Nutrient Cycling, Storm water runoff, and Communicating Science to the Public, a conversation with Dr. Claudia Benitez-Nelson

Dr. Claudia Benitez-Nelson, professor in the Department of Earth Ocean and the Environment, University of South Carolina, presented Nutrient Cycling, Storm water runoff, and Communicating Science to the Public on Tuesday, March 1, 2022 via Zoom as part of SUNY ESF’s Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Spring Seminar Series. This seminar was sponsored by ESF Women’s Caucus.

Dr. Claudia Benitez Nelson. Click for video.

Dr. Benitez-Nelson research focuses on the biogeochemical cycling of phosphorus and carbon, largely in marine environments, and how these elements are influenced by natural and anthropogenic processes. During the seminar she discussed her most recent research on inland and coastal nutrient cycling in relation to planning for stormwater surges.

Benitez-Nelson's team sought to establish the rate of sediment accumulation in stormwater ponds, determine the role these ponds play in the regional cycling of carbon and nutrients, and to identify the sources of organic matter to pond sediments in different growing urban areas in the Waccamaw watershed. “This was for us a real opportunity to truly connect more closely with the communities that we were working in” said Benitez-Nelson when explaining how their findings would benefit the homeowners close to the ponds. Her findings suggest that Particulate Organic Matter (POM) is a better proxy for liability than Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) and may control Biological Organic Matter (BOD) loads. Her lab continues research on different topics related to aquatic organic matter.

Benitez-Nelson is often asked how she “starts to have these conversations about not just pollution, urbanization, sustainability, but talking about climate and how climate change is influencing where people are living their lives.” She shared that she is part of Science Moms, a non-partisan group of climate scientists, who also happen to be mothers, that “really talk about climate, the need collective action” as well as mitigation efforts, particularly in conversation with other mothers, for the benefit of all their children. 

Dr. Benitez-Nelson received B.S. in chemistry and oceanography from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in oceanography from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute/Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program. She has an extensive publication record which includes lead authored pieces in both Science and Nature. Dr. Benitez-Nelson also serves as Associate Dean, for Instruction, Community Engagement and Research.

For more information about the WiSE Professions Series, please visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus.  For upcoming lectures, please visit ESF’s College Calendar at http://www.esf.edu/calendar.

As part of the course requirements for FOR797 Perspectives on Career and Gender, students share  responsibility of reporting on speakers in the campus-wide Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series.  The preceding was prepared by Natasha M. Torres Ríos, MSc student, Sustainable Resources Management Department.

Improving access through transit infrastructure: Conversation with Veronica O. Davis PE

As Director of Transportation and Drainage Operations for the City of Houston, Veronica O. Davis is responsible for maintaining and improving infrastructure across 671 square miles. She chatted with ESF on Earth Day about challenges in designing roadways for equitable transit through her lens as a civil engineer passionate about transportation and community development.

Veronica O. Davis.  Click for video

Houston is the 4th largest city. Its physically large, but is not contiguous because of its growth through annexation.  Houston's road system and bike lane are used to channel rainwater to prevent property drainage.  Both are swept to prevent debris blocking drains.  

Houston is seeking not just infrastructure, but "really good infrastructure" through better public transit and measures "to live with water.  Houston's highest point is only 100' above sea level.  So, biking is easy, but drainage is difficult."  The city has a big goal of 25 miles/yr of "High Comfort Bike Lanes" plus 50 miles of sidewalk.  These lanes are also called "protective bike lanes", which are bide, protected from traffic by a buffer, and have dedicated travel lanes.  Her office benefits from an "enterprise fund" from a drainage fee on water bills, sales tax on Metro, rather than on the general budget.  She also notes that they benefit from dedicated crews, working to expand their capacity.  Botanists are consulted to choose plants suitable for the ebbs and flows along drainage paths.

Half of roadways are concreate, rather than asphalt, which is cooler.  The city also uses cool pavements, which are gray and permeable, which helps with both heat retention and drainage. Other ways to make biking safer include reducing instances of speeding through better designed roads.   Coupling bike lanes with better public transit also improves bikability, as it helps address "what happens if I need to go far?"

For students nearing graduation, Davis notes that there are lots of opportunities in Houston. 

