“Tick, Talk” on March 2 covered by The Maine Campus

Tick, TalkThe March 2 Sustainability lecture, “Tick, Talk: Integrating biological and social science research to address ticks and Lyme disease in Maine,” by Dr. Carly Sponarski was featured in a recent article by The Maine Campus, UMaine’s student newspaper. The talk focused on the intersections between tick ecology in Maine, land management decisions, and the exposure of landowners and forest workers to ticks and tick-borne disease.

Dr. Sponarski is an assistant professor of Wildlife, Fisheries & Conservation Biology and a Mitchell Center faculty fellow. She outlined and gave updates on a study that “integrate[s] natural and social science research, extension, and education to develop and test adaptive land management practices to protect private forest landowners, foresters, and loggers against exposure to tick-borne disease.” The researchers are now starting the second year of the three-year project.

The results of this study will be used to “inform practical recommendations to mitigate the impacts of climate change on tick-borne disease transmission that are based on scientific data and compatible with landowners’ economic interests.”

View a video of this talk, as well as previous talks from this semester and in past years, here.