Month: August 2018

Working to clean up Lake Erie

The tweet above references the first hearing of the Toward a Cleaner Lake Erie Working Group, a bipartisan effort aimed at discussing ways to fight Lake Erie’s algal blooms. It took place at the Ohio Statehouse Tuesday.

Cathann A. Kress, as you may know, is CFAES’s dean. You can follow her on Twitter at @cathannkress.

Chris Winslow, director of Ohio Sea Grant and CFAES’s Stone Lab on Lake Erie, also spoke at the hearing.

Save the date for Stinner Summit

CFAES’s 2018 Stinner Summit, an annual event inspired by Ben Stinner, the late CFAES scientist who specialized in sustainable agriculture, is set for Friday, Oct. 12, at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, located in Delaware just north of Columbus. This year’s theme: “The Roles of Faith and Ecology in Sustaining Agriculture.” 

Stinner led CFAES’s Agroecosystems Management Program (AMP), the host of the event, until his death in 2004. AMP’s website says he had the “rare ability to build relationships based on common interests and his vision, passion and commitment to building healthy agroecosystems and communities.”

Learn more about him and about the event.

What does it mean that Lake Erie’s ‘impaired’?

(Photo: Lake Erie algal bloom at Pelee Island, Ontario, 2009, by Tom Archer, Michigan Sea Grant, via Flickr.)

The Environmental Professionals Network, a statewide professional group organized by CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources, holds its first monthly breakfast program of the 2018-19 academic year, “The Lake Erie Impairment Designation: What Does It Mean and What Can We Learn from Other Watersheds?” from 7:15-9:30 a.m. Sept. 11 on Ohio State’s Columbus campus.

Continue reading What does it mean that Lake Erie’s ‘impaired’? →

Seein’ you wherever I go … or not

Walleye and the smaller fish they eat “struggle to see in water clouded by algae, and that could potentially jeopardize the species’ future if harmful algal blooms persist.” So said a story by Ohio State science writer Misti Crane, reporting on a study led by CFAES scientist Suzanne Gray.

Algal blooms, like those in Lake Erie, can turn the water green.

Also: Read an earlier, delightful interview with Gray.

Get details on grazing and forages

(Photo: Angus, Friesian, Guernsey and Jersey cows and calves, Getty Images.)

CFAES’s Gwynne Conservation Area will offer a track of sessions specifically about grazing and forages during Farm Science Review, set for Sept. 18-20 in London, Ohio. Here’s a look at the lineup.

Continue reading Get details on grazing and forages →

Field day at historic no-till plots in Wooster

CFAES is home to the longest continually maintained no-till research plots in the world — the Triplett-Van Doren No-Tillage Experimental Plots, shown here — and you can check them out and hear about the latest research on no-till, soil health and more on Aug. 29 in Wooster. The cost to register is $65, or $25 in advance for students. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

Algal blooms threaten ponds, small lakes, too

Algal blooms aren’t just a problem for high-profile bodies of water, such as Lake Erie, they pose “serious, toxic threats in small ponds and lakes as well.” That’s according to a recent study led by Jiyoung Lee, who has a partial appointment with CFAES, and a story about the study by Ohio State science writer Misti Crane. Read the story. (Photo: Getty.)

How to teach about aquaponics, learn about hydroponics

If you’re an educator, and you’re interested in a hands-on way to teach your students about science and producing food, consider attending “Aquaponics in the Classroom: Teaching Real-World Skills Through Conservation,” a session at next month’s CFAES-sponsored Farm Science Review trade show. The session runs from 11-11:30 a.m. on the second day of the Review, Wednesday, Sept. 19, in the Gwynne Conservation Area. The session is free with paid admission to the Review.

Continue reading How to teach about aquaponics, learn about hydroponics →