Ms Davis has 20 years of experience in engineering and transportation planning.  She co-founded Nspiregreen in Washington DC, which manages Community, Multimodal Transportation, and Environmental planning and consulting.  While at Nspiregreen, she led the Vision Zero Action Plans for Washington, DC and the City of Alexandria.  She also co-founded Black Women Bike, an organization and movement that builds community and interest in biking among black women.  She was named a Champion of Change  by the White House (2012) for these accomplishments and advocacy. Davis  earned a Bachelor of Science from University of Maryland College Park and a Master of Engineering and a Master of Regional and Urban Planning, Land Use and Environmental Planning from Cornell University.

This presentation was part of ESF's Earth Week Celebration, and an installment in the College's annual WiSE Professions Speaker Series.

Morningstar discusses healing socio-ecological wounds through plants and land justice

As an herbalist, academic, activist, and indigenous ethnobotanist, Stephanie Morningstar has learned to see the world through multiple lenses. She visited SUNY-ESF on March 4th, 2020 to discuss how these different worldviews have helped her in her work addressing socio-ecological problems of today. The talk was sponsored by the ESF Women’s Caucus and the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

The lecture, titled “Co-creating Indigenous Futures: Finding My Place as a Haudenosaunee Woman in Academia, Land Sovereignty and Healing Justice”, began with the Haudenosaunee thanksgiving address, an expression of gratitude for all that supports life – from the sun to the plants to the animals to the soils. Morningstar encouraged the audience to envision where we find peace in nature, and center ourselves on that image. She then guided us into recognizing the ways that our relationships with land have been damaged over the years, and how we can learn to heal those broken relationships. Morningstar’s life work has focused on this mission, and she approaches it from both a social and a biological perspective. In her many different roles, she says she is always grounded in service to community.

As an herbalist at Sky World Apothecary + Farm, Morningstar develops relationships with plants and uses their gifts to help people heal. As an academic, Morningstar works with Global Water Futures, bridging western and traditional ecological knowledge in water research projects. And as an activist, Morningstar works with the North East Farmer’s of Color Land Trust to help return land to people who have been denied it for generations - specifically black, indigenous, and people of color (BI-POC). She noted that in the United States, BI-POC farmers and stewards own less than 1% of farm land. Morningtar encouraged us to recognize how historical injustices are continued today, and that we must actively work to correct them.

Throughout her talk, Morningstar helped the audience diagnose the ecogrief we may be feeling about the state of the world today. As environmentally-minded citizens, many of us feel the heavy weight of climate change upon us and the loss of beloved ecosystems. In addition to ecogrief, she also described the psychological toll of ethnostress - losing one’s sense of place in the world. These harms weigh especially heavy on indigenous people who have been cut off from their land and culture due to colonization, boarding schools, and land theft. Morningstar’s work to heal these wounds has led her to working for both ecological restoration as well as restorative social justice. 

Morningstar’s lecture ended by asking us to envision once again our wild place of peace, centering us on a vision of a healthy future. Despite the many environmental and social wounds we carry today, she showed us that there are also many paths for healing. To learn more about her work, you can visit her personal website and blog (www.skyworldapothecary.com), her research at Global Water Futures (https://gwf.usask.ca/projects-facilities/indigenous-projects.php), and the work of the North East Farmers of Color Land Trust (https://nefoclandtrust.org/)

              For more information about the ESF Women’s Caucus, and upcoming speakers, please visit: https:/www.esf.edu/womenscaucus.

As part of the requirements for FOR797 Perspectives on Career and Gender, students share responsibility for reporting on presentations in the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series. The preceding was prepared by By Lauren Tarr (Environmental Science, PhD).

The Ocean is Losing its Breath: A Marine Scientist’s Call for Action

For years, ESF has celebrated Earth Week, a long-standing tradition where instead of only celebrating Earth day on April 22^nd, the school plans an entire week of events in order to celebrate what defines our campus community: a shared love of the environment.

Now a tradition for staff, faculty, and students alike, this year’s Earth Week had a variety of community clean-ups, sustainability-themed events, and guest speakers.  Amongst these speakers was Dr. Denise Breitburg, a Senior Scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland. As a part of the semester long Adaptive Peaks seminar series, Dr. Brietburg’s lecture, “The Ocean is Losing its Breath,” presented an overview of ocean deoxygenation, its effects, and its solutions.

As the leader of the Global Ocean Oxygen Network, Dr. Breitburg has now invested years into researching various anthropogenic impacts on the marine environment. In the beginning of her talk, Breitburg was very quick to clarify, “I’m also talking about coastal waters like estuaries, and also semi-enclosed seas like the Baltic sea, and not just the open ocean.”

