Conservation

Being in the moment: A student’s reflection from the VT Ecuador Study Abroad Trip

STUDENT REFLECTIONS FROM THE 2018 VT ECUADOR STUDY ABROAD TRIP

Written by Mark Feinberg, Undergraduate Student in the Water: Resources, Policy and Management Program within the College of Natural Resources

This trip has been the best experience in nature that I have ever had. We have visited places with the most amazing wildlife and food. In the highlands of the Andes, for example, we went to a lodge that had hundreds of hummingbirds. They would even land on you if you ...

1
JUN

Biodiversity, Blog, Conservation, Undergraduate Experiential Learning

William Hopkins receives Mitchell A. Byrd Award for outstanding achievement in ornithology

From VT News

BY KRISTA TIMNEY | MAY 23, 2018

William Hopkins, professor of wildlife in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, received the 2018 Mitchell A. Byrd Award for outstanding scientific achievement in ornithology from the Virginia Society of Ornithology.

Hopkins, who directs the Global Change Center, housed in Virginia ...

24
MAY

Accolades, Conservation, Faculty Spotlight, News

Owner’s connection to the land plays a major role in conservation efforts

From VT News

BY KRISTA TIMNEY | MAY 21, 2018

Some say location is everything, but when it comes to land conservation and management, it’s a landowner’s involvement and interest in working the land that matter more than residing on the property.

This finding is the result of a recent study led by Michael Sorice, associate professor of conservation social science, ...

22
MAY

Conservation, News, Research

Ground Zero of Amphibian ‘Apocalypse’ Finally Found

From National Geographic

BY MICHAEL GRESHKO | MAY 10, 2018

Many of the world’s amphibians are staring down an existential threat: an ancient skin-eating fungus that ...

11
MAY

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation

Neonicotinoids, or neonics, will be banned for outdoor use in Europe thanks to environmental concerns

From National Geographic

BY STEPHEN LEAHY | APRIL 27, 2018

The European Union plans to ban the world’s most widely used insecticides in an effort to protect bees and other valuable pollinator insects.

The ban, approved by member countries Friday, targets insecticide compounds known as neonicotinoids (also called neonics for short). The ban ...

2
MAY

Conservation, News, Sustainable Agriculture

Personal outreach to landowners is vital to conservation program success

From VT News

April 5, 2018 | Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment research published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE shows that private landowners trust conservation agencies more and have better views of program outcomes when they accompany conservation biologists who are monitoring habitat management on their land.

Engaging private landowners in conservation and sustaining that interest is critically important, particularly in the eastern United States, where more than 80 percent of land is privately owned. Outreach from ...

6
APR

Conservation, New Publications, News, Outreach

Human-centered design is key to forming partnerships for large-scale conservation success

From VT News

March 22, 2018 | To recruit more fishers to help with marine conservation, cast a wider net.

This is the conclusion of a new study by Virginia Tech researchers who examined participation in a payment for ecosystem services program. The study modeled preferences of fishers in Chile in creating and monitoring marine protected areas inside their fishing management zones.

Lead author Michael Sorice, an associate professor of conservation social science ...

23
MAR

Accolades, Conservation, Ideas, New Publications, News

Using satellite data recently made public, conservationists may be able to manage the massive industry

From National Geographic

By Sarah Gibbens | February 22, 2018

How do you study the world’s more widespread predator? By spying from space.

When a team of researchers set out to see how prevalent industrial fishing was around the world—who was fishing where and when—they were met with a dearth of information.

8
MAR

Blog, Conservation, Global Change, News, Water

Leandro Castello’s research explores links between deforestation and fisheries yields in the Amazon

From VT News:

The conversion of tropical forests to crop and pastureland has long been a concern for scientists, as forest loss can lead to decreased rainfall, increased droughts, and degraded freshwater ecosystems. A new study points to another unexpected consequence: changes in fish production.

The study, led by Leandro Castello, assistant professor of fisheries in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, explores how deforestation along the Amazon River floodplain affects fisheries yields. The study was published online Dec. ...

21
DEC

Conservation, Global Change

Private landowners will be critical partners in efforts to save coastal marshes

From VT News

While popular with conservation groups, coastal easements that prevent development in order to protect marshland are not favored by property owners, according to researchers from Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment and the University of Connecticut.

Findings from a study published this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offer broad implications for how to best design programs to ...

10
AUG

Climate Change, Conservation

Ashley Dayer’s research calls for enhancing long-term conservation benefits of Farm Bill programs

From VT News

Many farmers, ranchers, and landowners rely on voluntary conservation incentive programs within the Farm Bill to make improvements to their land and operations that benefit them, the environment, and society.

According to a recent study by researchers from Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment and Point Blue Conservation Science published in the scientific journal Conservation Letters, it is necessary to find ways to sustain the benefits from these practices after the incentive program ends. This finding is crucial ...

