CFAES scientists, specialists and students will present 13 sessions at next month’s Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association annual conference. Called the largest sustainable food and farming conference in Ohio, the event features 100-plus sessions in all by state and national experts. You still have time to register.
Month: January 2014
Mountains and rivers without fire and/or with it
Breeanne Jackson, Ph.D. student in CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources, presents “Wildfire and Stream-Riparian Food Webs in the American West” at 4 p.m. today, Jan. 23. “Understanding how wildfire influences aquatic-terrestrial linkages … can inform fire management in aquatic-terrestrial ecosystems and potentially refine ecology theory,” says the event’s website. She speaks as part of the school’s spring seminar series. (Photo: Jon Sullivan via Wikimedia Commons.)
Tonight: Life in the city
CFAES scientist Mary Gardiner will speak on vacant land, biodiversity and ecosystem health, focusing on her research in the city of Cleveland, at 7 p.m. tonight, Jan. 23, at the First Amendment Public House, 150 W. Liberty St., Wooster. Her talk is part of the free Wooster Science Café series. Organizers offer the series as a forum for discussion of timely topics between scientists and the public. The sponsors are the College of Wooster and CFAES’s research arm, OARDC.
Excuse me, I believe you have my cat food
There’s a cool short video about CFAES’s Stan Gehrt on PBS’s “Nature” website. Called “Field Video: The Original Coyote and Its Chicagoland Habitat,” it shows Gehrt and his team working at night, using radio-tracking gear and infrared cameras to follow coyotes past people’s homes, over lawns and down sidewalks. Especially cool? The scene of a coyote eating cat food from a bowl on a doorstep — while the cat itself watches from inside the house, safe behind the living room window (pictured). That part starts at 1:44. Gehrt appears this Wednesday, Jan. 22, in the “Nature” episode called “Meet the Coywolf.”
Into the blue: Youth summit to focus on water sustainability
This Saturday, Jan. 25, is Sustainability NOW! The Central Ohio Youth Leadership Summit on the Environment, which involves 25 selected high school students and is sponsored by CFAES. This year’s focus is on water resources, water management and water sustainability, and the location is a place that devotes itself to those issues: CFAES’s Wilma H. Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park. Registration, unfortunately, closed last week. But you can learn more in the brochure (pdf) if you’re interested in applying next year or are a member of the press and want to write about it.
A great place to find excellent employees … and to show an employer you’d be one
Are you an employer in an environment-related field looking to hire excellent employees or interns? Are you a CFAES student looking for a full-time job, an internship or simply to network? Then check out CFAES’s 2014 Environmental and Sustainability Career Expo Jan. 30, a veritable one-stop shop for green hiring and being hired. If you’re a CFAES student or alumnus, you can learn more through your Hireabuckeye account. If you’re an employer and wish to reserve booth space, click here.
Come on in and cover me
Planting cover crops on a farm field can reduce soil erosion, improve soil structure, reduce nutrient runoff, add wildlife habitat and increase yields. Learn all about them and more at this year’s big Conservation Tillage Conference March 4-5 in Ada in northwest Ohio. Organizers expect more than 900 participants. Shown here is one of many possible cover crops, red clover. (Photo: Kleuske via Wikimedia Commons.)
How to get hopping, Feb. 13
CFAES’s research arm, OARDC, is holding a Hops Production Workshop Feb. 13 in Wooster. Among the topics will be trellis design, potential income, pests and diseases, and making sure the variety you plant is one a brewer wants. Says CFAES’s Brad Bergefurd, one of the event’s organizers: “Different brewers use different hops varieties for their craft beers, (so) it’s important for growers to know the market in terms of the varieties that brewers need before growers invest in their first rhizomes.” Register by Jan. 31. (Photo: Oast House Archive via Wikimedia Commons.)
Jan. 20 forecast for Cleveland: Outside, 28. Inside, picture this
Speaking of Stone Lab and Ohio Sea Grant, experts from both programs will be on hand from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20, at the Progressive Mid-America Boat Show in Cleveland. They’ll speak on such topics as harmful algal blooms and Ohio’s Clean Marinas program. College and advanced high school students can learn about taking classes at Stone Lab. Kids can make their own walleye lure. And the show’s managing organization, the Lake Erie Marine Trades Association, will donate $1 from every ticket sold that day to Stone Lab student scholarships. Get details and buy tickets. (Photo: LEMTA.)
Sustaining Stone Lab and Lake Erie
CFAES Dean Bruce McPheron will be the guest speaker at the 16th annual Stone Lab Winter Program and Silent Auction Tuesday, Jan. 21, in Columbus. Part of Ohio State, located at Put-in-Bay, the lab supports teaching and research on Lake Erie. All auction proceeds will benefit the lab’s programs and scholarships. Click here and scroll down to register. Pictured is the lab’s main building, built in 1929, which now has solar panels. (Photo: Ohio Sea Grant, Stone Lab.)