere”, or “first, do no harm”, is one of the central ethical principles taught to medical students, and one that scientists and policy makers alike should embrace. In this context, to do no harm, we argue that a systems-wide, holistic approach to N and P control is essential. When develop- ing nutrient criteria for a given river or estuary, it is imperative for policy makers to remember that actions in one watershed will affect a neighboring or downstream ecosystem.

Amy Clipp gave a webinar for us that offered ideas for bridging the gap between science and policy, with a particular focus on helping scientists apply their work in complex, political environments. Her stories are based on lessons learned advising the State of Louisiana on its 2012 Coastal Master Plan.

The beetle, which is native to Asia, first infested the region in 2003 via a tree nursery shipment from Michigan, leading to widespread infestation reports in Charles, Howard, Anne Arundel, Washington and Garrett counties. Past efforts to eradicate the insect in Prince George’s County have led to the destruction of 27 square miles of trees, according to Gazette records.

The World Resources Institute (WRI), a global development and environmental think tank, will receive a grant of $35,000 USD to research how forest certification standards can help protect American lakes and rivers, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) announced today.

Today the image of that Kona field system lives vividly in the imagination of Noa Kekuewa Lincoln. On a late afternoon at the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in South Kona, Lincoln is striding among the forty-four different cultivars of ko that he helped replant the year before. The planting was done in the traditional Kona drylands style, with kuaiwi on one side of the ko and rows of kalo on the other. Lincoln pauses beside a particularly vibrant clump of cane that has green-andwhite- striped leaves and stalks with stripes of pink, white and pale green.

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