DNRE News & Updates

How Indigenous knowledge could factor into federal policy -- especially on climate change | Wisconsin Public Radio - wpr.org  We get reaction to new White House guidance for federal agencies to begin incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing into their research and policy decision-making. www.wpr.org

CALS 2022 Most Popular Stories We don’t have to choose between people and the planet Across CALS, researchers are developing holistic solutions that address climate change while improving nutrition, supporting rural economies and protecting wildlife.

The Hemlock Wooly Adelgid is an invasive species that’s been impacting Hemlock trees across the state for over 20 years by feeding on the twigs where the needles are, slowly depriving them of nutrients to thrive. Forest Entomologist Mark Whitmore says the pest is actively growing during the winter, which is unusual for insects but makes them easier to track down as they’re more tolerant of the colder temperatures. 

Dr. Paul Curtis quoted in WSJ article about the NJ bear hunt being restored. Read the full article here. 

"Indigenous people are far more likely to be on the front lines of climate change", said Karim-Aly Kassam. Read the full article Dr. Kassam contributed to for the White House Tribal Nation summit. 

Mapping the Planet’s Critical Natural Assets co-author Rachel Neugarten DNRE graduate student. 

Lake George battle: Predator beetles versus hemlock-killers On Oct. 27, Whitmore and his team completed their second release of beetles at Paradise Bay, north of Shelving Rock in Washington County. The first release was in the fall of 2020.

2,000 beetles unleashed to save hemlock trees threatened by small insect with Mark Whitemore. “And since that time it's spread. We really started noticing it in the seventies in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. But now it's spread all the way to Nova Scotia, across to Michigan and down to Georgia, encompassing a large range of Hemlock Trees,” said Mark Whitmore, principal investigator - forest entomologist at the Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University.

WWNY Releasing beetles to save hemlock trees with Mark Whitemore.

Steven Wolf- President of RC40 (Research Committee on the Sociology of Agriculture and Food of the International Sociological Association) is hosting a hybrid conference 19. – 21. October 2022. See the conference website for the hybrid registration link.

Karim Kassam to give talk to New York Society for Ethical Culture in Manhattan on Sunday, Oct 9, 2023. "The climate crisis forces humanity to fundamentally examine and respond to historic and contemporary prevalence of injustice. Climate change exacerbates existing inequities. At present, it is largely borne by indigenous and rural societies that did not contribute to the causes of climate change. It is not just an injustice to these contemporary communities but future generations of human beings and other life on earth. In essence, it is the death of birth. Therefore, it is also a crime against the planet. It is no longer ethically sufficient to point out the causes of climate change. It is morally incumbent on scholars and their students, who benefit from public funding as well as profit from the technologies and societies that caused climate change, to articulate a methodology of hope in partnership with Indigenous and rural communities."

Estimating Pacific walrus abundance and survival with multievent mark-recapture models  Pacific Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) roam across the arctic oceans and are an important cultural resource for many indigenous peoples communities. Walrus rely on sea ice as they forage for benthic clams across vast swaths of the seafloor. As ice declines, Walrus may need to increase reliance on shore-based foraging strategies which could impact their long term population trajectory. To inform the current status of the Pacific Walrus population and inform potential future management actions, Dr. Suresh Sethi (DNRE) joined a large collaboration to implement a cutting edge genetic mark recapture study to estimate abundance and survival of Walrus. Published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, this 10yr+ project included partners across Federal, State, academic, and international organizations. The group’s mark recapture estimates indicate a range-wide Walrus population of approximately 256,000; as sea ice continues to decline throughout the arctic, long term population trends of Pacific Walrus are uncertain. Thus, continued range-wide monitoring of Walrus will be core information needed to track the status of this ice-reliant species as oceans warm further. 

In the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Biocontrol Research Lab at Cornell, scientists rear and release insects that gobble up HWA: a specialist predator beetle, Laricobius nigrinus, and two species of silver flies, Leucotaraxis argenticollis and Leucotaraxis piniperda.

Finger Lakes Climate Fund Offsetter Stories Marianne Krasny offset her travel to Austria to celebrate her children getting their Austrian citizenships through the program for descendants of Austrians who were victims of Nazi persecution. This is important for her kids, not only to honor their grandfather, but also because they work in Europe and are now eligible for EU benefits. Her offset donation is also for her daughter’s wedding the previous summer.

