Workers repair a high tunnel used to grow Russian dandelions on the Wooster campus of CFAES’s research arm, OARDC, in this recent shot by CFAES photographer Ken Chamberlain. OARDC scientists are growing, studying, and developing Russian dandelions — also called Taraxacum kok-saghyz, or TKS — as an Ohio-grown, sustainable source of natural rubber (video, 2:22).
Month: April 2013
Campus sustainability grants go to CFAES students
Three of the four student sustainability grants presented recently by Ohio State’s Office of Student Life have their roots in CFAES. And two of the three got their start in a course in CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources. Read more in the latest issue of CFAES’s Continuum magazine (pdf; pages 4-5) and on the Office of Student Life’s website. Money for the grants came through the Coca-Cola Foundation’s Student Sustainability Grants program.
Innovative ditch design: Two stages, many benefits
You may think there’s only one way to dig a ditch. But Andy Ward has a better idea. And farms, farmers, soils, plants, animals, and water are all better for it. Story plus video link …
Building our bioeconomy
Yebo Li’s work creates new bioenergy and bioproducts, new jobs, and a greener Ohio both economically and environmentally. Read more and watch a short video here.
Keeping world’s rice safe
A CFAES scientist has been honored for his work to keep rice sustainable — free of plant diseases and able to feed more than half the people on Earth. Read the story (with link to video).
May 17: These not so little invasive piggies are looming on the horizon (as are others)
People who manage parks, farms, trees, wildlife, landscape plants, commercial nurseries, and more for a living can get a detailed look at Ohio’s invasive species, including the possible new threats, at a workshop May 17. There’s an early registration discount if you sign up by May 3. The Ohio Woodland Stewards Program, which is part of OSU Extension, which is the statewide outreach arm of CFAES, is the sponsor. Get the workshop brochure here (pdf). Feral pigs like the ones shown here are now in southeast Ohio.
See one? Whip out your iPhone
Your Apple mobile devices can now fight invasive species (such as the Asian longhorned beetle shown here; not actual size). CFAES’s outreach arm, OSU Extension, has released an iPhone and iPad version of its Great Lakes Early Detection Network (GLEDN) app. (Photo: USDA-APHIS.)
Brutustainability!
Wind energy, Ohio Stadium recycling, Environmental March Madness, and more have powered Ohio State to six top finishes for recent national environmental awards. Read the story. (Photo: Ohio State’s long-term vertically sustainable mascot Brutus Buckeye by University Communications.)
A 20-year-old pin oak? 237 pounds less of atmospheric carbon
Speaking of trees: Calculate the sustainability benefits of your own trees — in dollars and cents plus gallons of stormwater intercepted, pounds of atmospheric carbon reduced, ozone absorbed, etc. — here.
Arbor Day celebration in Wooster Saturday
Secrest Arboretum, part of the Wooster campus of CFAES’s research arm, OARDC, is holding a free public Arbor Day celebration tomorrow, April 20. It features the naming of the campus as a Tree Campus USA (Ohio State becomes one of only six U.S. universities to have more than one campus so named; the Columbus campus earned it last year); the planting of oak trees in the arboretum, elsewhere on OARDC’s campus, and on the adjacent campus of the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute, which is also part of CFAES; a guided tree walk; the dedication of a new garden honoring the late OARDC scientist Ben Stinner; and more. Details here.