College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley

Maurice and Catherine Tauber, alumni of the doctoral program in Entomology at CNR, have been elected honorary fellows of the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco.

Maurice and Catherine met in the 1960s as graduate students, receiving their doctorates in 1967 and 1968 respectively. They went on to enjoy a long and successful partnership studying insect seasonality, evolutionary biology and speciation, biological control, and systematics at Cornell.

The Taubers are recently retired and now reside in Davis, California.

Read more about the Taubers

Posted by Eva St. Clair at 10:12 PM | Permalink

Andaman Discoveries, a non-profit organization founded by CNR alumnus Bodhi Garrett, is among twelve finalists in the 2009 BBC World Challenge. The BBC World Challenge recognizes "innovative business projects that increase investment into the local community and take a responsible approach to the environment in which they are operating." Andaman Discoveries was chosen by a jury of high-level executives from Shell, BBC World, the World Bank, IUCN, and Newsweek. The World Challenge winner, selected from among the twelve finalists by BBC viewers and readers via online voting, receives a $20,000 grant.

"Our connection to the villages comes from rebuilding our lives together, and our projects focus on the big picture, empowering people to define their own future. This means that, along with responsible tourism, we also support scholarships for 120 kids, reforestation, [and] a community development network," says Garrett.

CNR's Breakthroughs Magazine featured Garrett in its Summer 2008 Issue: Bodhi Garrett: After the Wave.

Posted by Eva St. Clair at 9:33 PM | Permalink

A recent graduate of the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management has been named State Director for Rural Development by the Obama administration.

Dr. Glenda Humiston recently finished her doctoral degree in the Division of Society and Environment. Her dissertation was entitled "Sustainable Agriculture as U.S. Farm Policy: Opportunities and Threats to Reform."

Dr. Humiston served as Deputy Under Secretary of the USDA from 1998 to 2001 where she managed all aspects of USDA conservation mission and environmental programs, a $1.4 Billion budget and over 11,000 employees. Dr. Humiston is continuing her 20+ years of work facilitating local community's efforts for sustainable development.

"These [state directors] will be important advocates on behalf of rural communities in states throughout the country and will help administer the valuable programs and services provided by the USDA that can enhance their economic success," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Posted by Eva St. Clair at 9:10 PM | Permalink

Come back to Cal on October 2-4! You can register online and then check out who's coming.

Be sure to check out these fascinating lectures by CNR professors:

Friday, October 2

John Taylor, Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology 9:30-10:30 am Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall

Some fungi specialize as parasites of animals, including humans. Two such species, Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii, cause valley fever, a potentially fatal flu-like illness that mostly affects rural residents in the Southwest. This seminar will focus on how we have found genes that show evidence of natural selection and might be important to preventing or treating the disease.

"The Buzz on Bees: Why We Need Them for Our Health"

Claire Kremen, Associate Professor, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Bechtel Engineering Center Sibley Auditorium
2:00 - 3:00 pm

We rely on animal pollinators for 30 percent of our food supply, but what is happening to the bees? One of 20,000 bee species worldwide, honey bees are facing such problems as Colony Collapse Disorder, making them disappear from where we need them most. While many other species can contribute to crop pollination and thus human food security and well-being, we must adopt sustainable farming practices that provide good habitats and ensure that bee communities will thrive.

Saturday, October 3

Maximilian Auffhammer, Associate Professor, Agriculture & Resource Economics/International & Area Studies Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall 11:30 - 12:30 pm

Environmental economists have attempted to gain a better understanding of past, current, and future greenhouse gas emissions by studying emissions from developing versus developed countries. Professor Auffhammer will discuss how they can predict and comprehend the impacts of climate change and how these effects will influence current and future environmental policy.

"Aging: Genetic Regulation and Dietary Intervention"

Danica Chen, Assistant Professor, Department of Nutritional Science and Toxicology
Barrows Hall Lipman Room
1:00 - 2:00 pm

Can we slow aging and prevent age-related diseases? This seminar will explore the latest development on how genetic factors and diet regulate the aging process, and how small molecules are designed to prevent age-related diseases. Taking a pill a day to slow aging may not be a fairy tale after all.

Posted by Eva St. Clair at 9:58 PM | Permalink

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Talley Vineyards, a family-run winemaker where growing is overseen by CNR alum Brian Talley (Political Economy of Natural Resources '88), seems to have captured the essence of wine country and brought it to San Luis Obispo County.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/22/FDKF17HC0R.DTL

Posted by Cyril at 3:16 PM | Permalink

CNR Advisory Board member and Cal alum John Scharffenberger, says a profile article in Inc. magazine, has played a crucial part of the gourmeting of America. He got his start making fine chocolate and now he plans to create an American version of Iberian ham.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090501/john-scharffenberger-the-tastemaker.html

Posted by Cyril at 3:11 PM | Permalink

From goldmanprize.org:

Working to reduce the impact of Bangladesh’s exploitative and environmentally-devastating ship breaking industry, leading environmental attorney Syeda Rizwana Hasan spearheaded a legal battle resulting in increased government regulation and heightened public awareness about the dangers of ship breaking.

