ForewordFriday: Understanding Fragmentation

By Chidinma Onuoha / On June 7th, 2019
Migrating wildlife species across the globe face a dire predicament as their traditional migratory routes are cut off by human encroachment. Forced into smaller and smaller patches of habitat, they must compete more aggressively for dwindling food resources and territory. This is more than just an unfortunate side effect of human progress. As key species populations dwindle, ecosystems are losing resilience and face collapse, and along with them, the ecosystem services we depend on. Healthy ecosystems need healthy wildlife populations. One possible answer?

Determining When Trees Are Drought Stressed

By Richard Waring / On February 18th, 2019
Unlike most annual crops, the roots of long-lived trees can penetrate through soils to great depth to reach water (Figure 1).  If we can’t tell how deeply roots penetrate, how do we determine when trees run out of water?  One way is to monitor the moisture status of leaves and twigs, because these are connected through the sapwood in branches, stems, and roots to water deep underground.

Natural Defenses Could Fix Our Growing Antibiotic Resistance Problem

By Emily Monosson / On August 3rd, 2017
Untreatable gonorrhea is now a reality—and a sign of a growing threat to public health. Last month, the World Health Organization reported that some strains of the sexually transmitted disease are completely resistant to antibiotics. That means that unless something changes, when the inevitable college student ends up at Student Health with that burning sensation, there may be no respite.  
Stephen R. Kellert | Island Press

Farewell Stephen

By Jason Leppig / On November 30th, 2016
From the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Stephen R. Kellert ’71 Ph.D., a revered professor of social ecology at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) whose research and writing advanced the understanding of the connection between humans and the natural world, died on Nov. 27 after a long illness.

Peter Newman's Resilient Cities: The Sustainable Transport City

By Peter Newman / On August 10th, 2016
The agenda for cities of the future is to have more sustainable transport options available so that a city can indeed reduce its traffic whilst reducing its greenhouse gases 50 percent by 2050 (the global agenda set through the International Panel on Climate Change). For many cities the reduction of car use is not yet on the agenda apart from seeing it as an obviously good thing to do. Unfortunately for most cities traffic growth has been continuous and appears to be unstoppable. 
Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Conservation in a world of uncertainty and change

By Charles G. Curtin / On October 20th, 2015
What does it mean to conserve is an era of ever growing rates of cultural, social, and ecological change? One dictionary definition of conservation I found defined it as the act of preserving, guarding, or protecting. But what does one guard or protect when gone is the certainty that even a particular habitat, species, park or preserve will remain viable in the relatively near future (next 100 or so years). What does that mean for how we conceive of conservation?

#ForewordFriday: Religion Edition

By Katharine Sucher / On September 25th, 2015
What does religion have to do with the environment? Let John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker explain in their must-read book, Ecology and Religion. Grim and Tucker argue that the engagement of religious communities is necessary if humanity is to sustain itself and the planet. As the Pope wraps up his visit to the US, check out this important text on the burgeoning field of religious ecology.

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