Following her introduction, Dr. Breitburg immediately jumped into her presentation. First, she acknowledged that low oxygen levels do occur naturally in the ocean, however, the current concern amongst marine scientists is that oxygen is now declining beyond areas where these naturally low levels have been traditionally observed.

According to her presentation, ocean oxygen levels globally have dropped 2%. While to many, a 2% decline in oxygen does not sound substantial, declining oxygen levels affect organism of all sizes. Specifically, a lack of oxygen affects an organism’s ability to respirate, photosynthesize, and reproduce. While marine deoxygenation has many causes, Dr. Breitburg stated that the primary sources of this global phenomenon are agriculture, human waste, and the burning of fossil fuels.

When discussing any environmental problem many people are often left wondering what they can do to make a difference, especially communities that are inland and like Syracuse, NY, thousands of miles from the nearest ocean. But, Dr. Brietburg pointed out that “it is not all gloom and doom” and that there are actions that we can take.

Dr. Brietburg presented many different pathways for one to make a difference. She pointed out that while we have developed an incredible understanding of the impact of ocean deoxygenation on the marine environment, there is currently no thorough research on the impact of ocean deoxygenation on us. She then explained that, by extending research on this issue to its impact on human health, we can raise awareness of the severity of this ocean deoxygenation, and gain the attention of politicians and other global forces who have the power to influence this problem. Aside from further research, she recommended changes in various agricultural and aquaculture systems. Furthermore, she said with a serious tone, “carbon capture and sequestration need to be added to the equation.”

During her conclusion, Dr Breitburg stated, “The big challenge is to increase engagement, both with civil society, and policy makers. And to do that, we need to increase and improve our communication on these issues.”

While ESF offers a few courses, and a minor in marine science, it is not often that a marine scientist visits campus. While ocean deoxygenation is like all environmental issues- complicated, Dr. Breitburg instilled hope within her audience, and showed that with further research, communication, and engagement with policy-makers, solutions to this issue are not as far-fetched as they might seem.

Dr. Breitburg directs SERC’s Marine & Estaurine Ecology Lab and thinks up new ways to investigate the impacts of dead zones and acidification on Chesapeake Bay’s fish and invertebrates.  Breitburg has also served as  Participating Faculty, Graduate Program in Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences, University of Maryland System.  She was previously Curator, Marine/Estuarine Ecology, Ichthyology, at The Academy of Natural Sciences, Estuarine Research Center and Adjunct Professor, and Graduate Faculty member within other departments at the University of Maryland.   She earned a BS and MA in Biology from Arizona State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara,  where she looked at Marine and estuarine ecology; relationship between behavior and community ecology; and the behavior and ecology of fishes.

This chapter in the Adaptive Peaks Speaker Series is cross-listed with Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions and is sponsored by Department of Environmental and Forest Biology and ESF Women's Caucus.  As part of the requirements for FOR496/497 Perspectives on Career and Gender, students share responsibility for reporting on presentations in the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series. The preceding was prepared by Lydia Torres, BS 2019, Environmental Studies, with a concentration in Environment, Communication, and Society and a Minor in Environmental Writing & Rhetoric. 

Afrofuturism and the Environment

On April 12^th, Robyn Reed, Head of Access Services, Schaffer Library, Union College,  lead the community in a conversation about Afrofuturism and the Environment.   Reed shared a short film titled Pumzi. This award-winning film is a Kenyan science-fiction story written and directed by Wanuri Kahiu. The film is set to take place in the future, 30 years after World War III – the water war. Life on earth is now largely nonexistent. The story line follows Asha, who curates a museum in an East African territory with exhibits including long gone plant and animal life. Asha receives a package that suggests that the planet outside her strictly enclosed community might be viable.

Struck by the possibility, Asha leaves her community to plant a seed. Trading her own security for the survival of the seed, she travels across the landscape to search for viable land. The film ends in a scene of sacrifice and hope.

Following the film, Reed facilitated a discussion, prompting viewers for their impressions; some saw themes of hope, while others saw hopelessness. The crowd praised the poignancy of the film, which projected a future in which resource scarcity has driven communities to war and insecurity. This theme is perhaps especially relevant for much of the African content, which may disproportionately feel the effects of climate change and resource depletion. 