CCE Assistant Director quoted in the Washington Post  A new study reviewing hundreds of scientific papers identified more than 200 unique links through which nature can affect our lives. In a recent Washington Post article, Keith Tidball, CCE's Assistant Director, Natural Resources and the Environment, provides commentary on the linkages between humans and nature.

A new study reviewing hundreds of scientific papers identified more than 200 unique links through which nature can affect our lives. In a recent Washington Post article, Keith Tidball, CCE's Assistant Director, Natural Resources and the Environment, provides commentary on the linkages between humans and nature.

Balancing prey availability and predator consumption: a multispecies stock assessment for Lake Ontario. By DNRE Ph.D. Student, Kimberly Fitzpatrick. 

DNRE alumnus Radhames Lora Salcedo (MS ’93; PhD ’95) recently received the Oden al Mérito de Duarte,  Sánchez y Mella, the highest distinction conferred by the President of the Dominican Republic to civilians and military  leaders for distinguished service to the Country

Doctoral Grad Is a Leading Researcher of Wildlife Crime Meredith Gore, PhD ’06, travels the world to study the people behind the illegal trade in fauna and flora. 

Five workable solutions to deforestation 

One solution is to prevent unsustainable versions of these products from being sold on the global market. It’s an idea endorsed by Steven Wolf, associate professor of natural resources and the environment at Cornell University, New York.

Floating solar power could help fight climate change — let’s get it right
By Rafa Almeida, Steven Grodsky, and Peter Mcintrye of DNRE
Covering 10% of the world’s hydropower reservoirs with ‘floatovoltaics’ would install as much electrical capacity as is currently available for fossil-fuel power plants. But the environmental and social impacts must be assessed.

Cornell Doctoral Student Janelle Morano is One of Seven Fellows in National Program
Last summer, Janelle Morano was named as New York Sea Grant’s 2021 fellow of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) – Sea Grant Joint Fellowship Program. Through this program, NMFS and Sea Grant provide support to Ph.D. students studying population and ecosystem dynamics and marine resource economics. Janelle is one of seven fellows that began their three-year fellowship ahead of fall 2021. 

Why Did the Salamander Cross the Road?
On a brisk, rainy evening last March, Laura Heady, a biologist, was wearing a reflective orange vest and headlamp, scouring a road near New Paltz, New York. Heady is the director of the Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings Project, a joint effort between the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Cornell University. Additional reading: Good Things: Frogs and Salamanders | WNYC News

EPA Awards $6.7 Million to Cornell University to Monitor Food Web in the Great Lakes Ecosystem
“We at Cornell University, with our collaborators at the Great Lakes Center at SUNY Buffalo State College, are excited to have been selected to monitor biological communities within the Great Lakes ecosystem,” said James Watkins, Ph.D., senior research associate, Cornell University. “This information is indeed vital for assessing the health of these remarkable lakes and for guiding management of one of the largest surface freshwater resources in the world and its fishery.”

DNRE graduate student and Allred Lab member, Aalayna Rae Green, to present at Digital Storytelling Community of Practice on Friday, April 1, 2022 from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Digital storytelling and storytelling practices hold the promise of being democratic, accessible, and empowering for their creators. Offering a chance for this community of practice to meet with a skills workshop will allow our teaching community to deepen or become familiar with an inclusive teaching strategy that helps build digital literacy; research and argumentation skills; and effective, persuasive advocacy techniques. Instructors might incorporate digital storytelling assignments into a course or offer them as alternatives to writing, following the principles of Universal Design for Learning.

Congratulations to Richard Stedman as a Highly Cited Researcher for 2021 by Clarivate
Each year, Clarivate identifies the world’s most influential researchers ─ the select few who have been most frequently cited by their peers over the last decade. In 2021, fewer than 6,700, or about 0.1%, of the world's researchers, in 21 research fields and across multiple fields, have earned this exclusive distinction.

DNRE Ph.D. candidate Anne Armstrong is a co-author on a paper that was a finalist for the AASHE the Campus Sustainability Research Award