Mary Beth Breckenridge, the Akron Beacon Journal’s totally excellent garden writer, wrote last week about an Ohio couple’s battle with invasive plants, such as the garlic-mustard shown here. Their son, a recent graduate of our college, and their daughter-in-law, an educator with our outreach arm, OSU Extension, play a big part in the story, whose bottom line is this: A hands-off approach to managing a woods can let invasive plants take over. And that can put natives at risk. Read the story.
Month: October 2012
Environmental network’s next ‘Breakfast Club’ is Nov. 13
The next 2nd Tuesdays Breakfast Club of the Environmental Professionals Network is Nov. 13. “Waste Not, Want Not! Improving Materials Management, and Programs and Laws in Ohio” is the topic. Details here.
Students to present research projects on campus sustainability, Olentangy restoration
Students in our “Communicating Environmental and Natural Resources Information” course (ENV 2367) will be presenting their research projects next week and continuing through Monday, Nov. 5. The projects focus on restoration of the Olentangy River corridor and on campus sustainability. You’re welcome to attend and give feedback.
From “snakes on the trail” to a better campus biking culture to biophilic design at the Wexner Medical Center, check out the lineup of topics.
Bioenergy leader, OARDC partner to speak at Advanced Energy B2B Expo
Mel Kurtz, shown here, president of quasar energy group, which we mentioned two posts down, will speak at next week’s Advanced Energy B2B Conference & Expo in Columbus, Ohio. His topic: “Ohio’s Significant Advanced Energy Deployment Projects.”
Kurtz’s company has partnered with OARDC, which is CFAES’s research arm, on the development of bioenergy-producing anaerobic waste digesters (video, 2:10).
‘Probably the most underappreciated critical resource that we have’
The 6,000-square-foot pilot plant in Wooster, Ohio, makes gloves and a variety of other latex and rubber products. This is nothing new in a town and region historically known for rubber manufacturing.
What’s different about the facility is the source of its natural rubber: plants grown in the U.S. rather than the Southeast Asian trees that currently provide all of the world’s supply of natural rubber.
OARDC partner quasar announces expansion: More digesters, CNG stations
The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s John Funk reports on quasar energy group’s latest plans: building more bioenergy-producing waste “digesters” in Ohio and beyond; and adding compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations to its locations. The stations will dispense CNG produced by the digesters for use as car and truck fuel.
quasar has partnered with OARDC scientists to develop these digesters and has a lab, digester (shown here), and fueling station on OARDC’s Wooster campus. OARDC is the research arm of our college.
New tools for managing the risk of invasive species
Eric Larson of the University of Tennessee’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology speaks on “Emerging Tools for Managing the Risk of Species Invasions and Imperilment under Data-limited Circumstances” next Thursday (Oct. 25).
NASA expert to speak about climate change
Franco Einaudi, retired director of the Earth Sciences Division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, presents “The Science and Impact of Climate Change” next Thursday (Oct. 25) on our campus in Columbus. Details here.
‘Sustainability is becoming more and more needed in the workforce’
“There aren’t a lot of sustainability programs out there,” says junior Alexandra Kueller of Crystal Lake, Ill., shown here, who is majoring in our new Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability program. “To have this program sets Ohio State apart from other universities and colleges.”
Toledo, Ohio, native David Perzynski, a senior and mentor with the program, says few schools “can devote resources toward new fledgling subjects such as sustainability. Few other schools would have given me such an opportunity …”
They talk about studying sustainability here in a recent story.
Ohio State campus to be sustainability test ground
How can we make our Columbus campus more sustainable? A new Ohio State research team is studying just that — and to do it, is using part of the campus as a test bed. The university’s Office of Energy and Environment has the story. Three CFAES scientists are members of the team.