Can religion and the environment mix?

Cal DeWitt, a leading Christian environmentalist, speaks five times in Wooster and Columbus later this week, sponsored four of those times by parts of our college. He’s a professor with the University of Wisconsin’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, the author of Earth-wise: A Biblical Response to Environmental Issues, and as the elected town chair of Dunn, Wisc., helped develop an innovative, award-winning land use plan. None other than Bill McKibben (The End of Nature) has written, “I have a lot of heroes, but Cal DeWitt is high on the list.”

Does a bear live in your woods?

… and if so, what is it doing there? This is one of the many topics at a coming workshop on woodlands and wildlife. It’s for Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana landowners — and really anyone interested in trees, birds, bugs, ponds, wood, forests, and timber (and bears). Check out the program brochure (pdf). Sponsors are the Extension programs at Ohio State, Purdue, Kentucky, and Kentucky State.

Their blueberries went to college

A new book called Ohio’s Specialty Crops: A Boost to Food Service Menus is now available free online. It’s for farmers and for food buyers — specifically, food buyers for institutions, such as colleges, restaurants, and hospitals. Increased selling, buying, serving, and eating of local foods is a goal. The publisher is the Agroecosystems Management Program, which works to create sustainable agricultural systems and is part of our college.

Maumee study: Why we do what we do there … and then what it does

Backed by a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant, six departments at two universities (Ohio State, Case Western Reserve) will combine three science branches (social, physical, biological) to explore a single watershed — the Maumee River’s, the Great Lakes’ largest. Why? To better understand people’s actions there, especially when it comes to land use and policy, and how those actions affect Lake Erie. Factored in, too: Possible climate change impacts. Check out the project’s website.