Hasan is a 2003 alumna of CNR's renowned Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program, which provides mid-career professionals and policymakers from around the globe with an opportunity to interact with UC Berkeley faculty engaged in up-to-date research and policy analysis on sustainable environmental management.

Bangladesh is one of only a few countries in the world with a thriving ship breaking industry. Decommissioned ships from around the world are sent to Bangladesh and dismantled by hand on the beaches by unskilled workers who are often paid less than one dollar per day....

Continue reading "ELP Alumna wins Goldman Environmental Prize" »

Posted by Cyril at 1:27 PM | Permalink

Wine from the Sonoma Valley wasn't always so glamorous. Jim Bundschu recalls his dad hanging out at the kitchen table with California Burgundy jug pioneer August Sebastiani, playing the card game Pedro in the early 1960s. "They'd be drinking wine out of peanut butter jars while my mom made slumgulleon," says Bundschu, who oversees the vineyards of the Gundlach Bundschu estate in the hilly Carneros region of Sonoma. But in 1966, with a stiff new diploma in agricultural economics, Bundschu recognized the potential, maybe not for glamour, but certainly to create something extraordinary.

Read the story in Breakthroughs...

Posted by Cyril at 12:08 PM | Permalink

CNR Forestry alumnus Mike Jani has had a big transition on his hands this summer as the Mendocino Redwood Company took possession of the holdings of the bankrupt Pacific Lumber Company (PALCO) in Humboldt County, Calif. Jani is president and chief forester of Mendocino Redwood and its new subsidiary, Humboldt Redwood Company.

Among the issues handed over by PALCO were the last two tree-sitters living in the giant redwoods of Nanning Creek grove. The activists were part of a 20-year battle to protect old-growth redwood giants from PALCO's aggressive harvesting practices.

As reported by the Associated Press, the protesters agreed to come down after Jani hiked into the woods to meet the tree-sitters.

"I went out, looked at the trees, looked at the stand of trees that were around them and I explained to them that under our policy, we would not be cutting those trees," said Jani, a 35-year veteran of logging companies.

Protecting old-growth trees was part of the plan that Humboldt Redwood, largely owned by Don and Doris Fisher of The Gap Inc., submitted to acquire Pacific Lumber in bankruptcy court. It also pledged to avoid cutting down trees in vast swaths, or clear-cutting, a practice that the timber giant had aggressively practiced under its previous owner, Maxxam Inc.

Since the owners of Humboldt Redwood had a track record... environmentalists are cautiously optimistic that it will do as it promises, including sparing any redwood born prior to 1800 with a diameter of at least four feet.

So for weeks, the tree-sitters at the Nanning Creek and Fern Gully groves, where Pacific Lumber timber harvest plans had ancient trees on the chopping block, have been clearing out their encampments, removing their platforms and figuring out what to do with the rest of their lives.

Posted by Cyril at 11:21 AM | Permalink

When Michael Rodriguez replied to an ad for undergraduate research subjects, he had no idea it would be the beginning of his career as a medical researcher and physician. His intent had been to be a guinea pig, but Sharon Fleming, professor of nutritional sciences and toxicology, suggested he come aboard as a researcher instead. Rodriguez agreed to the higher-paying gig and went to work studying the effects of fiber on the digestive system. He ended up as a co-author on the resulting research paper. "I probably wouldn't be here without her," Rodriguez says.

Read the full story in Breakthroughs...

Posted by Cyril at 12:04 PM | Permalink

At 97 years old, Claude Wagner still sings the forestry summer-camp song from memory: "A doc or law I'm not going to be, I'm going to study forestry." A 1933 graduate of the School of Forestry, Wagner stuck to the song's promise and joined the Forest Service-about what you'd expect from someone whose favorite course was silviculture (the art and practice of forestry management).

Read the story in Breakthroughs...

Posted by Cyril at 12:01 PM | Permalink

Posted by Cyril at 6:05 PM | Permalink

Alumnus John Muir Laws, CRS '89, featured in The Washington Post:

He took his first hike into the Sierra Nevada, the landscape of his obsession, while still in the womb. His parents named him John Muir Laws. He once spent a week searching for a single perfect orchid to paint. He says, "I am constantly amazed by things." Such as? "The diversity of chipmunks." He is not joking. He cares about newts. If asked, he does an excellent imitation of a startled vole. He has opinions about beetles.

