February 2019
Talk – The Gains of Going Green: Opportunities for Collaborative Research with TNC in Maine
Speaker: Andy Cutko, Director of Science, The Nature Conservancy in Maine From forests to fisheries and wildlife to waters, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Maine is committed to understanding how Maine’s ecosystems work and the many ways in which they’re vitally connected to Maine people. Andy Cutko will describe some of TNC’s multi-faceted efforts in Maine, focusing on TNC’s interests in applied conservation science. He will discuss several existing collaborative research projects with the University, including river restoration, forest ecology, and social…
Find out more »Talk – Conservation Science for Changing Times: An Emerging Trans-disciplinary Research Program at UMaine
Speakers: Faculty from UMaine's NSF Research Traineeship Team Global and local changes in environmental, social, and climatic conditions increasingly stress, alter, or degrade ecosystems and human quality of life despite continued efforts to develop integrated natural and human models that help support effective decision-making. In response, many organizations focus on managing for resilient human-natural systems—those that are able to respond and adapt to the effects of rapid change. Our recently awarded National Science Foundation Research Traineeship grant will create a…
Find out more »March 2019
Talk – Talking Trash: Creating a Circular Food System in Maine
Speakers: Food Waste Reduction Student Team This work highlights the benefits of approaching food waste management from an interdisciplinary perspective. While there have been many efforts to combat wasted food, the problem is complex and solutions have remained elusive. This research group brings together different disciplines (nursing, anthropology, economics, biomedical and civil engineering) across educational stages (undergraduate and graduate students and faculty) in order to approach the issue of wasted food from multiple perspectives. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, this team…
Find out more »Talk – Reinventing the Forest Community: Honoring Tradition While Igniting Innovation
Speaker: Rob Riley, President, Northern Forest Center This discussion will explore the relationship Maine’s communities have had with the forest, how it continues to evolve as regional and global economies impact traditional industries, and ways the Northern Forest Center is renewing pride, purpose and vitality of these communities to create continuous opportunity in a new forest future. Rob Riley joined the Center in 2007 as director of programs, leading development of new programs emerging from the Center’s Sustainable Economy Initiative…
Find out more »Talk – A Little Engine That Could: A Small Organization’s Role Fostering Conservation and Community Connections
Speaker: Billy Helprin, Director, Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary, Somesville, Maine The Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary was established in 1985 with a mission of wildlife habitat conservation and ecological education in the Somes Pond watershed, but today reaches well beyond with its education and research work. Long term and more recent research and monitoring projects include loon breeding success, alewife migration, aquatic invasive species surveys, and Courtesy Boat Inspections for aquatic invasives. The Sanctuary has been a host site for the University of…
Find out more »April 2019
Talk – Can People Be ‘Nudged’ To Improve Water Quality? Evidence from Large-Scale Economic Experiments
Speaker: Kent Messer, S. Hallock du Pont Professor of Applied Economics, University of Delaware Popularized by the best-selling book “Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness”, governments around the globe have developed “nudge squads” in an effort to use behavioral science to achieve pro-social behavioral change at little or no cost. Most of the existing research has focused on individuals making choices that effect their own wellbeing. Yet often people’s decisions to helping society and the environment involve significant…
Find out more »Talk – A River Runs Through It: Combining ‘Heritage’ and River Restoration in Southern New England
Co-sponsor: UMaine Dept. of History Brian Payne Associate Professor, History and Canadian Studies, Bridgewater State University What role does “heritage” play in environmental protection? Because of the blended landscape of New England, environmental stewardship must take into greater account human history in regional planning. As such, historians can play an effective role in environmental and resource stewardship by adding the power of “heritage” to campaigns to protect ecosystems. Heritage, however, is a rather selected reading of history and so this process can…
Find out more »Talk – Developing Relocation Policies for Environmental Refugees: The Adverse Consequences of Treating Assumptions as Facts
Speaker: Amanda Bertana, Postdoctoral Fellow, Scholars Strategy Network, Maine Chapter Today as climate change makes areas less hospitable (specifically along global coastlines), relocation is becoming an increasingly more viable adaptation strategy. In fact, whole communities have begun planning to relocate, or have relocated. At the national level, some governments have started to draft relocation policies. When governments omit communities from these decision-making processes, however, they fall into the trap of making policies about what they think people need and want based…
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