Afrofuturism is a genre of speculative fiction that, unlike many science fiction stories, projects a future where black culture is significant and central. Afrofuturism addresses the fact that mainstream fictional futurism has failed to include black culture and black bodies from narratives. Further, as a sociopolitical thought movement, Afrofuturism expresses that solutions to social and environmental crises cannot and will not come exclusively from white voices, asserting a space for black culture in ideas for future innovation. While some see Afrofuturism as hugely speculative, like all good science fiction, it is potentially deeply prescriptive as is drives viewers to consider the possible.

Throughout her presentation Robyn Reed provided suggestions of further movies, books, anthologies, and artists in Afrofuturist genre. These include but are not limited to the anthologies Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturim and Beyond and Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora; works from authors such as Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, Nnedi Okorafor, and Samuel Delaney; art work such as Farbice Monteiro’s The Profecy series; and perhaps most notably the Black Panther movie, which has been hugely successful in theaters. To add a personal reference, much of Janelle Monet’s work has brought Afrofuturism to the popular modern music world.

This event served as a fantastic introduction the Afrofuturism. Perhaps most notably, Robyn Reed’s presentation on Afrofuturism serves to remind the ESF community to actively include the perspectives of minority individuals in conversations about environmental stewardship and the future direction of our college.

Reed's research interests include studying the intersection of race and science fiction in film and television, Afrofuturism, and information literacy. As a librarian, Reed expressively aims to combat “fake news” by guiding library patrons to more reliable sources for their work.

This event was cosponsored by the Friends of Moon Library and ESF Women's Caucus.  For more information about the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions speaker series, visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/speakers.htm 

As part of the requirements of FOR797, Perspectives on Career and Gender, students share responsibility for reporting on the WiSE Professions speaker series.  The preceding was written by Claudia N Victoroff, Megan Gallagher and Maisie Baronian.

Record breaking enrollment at Girls' Summit

Over 100 girls were inspired by women at ESF and in the greater Syracuse Community!  Girls learned about Paper Science, Manufacturing Engineering, Medicine, Physical Therapy, Environmental Engineering, Meteorology and other fields. Thank you so much to presenters:
Focused Physical Exam: Amylisa Christophe, Omoefe Ebhohimen, Alexis Sykes, Upstate Medical University
Evaluation & Treatment of Common Sports Injuries: Mary Mauro-Bertolo, Physical Therapist
How did it Survive? Kim Oswald, Emma Buckardt, Andrew Meashaw, Sierra Coathrup, Jessie Smith, ESF Student Environmental Education Coalition (SEEC)
How clouds Form/The Use of Clouds to predict weather: Katie St. Denis, Solvay High
Jill of All  Trades: Mel Menon, Rose DelVecchio-Darco Manufacturing; Kate Anechiarico- Haun Welding; Patty Golicki and Rebecca Plumpton, -Northeast Region Council of  Carpenters, and Salma Muse, Chloe Connors, Ailiyah Morris, and Desaree Seals. Syracuse P-TECH
Paper and Bioproducts: Dr. Biljana Bujanovic and Service Track students, ESF Department of Paper and BioProcess Engineering
Mercury in Food Webs: Dr. Roxanne Razavi, ESF Department of Environmental and Forest Biology
Designing A Green City with Stormwater Management: Isabelle Horvath, Erin Cuddihy, Elena Araya, Meghan Medwid, ESF's ERE Club
College Readiness Panel: Mel Menon, facilitator;  Panelists: Robertha Barnes (Upstate), Diana Wilson (ESF), Blessy Bethel (LeMoyne), Desaree Seals (Syracuse P-TECH/OCC), Nyell Lopez (Syracuse Univ)
Tower Challenge: Bristol-Myers Squibb

Antibiotic Resistance as an Environmental Contaminant

As part of the requirements of FOR /496797, Perspectives on Career and Gender, student share responsibility for reporting on the WiSE Professions Speaker Series.  The following was prepared by Stacy Furgal, a MS student in EFB.

              Dr. Amy Pruden, of Virginia Tech, presented her research relating to antibiotic resistance and opportunistic pathogens as environmental contaminants on Tuesday, April 26.  This lecture was part of SUNY ESF’s Women in Science and Environmental Professions Spring Seminar Series.

