, Author at Department of Environmental Conservation

Fall 2023 BCT Lecture Series Announced

September 7, 2023 by Comment Closed

The start of a new semester brings with it a new series of public lectures. We are happy to announce the four speakers mentioned below, who will present on various current topics in the built environment. All lectures are open to the public and are held on Mondays from 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm in the Olver Design Building Room 170. Zoom options will be available, too. Want to get notified when these are? Sign up for our email list. MassDOT: Route 2 Gill Slope Failure and Rapid Repair Procedures Patricia Leavenworth, PE, Director for MassDOT Highway District 2, Connecticut River Valley, Western MA 09.18.23 | 4:00-5:15pm | Design Building Room 170 Energy Modeling for Homes: HERS Rating Process & MA Stretch Energy Code Lia Douillet, HERS Consultant, Ecotechnology, Florence, MA 10.16.23 | 4:00-5:15pm | Design Building Room 170 Building a Greener Future: Mercy Corps’ Global Sustainability Efforts Francis Xavier Tuokuu, Ph.D., Senior Advisor, Mercy Corps 11.06.23 | 4:00-5:15pm | Design Building Room 170 Climate-smart Construction: Plant-based Prefab: A Carbon...

New Research Finds Surprising Science Behind Bumblebee Superfood

April 5, 2023 by Comment Closed

Sunflower family’s spiny pollen vastly reduces prevalence of widespread parasite in bumblebees, increases production of queens It’s the spines. This is the conclusion of two new papers, led by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, showing that the spiny pollen from plants in the sunflower family (Asteraceae) both reduces infection of a common bee parasite by 81–94% and markedly increases the production of queen bumble bees. The research, appearing in Functional Ecology and Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, provides much-needed food for thought in one of the most vexing problems facing biologists and ecologists: how to reverse the great die-off of the world’s pollinators. Insect pollinators — those flying, buzzing, flitting bugs that help fertilize everything from blueberries to coffee — contribute upwards of $200 billion in annual ecosystem services worldwide. “We depend on them for diverse, healthy, nutritious diets,” says Laura Figueroa, incoming assistant professor of environmental conservation at UMass Amherst and lead author of the paper on pollen spines. Many...

Lucas Griffin, Environmental Conservation, Wins Early Career Research Excellence Award at World Recreational Fishing Conference

March 9, 2023 by Comment Closed

The postdoctoral research associate was recently honored in Melbourne, Australia Lucas Griffin, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Environmental Conservation at UMass Amherst, won the Early Career Research Award at the 10th World Recreational Fishing Conference (WRFC) in Melbourne, Australia. The WRFC is held every three years and aspires to build an informed community and create a collective body of knowledge in recreational fisheries science worldwide. This year’s conference was attended by delegates from 20 nations. Recreational fishing is popular around the world, and research is critical to supporting the sustainability and management of global fisheries. Griffin is a rising star in the discipline of recreational fisheries science, and this award amplifies the important research conducted in the Fish Forward lab led by Professor Andy Danylchuk. “I am delighted that Griffin’s efforts are being formally recognized,” says Danylchuk. “His research is positively affecting change about how recreational fisheries are managed.” Read on. LUCAS GRIFFIN, ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION, WINS EARLY CAREER RESEARCH EXCELLENCE AWARD ...

UMass Student Team Places Eighth at National Competition

March 7, 2023 by Comment Closed

Our 2023 team at the competition The 2023 National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Student Competition for four-year programs was held at the 2023 International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas, Jan. 31 – Feb. 2, 2023. The UMass NAHB Student Chapter team placed 8th in the competition. The mission of the NAHB four-year student competition is to expose students to an in-depth residential construction project from concept to closing. Using real projects, students compete with other schools as they display their problem-solving abilities and learn more about homebuilding. This year’s competition team included 14 students from the BCT program, the Department of Architecture, and the Isenberg School of Management. During the Fall semester, the students worked on developing a business proposal that included market analysis, product design, construction management, project management, financial and risk analysis, and sustainability related to a property in La Plata, MD. The students traveled to Las Vegas and presented their proposal to the judges and attended the International Builders’...

Ecologists Honor 9-Year-Old Citizen Scientist with Community Action Award

March 6, 2023 by Comment Closed

9-year-old fourth grader Bobbi Wilson, a committed young ecologist from New Jersey, received the inaugural RISCC Community Action Award Academic and professional awards typically go to researchers with decades of experience and scores, even hundreds of peer-reviewed publications to their name. But at the recent annual symposium of the Northeast Regional Invasive Species & Climate Change (RISCC) Management Network, 9-year-old fourth grader Bobbi Wilson, a committed young ecologist from New Jersey, received the inaugural RISCC Community Action Award. RISCC, which is dedicated to improving invasive species management in the face of climate change, is the brainchild of UMass Amherst professors of environmental conservation Bethany Bradley and Toni Lyn Morelli, who helped found RISCC with Carrie Brown-Lima of the New York Invasive Research Institute. New Jersey, where Wilson lives, is part of the RISCC network. At school, Wilson had learned about the threat of the spotted lanternfly, a beautiful but harmful insect native to China, India and Vietnam, and was taking part in New Jersey’s Stomp It Out campaign, a...