Celebrate Earth Day Saturday, April 20, in CFAES’s Wilma H. Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park by helping plant nearly 400 donated trees and shrubs, yanking invasive species, and cleaning up the park and the nearby banks of the Olentangy. You’ll get dirty hands, wet feet, a good feeling, and a free lunch. More. (pdf). The Wetland of International Importance is part of our School of Environment and Natural Resources.
Recycle your old jeans, including their Blake Griffin-disapproved truncated versions (video, 0:37), at CFAES’s 2013 Micki Zartman Scarlet and Gray Ag Day tomorrow, April 19. Twelve-year-old Erek Hansen, aka EcoErek, Guinness World Record-setting recycler of jeans (total: some 10,000 pairs and counting), will take them in for eventual conversion into UltraTouch denim home insulation. HGTV lists the recycled material’s benefits.
Last night’s “Green Fire” screening was cancelled due to a suspicious package report in Ohio State’s Ohio Union. Environmental Professionals Network Coordinator David Hanselmann writes:
“I was with the speaker [“Green Fire” guide Curt Meine]. We were walking toward the entrance when the evacuation began. We stood in the rain on the far side of High Street until about 8:10 and decided to pack it in, not knowing when the building would re-open and if anyone would still be around to watch it. Right now there are no plans to show it again, but we will consider that. For now, people can watch a slightly shortened version on WOSU TV Sunday [April 21] at 3 p.m.”
We’ve gotten some questions about last night’s “Green Fire” screening. The location for the screening, the Ohio Union on Ohio State’s Columbus campus, was evacuated from about 6-7:30 p.m. so police could investigate an unattended backpack that was found to be harmless. What we’re trying to find out is whether the screening was just delayed or was cancelled altogether … and if it was cancelled, whether it will be rescheduled. If you have any details, drop us a line. Otherwise, we’ll let you know as soon as we can.
CFAES scientists are testing a range of trees, shrubs, and grasses (such as switchgrass, shown here) for their potential as new bioenergy crops in Ohio. Besides producing renewable energy, the plants could be value-added crops for Ohio farmers and could restore degraded land. Read the story …
The Midwest-Great Lakes chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration holds its annual meeting today through Sunday (4/12-14) on the Wooster campus of CFAES’s research arm, OARDC. Theme: “Ecological Restoration and Sustainability: Partners for the Future.” Read more about the meeting here and about the chapter here. (The chapter’s mission: “To promote the science and practice of ecological restoration to assist with the recovery and management of degraded ecosystems throughout the Midwestern and Great Lakes region of the United States.”) Among those attending and presenting are a number of scientists and graduate students from CFAES.
Penn State’s Bruce Logan talks about his microbial fuel cell work in this video (1:19): “The breakthrough is that we can now extract energy out of a wastewater or a source of organic matter rather than putting in energy to get rid of that organic matter.” Hear more on Friday (4/12).
“The idea is that with no moving parts, we can convert organic matter into electricity,” Bruce Logan said in a talk on microbial fuel cells last year (video, 24:43). He speaks on Friday (4/12) at Ohio State. Read a LiveScience profile of him here.
Microbial fuel cells are the focus of a seminar Friday (4/12) sponsored by Ohio State’s Environmental Science Graduate Program. Penn State’s Bruce Logan, pictured, presents “Energy from Water: Microbial Fuel Cell Technologies Meet Salinity Gradient Energy” at 3 p.m. in 021 Lazenby Hall on Ohio State’s campus in Columbus. There’s also a video link to 121 Fisher Auditorium on OARDC’s Wooster campus, 1680 Madison Ave. Free. All are welcome. (See later posts here and here.) (Photo: Penn State.)
Priscilla Nyamai, a doctoral candidate in CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR), presents “Is There a Role for Restoration When Fuel Reduction Is a Management Objective in Fire-dependent Forest Ecosystems? Lessons from the Northern Lake States” tomorrow (4/11) in SENR’s spring seminar series. Details. Her advisor is SENR scientist Charles Goebel, who leads the Lake States Fire Science Consortium.