This fall, he published "The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada." It is 366 pages long and contains 2,800 illustrations, each painted by Laws. The new field guide, already praised by outdoor connoisseurs as a naturalist's bible, begins with "Small Fungi Growing on Wood" (specifically, Calocera cornea, the staghorn jelly fungus) and ends with stars (the night sky at winter solstice, Dec. 22). It is small enough to slip into your pocket but includes 1,700 species of flowers, trees, bugs, frogs, snails, skinks, birds, fish, rodents. It took him six years. The world needs more of this -- this kind of sustained, informed, deep gee-whizdom....

Read the rest of the article.

Posted by Cyril at 3:36 PM | Permalink

By Bill Dennison, Cal Forestry alum & past president of the California Forestry Association

The U.S. Forest Service recently became the first federal agency to register with the California Climate Action Registry, a first step to track greenhouse gas emissions attributable to global climate change from U.S. Forest Service operations.

But it's not nearly enough.

Continue reading "Opinion: Thinning trees helps environment" »

Posted by Cyril at 1:59 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

A new book co-edited by a CNR alumna attempts to answer a question familiar to anyone concerned with climate change:

"What can I do?"

Ignition: What You Can Do to Fight Global Warming and Spark a Movement, co-edited by Sissel Waage, ESPM Ph.D. '00, features a wide array of authors ranging from activists to scholars to students, who each discuss what the average person can do to turn their private concerns into public action.

The book recently received a positive review in the LA Times.

Continue reading "What you can do to fight global warming and spark a movement" »

Posted by Stephanie Ludwig at 11:34 AM | Permalink

Nina "Maggi" Kelly, along with eight other former Cal student-athletes, has been selected for induction into the California Athletic Hall of Fame.

Kelly is an associate specialist in Cooperative Extension, adjunct associate professor of ecosystem sciences, and director for the Geospatial Imaging & Informatics Facility.

She played for the Cal women's water polo team at the club level from 1983-87 before it was elevated to varsity status. A member of the U.S. National team for 10 years (1987-94, 1997-98), she competed in four World Championships and was named the USA Water Polo Female Athlete of the Year in 1992. Kelly was also the top U.S. goal-scorer at the World Championships in Rome in 1994.

Inducted into the U.S. Water Polo Hall of Fame in 2006, Kelly was a part of three national club championships while playing for the Bears. After receiving her bachelor's degree in geography, Kelly earned a master's degree from North Carolina in 1991 and a Ph.D. from Colorado in 1996.

Posted by Cyril at 3:45 PM | Permalink

From the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle:

Some of the world's best evidence of global warming was buried under 18 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada last winter, and [UC Berkeley Forestry alumna] Connie Millar was determined to dig it out.

Millar, a veteran field scientist for the U.S. Forest Service, sweated uphill with three colleagues on a July morning, headed deep into Lundy Canyon, just north of Mono Lake, one of the few access points to the Sierra crest along its rugged eastern flank....

This story also quotes Forestry alumnus Bob Coats.

Read the full story: WATER SIGNS
Miniature rock glaciers. Drying meadows. Warming lakes. High-elevation studies try to predict the impact of climate change

Posted by Cyril at 8:31 AM | Permalink

From the SF Chronicle's science writer Carl Hall, featuring CNR alumnae Ann Dennis and Connie Millar:

Stately corpses of bristlecone pine trees, some dead for 2,000 years but still refusing to lie down, stood watch last week as botanist Ann Dennis and a crew of naturalists stepped off plots on the shoulders of 14,246-foot White Mountain Peak near the Nevada border.

Working more than 10,000 feet above the sunbaked floor of the Owens Valley, the scientists were transforming one of California's highest mountaintops into a living laboratory of climate change.

Dennis and her colleagues are part of a global network of mountain-climbing researchers, all using precisely the same methods to observe the impact of global warming at high altitudes on five continents simultaneously....

http://tinyurl.com/j4g7f

Posted by Cyril at 4:27 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

Networking events can really help students with their career choices, and those who attended the Environmental Alumni & Students Mixer on Sept. 30 certainly got their share of information and resources.

Over 50 students were introduced to environmental professionals who are making a difference and who were willing to answer career questions and provide support and encouragement.

Sponsored jointly by the Career Center, College of Natural Resources Student Affairs, and the Berkeley Environmental Alumni Network (BEAN), this event could inspire a new Homecoming tradition in CNR!

Posted by Eva St. Clair at 10:29 AM | Permalink

Friday, Sept. 30, 2005
5:00-7:00 PM
114 Morgan Hall (Lounge & Patio)

All students and alumni invited for some fun and information!

