North America’s eastern forests used to have some 4 billion American chestnut trees: large, tall (up to 100 feet), fast-growing trees whose wood made excellent lumber for buildings; whose nuts fed billions of birds and mammals, including people (including Thoreau); whose tannins supplied America’s leather industry. Various sources have called it “the queen of the forest” and “the ideal tree.”
Then something happened.
Continue reading Can breeding, biotech bring back the chestnut?
The next Environmental Professionals Network (EPN) breakfast program features Hope Taft, former First Lady of Ohio, and Bob Gable, scenic rivers program manager for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), presenting “For Love of Rivers: Celebrating 50 Years of the Scenic Rivers Act” It’s from 7:15 to 9:30 a.m. Feb. 13 on Ohio State’s Columbus campus.
CFAES’s OSU Extension outreach arm will serve as local host for the National Farm to Cafeteria Conference on April 25-27 in Cincinnati. The event is for teachers and administrators wanting to start or expand Farm to School programs, consumers interested in local food opportunities, and farmers wanting to sell their food to schools and other institutions. Read more.
Early bird discount registration runs through March 9.
The next Wooster Science Café features CFAES’s Nathan Crook, pictured, assistant professor of English and agricultural communication at Ohio State ATI in Wooster.
Crook, whose publications include the book A Culinary History of the Great Black Swamp: Buckeye Candy, Bratwurst and Apple Butter, will present (“in plain English!” the event flyer says) “The Science of Culture: Understanding Who We Are, What We Do and Why We Do It” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, at Spoon Market and Deli, 144 W. Liberty St., in Wooster. Admission is free and open to the public.
The Wooster Science Café series is being sponsored by CFAES and the College of Wooster. (Photo: Ohio State ATI.)
Florida International University’s Jennifer Rehage presents “Understanding the Dynamics and Sustainability of Recreational Fisheries: Patterns, Drivers, Space and Time in Bonefish (Albula vulpes) in South Florida” from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Feb. 8 in 164 Howlett Hall, 2001 Fyffe Road, on Ohio State’s Columbus campus. Learn more.
Her talk is part of a seminar series hosted by CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources.
For background, read Global FlyFisher’s quick treatise on bonefish biology. (Photo: A totally cool-looking bonefish, iStock.)
CFAES’s 2018 Career Expo is Feb. 15 on Ohio State’s Columbus campus, and this year it’s combining three expos in one — Food and Agricultural Sciences, Construction, and Environment and Sustainability. It’s open to Ohio State students and alumni, and there’s still time for employers to register to attend.
CFAES’s 2018 Career Conference for students is Feb. 3 on Ohio State’s Columbus campus. It offers breakout sessions on job searches; internships; industry, nonprofit and government work; business etiquette; writing resumes; negotiating salaries; and more. Quintin Jessee, owner-director of Columbus’s Land-Grant Brewing Company, which has a focus on sustainability, will give the keynote talk. Register here.
“An unprecedented study” by a researcher now with Ohio State has shown that “honey bees are the world’s most important single species of pollinator in natural ecosystems.”
Continue reading Study: Here are the world’s No. 1 pollinators
Backed by science support from CFAES, “Ohio has been exponentially increasing its area of hydroponic greenhouses.”
“We’ve successfully made a case for why sustainable beer sells and how it can be sourced locally,” said Vincent Valentino, sustainability major manager for Columbus’s Land-Grant Brewing Company, speaking to the Environmental Professionals Network (EPN) recently.
Valentino graduated in the second class of CFAES’s Environment, Economy, Development and Sustainability major.
EPN, a service of CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources, hosts a series of monthly public breakfast programs. (Photo: iStock.)