              The lecture focused on the problem of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) and opportunistic pathogens (OPs) found in our water (both municipal and well), and the potential problems this could cause from a public health perspective. The water infrastructure in our country is antiquated and aging, and poorly suited to address these new contaminant issues. Current regulatory monitoring requirements do not apply to ARGs and OPs, but rather were designed with ingestion exposure type pathogens, like Cholera, in mind. Now the primary sources of water associated outbreaks are like Legionnaires’ Disease, which is acquired via breathing in particles that contain the bacteria, not ingesting infected water.

With that in mind, her multidisciplinary team is working to blend engineering and biology to find solutions to this complex issue. Dr. Pruden explained, using some of her and her colleagues’ work in Flint, MI, an examples. As most people know, a crisis occurred in Flint when the source for city drinking water was switched from Lake Michigan to the Flint River. The water from the Flint River had a higher salinity content, which corroded the pipes and caused lead to leach out into the water. Less well known is that this also released iron that acted as fuel for Legionella bacteria to grow. Her team investigated the increased number of reported cases of Legionnaires’ Disease and was able to link it to the corroded pipes through genetic markers.

Her team was also involved in a project that compared the amount of ARGs and OPs in regular potable water versus water that had been treated and reused, or  “recycled.” The study found that recycled water had more microbial activity, and more abundance and diversity of ARGs. It was also clear that the water tested at the water treatment facility had a different “resistome” (collection of ARGs) than water coming out of a tap in a home receiving water from that facility.

Both of Dr. Pruden’s studies highlighted that there should be a shared responsibility between utilities (water treatment facilities) and homeowners. Water quality at the point of use, i.e. in homes, is of the greatest concern to public health. Using a holistic approach, we need new frameworks and updated mitigation strategies to handle the new and emerging issue of antibiotic resistant genes and opportunistic pathogens. This is best done by a multidisciplinary team, like Dr. Pruden’s, that brings biologists, engineers, chemists, utility managers, and more, together to tackle the problem.

Dr. Pruden received her B.S. in Biology and Ph.D. in Environmental Science from University of Cincinnati. She is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Associate Dean and Director of Interdisciplinary Graduate Education in the Graduate School at Virginia Tech, as well as a W. Thomas Rice Professor. She serves as the Director of Strategic Planning for the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Sciences Water Sustainability Thrust, is an Associate Editor for the journal Biodegradation, and serves on an advisory panel on Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) in recycled water. Dr. Pruden has published more than 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters on subjects pertaining to bioremediation, pathogens, and antibiotic resistance.

For more information about the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series, please visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/speakers.htm .

Dams as a model for shared decision making and management.

How do we communicate for social-ecological resilience? Communication research to connect science with coastal and freshwater management and policy.

As part of the requirements for FOR797 Perspectives on Career and Gender, students share responsibility for reporting on presentations in ESF's Women in Scientific and Environmental Speaker Series.  The following was prepared by Mariela Cavo, MS student, Forest and Natural Resources and Management, SUNY ESF.

Dr. Bridie McGreavy, Assistant Professor of Environmental Communication in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine, studies communication within sustainability science teams in coastal and freshwater management contexts. She is currently the lead investigator on the New England Sustainability Consortium’s Future of Dams Project. This project, funded by NSF-EPSCoR, links science with decision making about systems of dams.

              On January 26, 2017, Dr. McGreavy launched this semesters Adaptive Peaks and Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions (WiSE Professions) Speaker series with the preliminary results of her research Save Beaches and Shellfish.  Her presentation focused on answering the questions, “How do we communicate for social-ecological resilience?” and, “How do we  link science with decision making related to coastal and freshwater management and policy?”

              Attention was first put on describing the most challenging ecological, economic and social-cultural threats identified by the project: the coast of New England has been warming at a higher rate than other similar areas.   They have noticed significant changes in precipitation, t various kinds of pollution in the area, and a green crab invasion because of the increase in temperature. It was also noted that the decline of resources like clams, as well as the price fluctuation and the market power in the shellfish market, have been making stakeholder’s income prediction quite challenging, leading to economic uncertainty. Regarding the social and cultural aspects, the clam industry was identified as the second most important industry in the area of Maine.  The fisheries industry faces pressing social and cultural issues, including biases, restricted access to new technology, and the decline of local knowledge, cultural traditions, and food sources.  In addition, the physically demanding work puts workers at risk of pain and injury, which can lead to opiate and alcohol addiction. 

              The research in question has found that a well-designed “co-management strategy” could improve the shellfish industry. To date, this industry has been co-managed with shared decision making among the fishery industry, municipalities, state agencies, civic groups and private businesses. Co-management is most effective when well designed with opportunities to implement knowledge gained from research.  Topic areas include water quality, natural resources management and barriers to participation. 