Come chat with Berkeley alumni who are working in the multi-faceted environmental field. Find out what alums are doing and what advice they have for students who want to work in the environmental field. Light refreshments will be served.

Co-sponsors: Career Center, BEAN (Berkeley Environmental Alumni Network) & College of Natural Resources
LIST OF ALUMNI ATTENDING:

Emily Sadigh
(Formerly Harvard Green Campus Initiative)
Institutional greening

Emily Lee
Program Associate
Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security
BA Environmental Sciences

William Hull
Program Officer
Consultative Group on Biological Diversity
BS Bioresource Sciences
MA Public Private Management Yale
Environmental Philanthropy, Association Management

Heidi Melander
Senior Associate
Brown, Vence & Associates
BS Conservation Resource Studies
Waste Management/Recycling/Zero Waste

David Jaber
Natural Logic
MS Environmental Engineering
Sustainability, strategy, waste prevention,
energy-efficiency, and performance metrics

Ian Hart
Communications Director
Pacific Institute
MA Public Policy
Environmental Policy & Communications

Garth Schultz
Recycling Coordinator-Fremont/ Allied Waste Services
BS Environmental Sciences, Minor Public Policy
Recycling, Waste Management, Fundraising, Political Organizing, Activism

Alexis Petru
Waste Prevention Specialist
City of El Cerrito
BA Anthropology 2003
Nonprofit and public sector, solid waste and recycling

Robin Lee
Water Resource Engineer
Brown and Caldwell
MS Environmental Engineering
Water Resources

Howard Chong
Grad Student, Agriculture & Resource Economics
UCB
BS, EECS/MSE
PhD student Agriculture & Resource Economics
Water, economics, public policy

David Behnken
Staff Engineer
Geomatrix Consultants
BS Environmental Engineering & Science (2003)
Environmental Systems Engineer

Bryan Turner
Project Geologist
Geomatrix Consultants
MS Environmental Engineering. BA Geology
Environmental Consulting

Tegan Churcher Hoffmann
Principal
T.C. Hoffmann & Associates
BS CRS, MA/PhD Geography
Protected Area management, monitoring and evaluation, sustainable tourism, coastal issues, International

Jeff Tudd
Hydraulic Engineer
WRECO
BA Environmental Sciences
Water Resources, Hydrology, Wetland Restoration/Creation, Fish Passage, Bridge Design Hydraulics, Flood Control, Drainage Design, Stormwater Quality, Erosion Control, and Design of Storm Drain, Sewer, and Water Systems.

Robin Bedell-Waite
Green Business Program Coordinator
Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials
MA City & Regional Planning, MA Public Health
Pollution Prevention & Program Development, Green Business

Michael Baefsky
Environmental Consultant
Baefsky & Associates
BS Pest Management
Integrated Pest Management, Arborculture, Eco-soils management

Margaret Chang
Permit Manager
US Army Corps of Engineers (not the military)
BS Molecular Environmental Biology
Regulatory, Policy, Federal government

Rafael Friedmann
Sr. Policy Analyst
PG&E
Strategic Research & Evaluation, Customer Energy Efficiency Dept.
PhD Energy & Resources Group
BA Energy Engineering, solar energy U. Autonoma Metropolitana: MSc Mech Engineering, Israel Institute of Technology
Energy efficiency, renewables, public governance

Bill Monsen
Principal
MRW & Associates
BS Engineering Physics UCB, MS Mechanical Eng U Wisconsin-Madison
Electric utilities, development of electric generating facilities, utility rates, utility regulatory policy

Tami Cosio
Environmental Scientist
Stillwater Sciences
BS Env Sciences 2001
Channel surveying, avian surveys, invertebrate sampling and floodplain restoration projects

Ryan Peek
Fisheries & Wildlife Biologist
Stillwater Sciences
BS Wildlife, Fisheries & Conservation Bio, UC Davis 2002
Herpetology, Ichthyology, Stream Ecology)

Wiley Osborn
Freelance GIS Programmer
Former Employer: Contra Costa Community Development Dept
BA Geography

Rachel Balsley
Program Manager
StopWaste.Org (Alameda County Recyling Board)
BS BioResource Science
Waste prevention, recycling, solid waste management and environmentally preferable purchasing

Han-Bin Liang
President
WRECO
PhD Civil Engineering
Area of Expertise: Water Resources, Hydrology, Wetland Restoration/Creation, Fish Passage, Bridge Design Hydraulics, Flood Control, Drainage Design, Stormwater Quality, Erosion Control, and Design of Storm Drain, Sewer, and Water Systems.

Posted by Eva St. Clair at 9:40 AM | Permalink