Professor Kittredge receives Governor’s Appointment

David Kittredge, faculty member in the Department of Natural Resources Conservation, was appointed on 2 June by Governor Deval Patrick to the state's Commission on Financing Forest Conservation. This commission was created by legislation to study innovative methods for funding the conservation of forested wildlands and woodlands in the Commonwealth. Roughly 70% of all the state's forestlands are privately held, and a variety of finance methods will be explored that may underwrite conservation and ensure the continuance of public ecosystem benefits from these private lands....
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Professors Griffin, Schweik and Danylchuk Create Mobile ‘App’ to Aid in Gulf Crisis

UMass-created 'app' takes aim at oil by Kristin Palpini - GazetteNET AMHERST - University of Massachusetts professors hope a new smartphone application they've created will give regular people the tools to help clean up the oil-soaked Gulf coast. Relying on everyday technology, the app known as MoGo, which is short for Mobile Gulf Observatory, allows people to photograph wildlife in need of help and summon experts to its precise location. "I hope this goes viral. We need as many people to know about it as possible," said Curt Griffin, a UMass natural resources and conservation professor and one of the app's creators. "By downloading (MoGo), people can become citizen scientists helping to document the affect of the oil and rescue animals." In response to the ongoing BP oil leak miles off the Gulf Coast, four UMass computer and natural environment scientists teamed up to create and launch the free iPhone application. This is how it works: iPhone users who come across an oiled bird or other...
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