Dr. McGreavy also depicted the methods they use to communicate social ecological resilience: incentivizing the participation of the different stakeholders, using an adaptive and iterative engagement through interviews to share information regarding the progress and to get feedback, and being responsive to information and partnership needs. Regarding the linking of science with decision-making for resilience, the project has a decision support team that has been mainly focused on watershed cluster analysis.  

Learning from failure, partnership redundancy and diversity, getting muddy with stakeholders create a shared, dynamic experience that help mold the deliberate, conceptual framework.   To conclude, the professor recommended conducting yearly needs assessments with the towns, improving and leveraging fishermen’s forums, exploring organizational restructuring to expand shellfish science and monitoring, building municipal partnership and infrastructure and increasing the sharing of the information and collaboration across sectors.  

Dr. McGreavy received her B.A. in Political Science from Bates College, her M.S. in Environmental Studies/Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England, and her Ph.D. in communication with a concentration in sustainability science from the University of Maine. Her research has been published in journals such as Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, Ecology and Society, and the International Journal of Sustainable Development.

This presentation was sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, with the assistance of the ESF Women’s Caucus. For more information about SUNY ESF’s Adaptive Peaks Seminar Series, please visit http://www.esf.edu/efb/calendar.asp.  For the WiSE Professions series, please visit:  http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/speakers.htm.  

               

               

Girls' Summit introduces ESF careers to community teens

CNY Girls Summit STEAM Career Conference for area middle and high schoolers returned to ESF on May 7.

Of the eight workshops offered during the program, half had very close ESF ties. Dr. Biljana Bujanovic’s team helped participants make paper, tested strength of commercial paper, and led facility tours.  Dr. Whitney Lash Marshall facilitated a systems thinking exercise, while Ms. Linda McGuigan guided participants through extracting DNA from strawberries and discussed the Chestnut project.  Alumna Ms. Kritika Thapa, now with EA Engineering, challenged groups through a water filtration exercise.  In addition, first year student Jet’aime “Jet” Lewis joined a College Preparation Panel with moderator Mel Menon,  of On Point for College, and students from Upstate Medical University, SU, OCC, and LeMoyne College.

Post-workshop surveys of the 90+ participants indicated that participants were indeed introduced to new careers and left with a greater interest in science and math than when they arrived.  Paper making and DNA extraction were clear favorites of the participants, with water filtration not far behind.

The 2016 program was a collaboration of the Girls' Inc/YWCA (Girls' Inc Specialist  Flavia Rey de Castro and interns Gina Ricci and Hannah Cash, both OCC students); ESF (Women's Caucus program coordinator, Heather Engelman: Interim Chief Diversity Officer Anne Lombard,  Maura Stefl of Outreach, and Eileen Baldesarre of C-STEP), and SU (Tanaya Thomas-Edwards, STEP).

ESF women take first and second place in the Slepecky Undergraduate Research Competition

The experimental green roof, located on
top of Con Edison's The Learning
Center.  Image credit: Tiziana Susca, Columbia University

Katy Austin, an EFB undergraduate honors student has won first prize in the Slepecky Undergraduate Research Prize.  She was awarded the prize for a manuscript based on her honor's thesis "Effects of Nitrogen Deposition on Nitrogen Acquisition by Sarracenia purpurea in the Adirondack Mountains, New York, USA".  The study is in review at the journal
Botany.  Austin is first author.  Her co-authors include Mark Teece, and Jesse Crandall from ESF's Chemistry Department, and Amy Sauer and Charley Driscoll, from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Syracuse University.

Cambria Ziemer, an ERE undergraduate honors student tied for second place honors.  Ziemer completed her honor's thesis the past summer on "Boundary Layer Conditions of a Shrub Willow Evapotranspiration Cover Syracuse, NY". She worked with Wendong Tao, in ESF's Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, and Tony Eallonardo, a Scientist with O'Brien and Gere.

The award presentation followed a lecture by Dr. Patricia J. Culligan of  Columbia University, on Green Roofs and Urban Stormwater Management, which featured projects under evaluation at Columbia University and around New York City.  Dr.  Culligan is a leader in the field of water resources and urban sustainability.  In addition to being a Professor, she co-directs the Columbia University Earth Institute’s Urban Design Lab and is the director of an innovative, joint interdisciplinary Ph.D. program between Columbia Engineering and the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation that focuses on designs for future cites, including digital city scenarios.

