On Campus

Algal boom conference going online this year

Registration is open for this year’s Understanding Algal Blooms: State of the Science Conference, set for Wednesday, Sept. 2, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and slated to be held online because of the coronavirus pandemic. Viewing the conference is free and open to the public, but you have to register in advance. Find details and a link to register.

The speakers will include scientists from USDA; the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; and CFAES.

Algal blooms are the typically pea-green, sometimes massive slime outbreaks that in recent years have plagued Lake Erie and other water bodies.

The conference’s organizer is Ohio State’s Ohio Sea Grant program, which works to protect the environment of Lake Erie and the Great Lakes.

(Photo: Tom Archer, Michigan Sea Grant.)

Ways to make Ohio more sustainable

A free public webinar called Sustainability and Ohio’s Landscape: Creating Value for People and the Environment takes place this Tuesday, May 12, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and you still have time to register for it.

The focus will be on sustainability in three areas: in Ohio’s cities, on its farms, and in its forests. The speakers will be from CFAES, nonprofits, agencies, and businesses.

It’s the 2020 Spring Outlook program by CFAES’ Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics.

Learn more and register to watch. (Photo: downtown Cleveland, Getty Images.)

Camp Canopy cancelled, virtual events planned

Marne Titchenell, wildlife program specialist with CFAES’ School of Environment and Natural Resources, shares the following:

“It is with great sadness that the Ohio Forestry Association Foundation and the Camp Canopy Co-Directors have made the difficult decision to cancel Camp Canopy this coming June, due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Camp Canopy is held every year at FFA Camp Muskingum and was scheduled this year June 7-12.

“Rest assured that we are already planning for a great Camp Canopy week for 2021. In the meantime, keep watching our website and Facebook page for some exciting virtual events to take place the week of Camp (June 7–12)! These events will be free and catered to high school students.”

We hold this world in our caring hands

We’re celebrating the 50th Earth Day today, and as we look ahead toward future Earth Days, we can quote the late pop star Prince—himself the subject of another celebration last night on CBS—from his song called “Planet Earth”: “Fifty years from now, what will they say about us here? Did we care for the water and the fragile atmosphere?”

Here at CFAES, we’re working to find and develop ways to give the Earth that caring, and to train our students—our future scientists and leaders, our fellow citizens and neighbors—to understand and give that caring and advance it even further.

Fifty years from now, what will the answers be to the song’s questions? Hopefully, through effort, they’ll be good ones.

Above, Neil Young and friends play us out.

Hemp team takes the floor

Next in Agriculture and Natural Resources Madness: A Tournament of Education, CFAES’ free, virtual, shutdown-overcoming educational series, are “Insect Control for Hemp” and “Growing Hemp for Fiber and Seed,” set for today, Thursday, April 9, at noon and 3 p.m., respectively.

Tune in here (noon) and here (3 p.m.). (Photo: Getty Images.)

Keep learning during the shutdown

With public gatherings, spectator sports—including the March Madness college basketball tournament—and CFAES’ normally busy schedule of public events all shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak, CFAES’ OSU Extension outreach arm is responding by offering a series of virtual events. Called Agriculture and Natural Resources Madness: A Tournament of Education, the series features 64 educational sessions divided into daily brackets. The sessions are free and likely to continue to mid-May.

“This effort is a direct response to providing a variety of useful and timely sessions for farmers and families across the state during Gov. DeWine’s stay-at-home order,” said Jacqueline Wilkins, interim director of OSU Extension. “While our ‘tournament’ is being loosely tied to March Madness, it’s not a competition, and people can join in at any time for as many or as few sessions as they desire.”

Learn more and see the schedule.

Keep an eye on your lunch if it’s nuts

Ohio’s coronavirus stay-at-home order continues through at least May 1. So you just might be noticing some busy new co-workers when you look out your dining room window from your “desk.” Let’s meet a few of them.

I’m a rodent. I climb trees. I tend to eat nuts such as acorns. I get my name from the bushiness of my tail and the typical color of my fur, which resemble those of a relative of the dog that would eat me for lunch if it could. I’m …

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Healthy trees, healthy campuses

The Buckeyes take care of their buckeyes, and also their maples and oaks.

The Arbor Day Foundation has given Tree Campus USA honors to both the Ohio State Columbus campus and the CFAES Wooster campus. The recognition means that the campuses met core standards for keeping their trees healthy. Healthy trees in turn give benefits to people, air, and water.

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Find out about event cancellations

Many of CFAES’ upcoming events have been cancelled or postponed due to the global coronavirus outbreak. Among them are the Sustainable Landscaping Workshop on March 18, the CFAES Sesquicentennial Open House on March 21, the Ohio Compost Operator Education Course on March 25-26, and the Ohio River Valley Woodland and Wildlife Workshop on March 28.

Find further details and updates on our event calendar, and if you’re not sure whether an event is still happening or not, be sure to contact the organizer ahead of time.

See the CFAES event calendar.