The spotted lanternfly, an invasive tree and fruit pest that was initially contained within Pennsylvania, has now spread to Delaware and Virginia, and CFAES insect experts worry the next stop will be Ohio. Read the story. (Photo: Lawrence Barringer, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, via Bugwood.org.)
Month: May 2018
Save the date for algal bloom forecast
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s annual Lake Erie harmful algal bloom forecast is set for July 12 at CFAES’s Stone Lab at Put-in-Bay. You also can attend by webinar.
Barley and me
Growing barley for malting will be the chief topic when CFAES holds its Small Grains Field Day on June 12 in Wooster. CFAES scientists will share new information about barley varieties, contracts, diseases and more. Malted barley is used to make beer.
This could be the No. 1 way to keep phosphorus out of Lake Erie
The cheapest, most cost-effective way to reduce the phosphorus getting into Lake Erie is by taxing farmers on their purchase of the nutrient or by paying them not to use it on their fields. That’s according to a study by Shaohui Tang and Brent Sohngen, both of CFAES’s Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics.
Continue reading This could be the No. 1 way to keep phosphorus out of Lake Erie
Do water pitchers filter out algal bloom toxins?
Not all water filter pitchers are created equal when it comes to removing toxins from harmful algal blooms. So says a new study led by Justin Chaffin, research coordinator at CFAES’s Stone Lab. Read the Ohio State press release.
Celebrate ‘food, sustainability, community’
The next Environmental Professionals Network breakfast program, 7 a.m. to noon June 12, involves a field trip. Participants will ride a bus from Ohio State’s Columbus campus, or drive on their own, to the town of Mechanicsburg, 40 miles west of Columbus, where they’ll visit and hear from local food supporters The Hive Market and Deli (for breakfast), Hemisphere Coffee Roasters (for coffee), In Good Taste Catering and an associated family farm (for walking and wagon tours of its crops, livestock and conservation practices). It’s a celebration of “food, environmental sustainability and community,” says the event’s website.
CFAES’s celebrity snakes are back tweeting
Warm weather’s here, and the rattlesnake stars of the @TimberTweets feed — Jimbo, Hope, et al — are back, active and tweeting. Follow their rarely seen daily lives in the woods of southern Ohio. It’s all in the name of research being done by CFAES’s Peterman Lab. Fun fact (unless you’re a rodent or a tick): Timber rattlesnakes eat rodents that carry Lyme disease ticks. (Photo: iStock.)
And also there were snapping turtles
“Simply moving across the slick, gloopy wetlands was difficult.”
So says an article about how Ohio Sea Grant- and CFAES-affiliated researchers are helping The Nature Conservancy to (1) improve water quality and (2) give homes to fish and wildlife by restoring a large marshland near Lake Erie. (Photo: iStock.)
Here’s how CFAES is growing new scientists (and with them, sustainability)
Essentially all the winning research in CFAES’s 2018 Graduate Student Poster Competition, shown here, had connections to sustainability, whether agricultural, environmental, economic or all three. The competition, held at the April 27 CFAES Annual Research Conference, recognized outstanding research by CFAES graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and research assistants and associates. Check out the list of winners.
Continue reading Here’s how CFAES is growing new scientists (and with them, sustainability)
Laser-guided ‘intelligent’ sprayer is good for all kinds of green
A CFAES research team has developed a laser-guided pesticide sprayer, for use by orchards, vineyards and nurseries, that gives control of diseases and pests but uses less pesticide to do it. Farmers’ wallets, food safety and the environment stand to gain.
Continue reading Laser-guided ‘intelligent’ sprayer is good for all kinds of green