CFAES scientist Elizabeth Long presents “Protecting Pollinators from Pesticides” at 9 a.m. Aug. 15 in a webinar series hosted by CFAES’s Bee Lab. Find more details. It’s free to watch; use the “Guest Login” at 8:55 a.m. A 2016 article in the Christian Science Monitor reported on some of her research. (Photo: Honey bee, Getty Images.)
biodiversity
Blue birds? Happiness
Members of the Greater Mohican Audubon Society lead a guided bird walk from 9-11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, in CFAES’s Secrest Arboretum in Wooster, home to species like the indigo bunting shown here.
Admission is free and open to the public. Find out more. (Photo: Getty Images.)
Endangered Species Act works, is wanted
About 4 out of 5 Americans support the Endangered Species Act, according to a new study led by Jeremy Bruskotter of CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources. The act, approved by Congress in 1973, protects plant, animal, insect and fish species threatened by extinction, along with the habitats they need.
“Every time the ESA is in the news, you hear about how controversial it is,” Bruskotter said in a July 19 Ohio State press release about the study. “But the three most recent studies show that, on average, approximately 83 percent of the public supports it, and that’s sort of the opposite of controversial.”
Shown here is a bald eagle, America’s national bird, whose recovery is considered one of the act’s greatest success stories.
Read more about the study. (Photo: Getty Images.)
Saturday: See lightning bugs and other stars
“The wriggling Rembrandts will ‘crawl through kid-safe and maggot-safe paint, leaving behind painted trails.’ ”
Wait, what?
CFAES’s family-friendly Insect Night, whose stars include fireflies and artistic maggots, is Saturday, June 30, in Wooster. (Photo: iStock.)
Waiter, there’s a bee on my screen
CFAES’s 2018 Bee Lab Webinar Series kicks off when biologist-author Olivia Carril presents “Identifying Common Bees of the Great Lakes Region” from 9-10 a.m., April 18. Carril is the co-author of The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America’s Bees (Princeton University Press, 2015), which the Bookseller Buyer’s Guide calls “The ultimate bee book for bee enthusiasts and experts alike.”
Speaking of salamanders (and their friends)
The 2018 Ohio Amphibian and Reptile Conference is tomorrow, Tuesday, March 20, in the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center on Ohio State’s Columbus campus. Online registration has ended, but you can still register at the door, space permitting ($45; $25 for students; lunch not included). Learn more.
Continue reading Speaking of salamanders (and their friends)
Salamander gander, part deux (slideshow)
See seven Ohio salamanders in the slideshow below, whose photos come from CFAES’s Getting to Know Salamanders in Ohio bulletin, now out of print but available as a PDF.
Spring means a salamander gander
Matt Reese of Ohio’s Country Journal recently went on his first salamander search and “could not believe what we found!” He quotes Marne Titchenell, wildlife specialist in CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources, and mentions the college’s Getting to Know Salamanders bulletin.
Check out these students’ stories
Discover Stone Lab’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program through the eyes of three students from CFAES. Then, after you do, check out the rest of CFAES’s engaging new Stories website.
Stone Lab is Ohio State’s water science-focused campus on (and in) Lake Erie. (Photo: CFAES REU student Madeline Lambrix, Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)
So you want to learn more about butterflies
Today, March 14, is National Learn About Butterflies Day, and one way you can do just that is to bookmark TheBuzz@OSU and visit often. It’s a blog run by Denise Ellsworth, director of CFAES’s Honey Bee and Native Pollinator Education program, and it’s full of news about pollinators, both the kind that buzz and the ones with big, colorful wings.
Another way: Check out a butterfly-boosting CFAES fact sheet, written by Denise, too, that can help you make your spring planting plans. (Photo: sindlera, iStock.)