Maryland Department of Commerce’s Post

Christopher Schell, a professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, has been selected as a chapter lead for the forthcoming National Nature Assessment. An urban ecologist who studies the social-ecological factors affecting wildlife and people in cities, Schell will guide a team of global experts from universities, research institutes, NGOs, and government agencies to write the assessment's Nature and Equity chapter. The section will delve further into the widening “nature gap” perpetuated across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic strata, review the past and present processes disproportionately affecting nature access, and provide recommendations based in environmental justice praxis. https://lnkd.in/g9GrRESu

We are excited to share that our latest issue of environmental SCIENTIST, Counting on Net Gain, is now fully open access. This issue showcases insights from expert environmental professionals from across the sector ‒ including building, design, law, and ecology ‒ to bring you nuanced and challenging perspectives on the concept of net gain. Articles in this issue examine specific policies, such as the now-mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain, which came into effect in England in February 2024, as well as wider interpretations of the term that extend into the marine environment, infrastructure, building design and the digital sphere. This edition also reveals how environmental professionals are engaging with BNG policy six months on, offering cutting-edge views from the front line of BNG implementation. Thanks once again to all our contributors to this issue: Kerry ten Kate, nick white, Jon Davies, Dr. Tom Henman, David Lowe, Ian Houlston, Dan Carpenter CEnv, Emma Holman-West, Ethny Childs, Ellie Savage, Bruno Agochukwu, Alan Key (MAICD), Thomas Key, Alexa Culver, and Adas Rico Wojtulewicz-Richmond. https://lnkd.in/evKBM8cT

October's edition of the Journal of Environmental Science: Counting on Net Gain is now fully open access - do take a look when you can. "This issue showcases insights from expert environmental professionals from across the sector - including building, design, law and ecology - to bring you nuanced and challenging perspectives on the concept of Net Gain." It was a pleasure to contribute and thank you for the invitation nick white 🦋

“Why environmental science and engineering? Because it provides satisfaction for the curious. The challenges are numerous and intriguing. The impact of your work is significant for all of us living on this pale blue dot we call home.” -Dr. Peter Goodwin, this year's José de Acosta lecturer at University of San Francisco Learn more about the challenges and opportunities in the fast-growing #environmentalmanagement field and gain insights into large ecosystem recovery strategies and examples in our latest blog. https://lnkd.in/eascJWk7 #usfcamsem #usfmsem #ecosystemrecovery #environmentaljustice #environmentalscience University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Restoring Great Salt Lake could have ecological and environmental justice benefits: Study https://lnkd.in/evjp2-3i

Excellent to see Cornell professor Ivan Rudik contributing to something so critical: valuing nature. From 1997-2011 alone, we humans collectively destroyed somewhere between $4.3 and $20.2 trillion of nature's ecosystem services PER YEAR. It's critical that countries grasp the value of their natural ecosystems and services, such as fisheries, forests, wetlands, clean air, water bodies, and many more so we are absolutely clear on what we are giving up as a result of our historically narrow definitions of GDP and growth (which utterly fail to take a holistic view).

We've been posting this week about several research awards made to CEE faculty recently, described here: "Stanford physicians, lawyers, engineers, food security experts, geophysicists, and others soon will collaborate to develop an early warning system for wildfire smoke pollution, make agriculture more sustainable, uncover industrial slavery, and more. The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment is awarding nearly $5 million to 24 faculty teams pursuing solutions to major environmental challenges through interdisciplinary research and translation of discoveries. In addition to six Big Ideas for Oceans projects and two Human and Planetary Health Early Career Award projects receiving Woods support, the Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) and Realizing Environmental Innovation Program (REIP) will support 16 innovative projects. EVP provides up to $250,000 per faculty research team for interdisciplinary research that seeks to identify solutions to pressing problems of the environment and sustainability. REIP provides up to $500,000, and is intended to provide next stage funding to move existing interdisciplinary environmental research projects toward solutions implemented by public stakeholders and private market actors. Since EVP began in 2004 and REIP began in 2015, Woods has awarded more than $30 million in grants to 182 research teams representing all seven of Stanford’s schools and working in 37 different countries. These projects have gone on to receive more than $90 million in additional funding from other sources." Read an overview of the program at https://lnkd.in/gAStXfAG. Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University Professor Stephen Monismith will collaborate with Nicole Ardoin, Fiorenza Micheli and Robert Dunbar on the project, "Balancing conservation and fishing community needs" thanks to one of these awards. You can read more about the project at the link below. https://lnkd.in/gD-jJV4K