28
JUL

Conservation

Reintroduction of Critically Endangered Frogs in Panama: first release marks important milestone

Smithsonian Scientists Release Frogs Wearing Mini Radio Transmitters Into Panamanian Wilderness

Lisa Belden, Angie Estrada, and Daniel Medina are Global Change Center affiliates in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech. Their amphibian research was recently featured in the following video and online article at The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. The article originally appeared as a blog post on the website of the Amphibian Rescue & Conservation Project.

“Ninety Limosa harlequin frogs (Atelopus limosus) bred in human care are braving the elements of ...

5
JUN

Biodiversity, Conservation, Disease, Interfaces of Global Change IGEP, Research, Student Spotlight

New position at VT builds social science capacity within the bird conservation community

From VT News

With many bird populations declining, scientists are looking for new ways to help protect and conserve vital species.

Thanks to a partnership with the North American Bird Conservation Initiative, Virginia Tech is now home to a new, high-profile position that aims to build social science capacity within the bird conservation community through research, partnerships, and outreach.

According to Ashley Dayer, assistant professor of human dimensions in the College of Natural Resources and Environment’s Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, ...

6
FEB

Conservation

Ashley Dayer shows that citizen scientists’ data can be used for bird conservation

Dr. Ashley Dayer is a conservation social scientist and new faculty hire in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech. Dr. Dayer is also a new affiliated faculty member in the Global Change Center. Her most recent publication in the journal Biological Conservation was highlighted in the following article on Cornell’s All About Birds website.

From All About Birds:

Save an endangered species, protect eagles from wind turbines, expand protected lands, or even outlaw drones from bothering wildlife. It doesn’t matter who you ...

25
JUL

Conservation, News

IGC Fellow, Cordie Diggins, defends her dissertation

On June 30, 2016, Interfaces of Global Change Fellow, Cordie Diggins, successfully defended her dissertation in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech. Her seminar was titled, “Determining Habitat Associations of Virginia and Carolina Northern Flying Squirrels in the Appalachian Mountains from Bioacoustic and Telemetry Surveys”.

Dr. Diggins will start a post doctoral appointment in August with the USGS Virginia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. She will be studying the federally endangered spruce-fir moss spider, as well as ...

6
JUL

Conservation, Interfaces of Global Change IGEP, Student Spotlight

Postcards from the field: Brandon Semel in Madagascar

POSTCARD from:

Brandon Semel, Ph.D. student in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation

“I’m currently writing this at 2:30 am, Madagascar time, as I wait for the local taxi brousse (or bush taxi) to take me from the small town of Daraina to the coastal cities of Vohemar and Sambava where I can finalize my research permits. Let’s just say that things here don’t always go according to a western schedule, as my ride is already half an hour late ...

22
JUN

Biodiversity, Conservation, Interfaces of Global Change IGEP, Postcards, Student Spotlight

Cathy Jachowski defends her dissertation: first IGC graduate!

On Monday, May 9, 2016, Cathy Jachowski successfully defended her dissertaton in Fralin Auditorium. Her public seminar in Fralin Auditorium was titled, “Effects of Land Use and Parasitism on Hellbender Salamanders: A Multilevel Perspective”.

Cathy, a member of the Hopkins Lab, is the first Interfaces of Global Change graduate student to complete a doctoral program at Virginia Tech! Congratulations, Cathy!

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13
MAY

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Conservation, Interfaces of Global Change IGEP, Student Spotlight

Red-cockaded woodpecker uses fungus to create tree cavities

From VT News

Home decor has never been so useful.

An endangered woodpecker carries wood-eating fungi into its tree cavity home that ultimately help to expand the home’s size, according to a multi-institutional team led by a Virginia Tech researcher.

The finding, which comes after more than two years of experimental research in a protected area on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Researchers determined that the red-cockaded woodpecker ...
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12
MAY

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Biodiversity, Conservation, News

Protecting tiny, blind, and rare wildlife in the Texas Hill Country

From National Geographic

By Randy Lee Loftis

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS A ritual of nature is happening in the woody hills around Austin and San Antonio. The first golden-cheeked warblers, with brilliant yellow faces streaked with black, have arrived from Mexico and Central America to raise their young.

The Texas Hill Country is the only place on Earth where this little songbird, an endangered species, makes its nest. The region’s canyons, springs, ...
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23
MAR

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Conservation

Brandon Semel will use drones to help save lemurs in Madagascar

Brandon Semel is a PhD student in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech and a fellow in the Interfaces of Global Change IGEP. This story was first published as a Student Spotlight at Fralin Life Science Institute.

Flying high for conservation: an Interfaces of Global Change fellow will use drones to help save lemurs

Brandon Semel’s doctoral research can be traced back to a picture book.

Within the book are images of bushy tailed lemurs, hand drawn ...
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1
MAR

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Biodiversity, Conservation, Interfaces of Global Change IGEP, Student Spotlight