conservation

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.)

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.

Find details and a link to register.

Cool rides

Seen just now at the green car cruise-in at the Scarlet, Gray and Green Fair at CFAES Wooster: a red Chevy Bolt (electric, 238-mile range), a red Chevy Volt (extended range electric), a sharp white futuristic first-generation Nissan Leaf (electric), a cool space-pod-looking Mitsubishi i-MiEV (electric; range, about 60 miles), a red Ford C-MAX (gas-electric hybrid), CFAES scientist Fred Michel’s green Ford Escape hybrid with custom after-market roof-mounted solar panel, and a sleek dark-blue Tesla Model S 100D (electric, 351-mile range).

The fair and cruise-in go until 4 p.m. today. At 1 p.m., the parking lot, next to CFAES Wooster’s Fisher Auditorium, was filling fast but still had plenty of spaces. The food trucks smelled fantastic.

On St. Patrick’s Day, the carin’ for the green

The annual Ohio River Valley Woodland and Wildlife Workshop, aimed at landowners in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana but also for anyone else interested in conservation, is on March 17 near Cincinnati. CFAES is one of its sponsors. Read more about it. (Photo: Red trillium, Joshua Moore, iStock.)

Rivers run through the next EPN program

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.

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‘It’s important to find new ways of slowing deforestation’

When residents take charge of their rainforests, fewer trees get the ax, says a story by Ohio State’s University Communications office, detailing a study done in Guatemala by CFAES researchers.

Pictured left to right are co-authors Brent Sohngen and Douglas Southgate, both of CFAES’s Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, and Lea Fortman, now of the University of Puget Sound who worked on the study as a graduate student. (Photo courtesy of Brent Sohngen.)