Environmental peacebuilding promises to transform conflict by transforming environmental governance. In my latest article with Kasper Hoffmann (open access in Ecology & Society),we take a critical look at the discourse and practice of environmental peacebuilding, which, we argue, create "Dangerous Environments” (portraying natures in the Global South as potential threats). We analyze how environmental peacebuilding is grounded in particular practices of knowledge production that establish it as a conceptually narrow and self-referential field. This not only leads to inadequate analyses of key drivers of conflict and violence, but also blinds scholars and practitioners to the broader power-knowledge effects of environmental peacebuilding. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/ebAT-zjG

The GWC in 2024 is working to revitalize the Colorado River Research Group (CRRG), a group of prominent academics and close colleagues offering an “independent, scientific voice” on key Colorado River issues. The CRRG was formed in 2014, and has produced policy briefs on many salient subjects, including basin hydrology and climatology, reservoir operations, Tribal water rights, environmental restoration, and water conservation. The most recent CRRG policy brief was issued earlier this month, and is entitled: “Imagining the River We Deserve: How the Post-2026 Rulemaking is Only One Step Towards Sustainability”. Echoing the theme of the upcoming June conference, the publication acknowledges that the current post-2026 rulemaking is critically important in stabilizing the two big reservoirs on the system. That work should not, however, distract attention from the much grander goals of the Colorado River community for a healthy, sustainable river managed in a holistic fashion. The Colorado, after all, is the ecological and cultural centerpiece of the Southwest; it’s much more than a plumbing system. Post-2026, its unclear whether there’s a clear process, or set of processes, for getting all this work done. The CRRG intends to play a role in shaping and informing those discussions. Karletta Chief Associate Professor & Extension Specialist Historian, UA Native Faculty Association | Dept. of Environmental Science, University of Arizona Bonnie G. Colby, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics | University of Arizona John Fleck Director of Water Resources, Department of Economics | University of New Mexico Karl Flessa Professor of Geosciences | University of Arizona Kristiana Hansen Associate Professor and Extension Water Resource Economist, Dept. of Agricultural and Applied Economics | University of Wyoming Osvel Hinojosa-Huerta Director of the Coastal Solutions Fellows Program, Lab of Ornithology | Cornell University Doug Kenney Western Water Policy Program Director GWC | University of Colorado Law School Eric Kuhn Colorado River District; General Manager (retired) Matthew McKinney Co-Facilitator, Water & Tribes Initiative, Colorado River Basin / Director, Center for Natural Resources & Environmental Policy | University of Montana Jonathan Overpeck Dean, School for Environment and Sustainability | University of Michigan Jason Robison Carl M. Williams Professor of Law & Social Responsibility | University of Wyoming College of Law John Schmidt Director, Center for Colorado River Studies, Watershed Sciences | Utah State University Kathryn Sorensen Director of Research, Kyl Center for Water Policy at Morrison Institute | Senior Global Futures Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, Arizona State University Bradley Udall Senior Water and Climate Research Scientist/Scholar, Colorado State University, Colorado Water Institute https://lnkd.in/gEyNrY68

It can be challenging to remain positive about our sustainable future when there are so many environmental problems to solve. But there are many people at The University of Georgia who are working hard to tackle environmental challenges. If you find yourself addicted to environmental doomscrolling, check out the link below to find out how students and faculty in the Odum School of Ecology are helping to solve some of our most pressing environmental problems. https://lnkd.in/ex3hvB6G