The Slepecky Lectureship and Undergraduate Prize has been endowed by family, friends and colleagues to honor Syracuse University professor Norma Slepecky, who died in 2001. Dr. Slepecky was a distinguished auditory neuranatomist and member of the Institute for Sensory Research.  She was a passionate researcher and an advocate for undergraduate student research. Dr. Slepecky hoped that her legacy, with the support of the endowment, would continue to encourage young women to conduct research. As stewards of the Lectureship and Prize, SU WiSE annually coordinates the undergraduate award and lecture by a noted woman scholar and a celebration in Dr. Slepecky’s memory.

Revitalizing Baltimore: A better city through environmental discovery

As part of the course requirements for FOR496/797, students share responsibility for reporting on the WiSE Professions Speaker Series.  The following was prepared by Olga Shevtsova

Jackie Carrera, president and CEO of Parks & People Foundation in Baltimore, concluded ESF’s 2013 Women in Scientific and Environmental (WiSE) Professions Series with Revitalizing Baltimore: A better city through environmental discovery on Tuesday, April 23. The seminar was jointly sponsored by the Graduate Student Association and the ESF Women's Caucus.

Parks & People began with the idea that there is one park, a city within a park, that is, rather than many parks within a city as the greenspace and corridors provide a network for a healthy community.  Ms Carrera discussed problems in the city of Baltimore, including significant property abandonment as a result of suburban sprawl, lack of opportunities for young people, stream erosion and non-point source pollution, uncoordinated approaches to natural resource management. These examples demonstrated the urgent necessity of the Urban Resources Initiative which works towards sustainability through applied ecosystem management principles. This working group learned that “Urban greening programs influenced the health of the city—they bring people together in a way they are not used to working together.  This increases their social capital, enabling them to take on bigger community issues like schools and crime.  They also have an economic benefit by increasing property values.” 

Carrera also focused on the power of partnership between governments at all levels, nonprofits, academia, businesses, and communities. Defining the most important steps of planning process through discussion of how to meet the goals and how they’ve changed is a key to achieve urban ecological restoration. The Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) has enhanced increased public support of scientific research. Parks & People Foundation affords opportunities for BES scientists to communicate their knowledge for practical application in community organizing and public policy. Initiating different workshops, annual meetings, trainings and science presentations all contributed to the project’s success.  It is imperative that on the ground management strategies use sound scientific approaches; and that science research is informed by practical needs. The process “is established, then fixed, then tweaked, in an iterative way” to assure that everyone at each level are at the same table.  

Watershed 263 is a classic example. "The city had an unfunded mandate to clean up pollutants flowing into the city.   This watershed featured lots of impervious surfaces, a lot of city owned land, and significant but dispersed open space. What, they wondered, would happen if they could reduce the asphalt?  The removal of back parking lot of Franklin Square Elementary School, coupled with other projects increased the area available for infiltration."

Good Science is the key, and a technology committee capable of communicating science with practitioners, is the tipping point.

About Jackie Carrera
Jackie Carrera has been instrumental in the development of a 15-mile urban greenway, community forestry and watershed restoration programs numerous youth sports and camp programs which continue to be integral to the revitalization efforts of some of that city’s most underserved communities. She also chaired Revitalizing Baltimore, a US Forest Service urban and community forestry project and is a co-principal investigator for the Baltimore EcosystemStudy, a National Science Foundation-funded, long term ecological research project.  Ms. Carrera represented the Chesapeake region in preparing for the Obama Administration’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative and the Urban Waters Initiative.  She served on a national task force initiated by the US Forest Service, Vibrant Cities and Urban Forests: A National Call for to Action. Ms. Carrera was voted one of the Daily Record’s Maryland’s Top 100 Women and 100 Most Influential Marylanders by The Maryland Daily Record and was named the 2008 University of Baltimore Distinguished Social Entrepreneur. Ms. Carrera is a graduate of the Greater Baltimore Committee Leadership Program and the Weinberg Fellows Program. She earned a BA, Business Administration degree in Finance from Loyola College in Maryland.

For more information about the WiSE Professions Series, please visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/speakers.htm

Dr. Lillian Na’ai Alessa Speaks on Water, Technology, and Sustainability

As part of the course requirements for FOR797, students share responsibility for reporting on the WiSE Professions Speaker Series.  The following was prepared by Emily Handelman, Dana Burke, and Elysa Smigielski.

Dr. Alessa brought humans to the forefront in her discussion on water and technology on Tuesday, April 17, 2012, where she not only brought powerful ideas on sustainability but also enthusiasm and dry wit that kept the audience engaged and enlightened.

            Dr. Alessa works within the framework of Social Ecological Systems, a concept noting that humans exist within a biophysical environment. Humans, she said, are the drivers of land use change and have kept sustainability in an ivory tower, but also possess the power to work with and adapt to the changing environment. Her talk centered around the concept of adaptation and its use in addressing the problem of climate change.  In particular, she framed her discussion around the use of place based knowledge, the use of humans as environmental sensors, and the use of technology as a tool, rather than the means to an end.   Technology, she said, cannot be engineered to apply everywhere.  Thus, by relying on our human sensors – our expert observers and note-takers of places in which they live – researchers and scientists can better use this place based knowledge in developing solutions and policies.  

Alessa’s talk concluded with a discussion of some of the tools she and her team have developed in order to document and analyze placed based knowledge. In particular, she explained a software program called Architecture for Integrated and Dynamic Data Analysis (AIDA) that collects social data information in order to map social values across the landscape. She noted that AIDA is in essence a social networking tool for information.

Dr. Lilian Na’ia Alessa is the Director of the Resilience and Adaptive Management Group at the University of Alaska in Anchorage. Dr. Alessa received her B.S. in general biology and her Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of British Columbia. She has also served on the board of the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States. This talk was a joint presentation of  SUNY ESF’s Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Seminar Series and the Cross-Disciplinary Seminar in Hydrology and Biogeochemical Processes.   The seminar was sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, the Graduate Student Association, and the ESF Women’s Caucus.

Fog, clouds and the maintenance of ecosystems: mist connections?

Dr. Kathleen Weathers, Senior Scientist, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY and Program Director, Ecosystem Science Cluster, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA, Fog, clouds and the maintenance of ecosystems:  mist connections?  Sponsored by the Cross-Disciplinary Seminar in Hydrological and Biogeochemical Processes, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, and the ESF Women's Caucus, with assistance from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Weathers shared the processes used to quantify and incorporate an often overlooked process (fog or mist as opposed to liquid precipitation and snowpack) in nutrient cycling, and demonstrated the importance of using these measures to develop an accurate picture of ecosystem functioning.    A joint presentation of the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions and the  Cross-Disciplinary seminar in Hydrological and Biogeochemical Processes.

"Like Blood from our Veins:" Perspectives on water in post-communist Poland. October 20, 2009.

Dr. Sharon Moran, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Studies, briefly discussed Poland's rich history, highlights of two of her projects, and invited participants to sample meats, bread and sweets representative of the country's cuisine.

Poland's transition to a market economy and a democratic government, creative/energetic/idealistic leaders in 1999, coupled with a main watershed covering 53% of the country and most of its industrial center, and that it was the last unregulated in Europe made the country very open for Sharon Moran's doctoral research.  The country's location between Germany and Russia also means that the borders have shifted a lot over the years.  Despite this, there is a great sense of national pride--especially for the communal opposition of Nazi occupiers.  Reconstruction in Warsaw used authentic building techniques so that new building are almost indistinguishable from the originals.  New signs now mark the site of the Warsaw ghetto that housed Polish Jews during that time.

Municipal Waste Management during the Early Part of the transition from a welfaristic to a neoliberal orientation.  She found great variation in the incentives to improve water across the country:  better quality for profit, a brewer subsidizing projects, commercial interests.

Local perception of drinking water:  Warsaw has cheap filtered tap water, commercial bottled water is available but not frequently purchased.  It also has >100 deep wells throughout the cite fed by a common aquifer, drilled by the government in late 50s in  so that good quality drinking water would be available should bombing resume.  Workers would bottle their own and bring this great tasting water home.  Many of the wellhouses are open 24/7.  Wells are tested periodically, and local variations due affect quality and individual wells may be closed temporarily.She expected that this practice developed because it was cheaper than commercial bottled water.  Instead, she heard that the water tastes wonderful, and that its safe (respondents would know if it were otherwise, and "they" would close).  Further, most of the interviewees were unaware that the filtered river water from their taps was actually still contaminated. 

Lunchtime Learning Seminars are offered by the Office of Multicultural Affairs.