News Archives - Department of Environmental Conservation

Remembering Bob Bond

September 15, 2021September 15, 2021 by arenna Comment Closed

Bob Bond passed away in late August at almost 96 years of age. Bob had a 21-year faculty career at UMass, and he remained an integral part of the ECo community even after moving to Penn State University to direct their School of Forest Resources. He was a beloved forestry professor who was committed to training the next generation of forestry professionals. Bob was very generous to the department. He and his late wife Barbara donated the 234-acre Savage Hill Forest property in Princeton MA to the department in 2001. In recognition of his many contributions to forestry, Bob was elected a Fellow to the Society of American Foresters. Bob has left a great legacy of trained foresters across the region. Professor Curt Griffin reminisces that “Although Bob had departed UMass many years before I arrived in 1984, there were still many stories circulating amongst the senior faculty. They spoke of Bob’s generous nature and dedication to the students and department....

Organization Co-Founded by UMass Amherst Professors Receives Climate Leadership Award

September 10, 2021 by Comment Closed

The RISCC network plays a key role in meeting the challenge invasive species pose in a warming world The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies recently awarded its 2021 Climate Adaptation Leadership Award for Natural Resources to the Northeast Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change (RISCC) Network, an organization co-founded by Bethany Bradley, UMass Amherst professor of environmental conservation and university co-director of the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (NE CASC). The award, which recognizes “exemplary leadership in reducing climate-related threats and promoting adaptation of the nation’s natural resources,” honors the leadership role that the Northeast RISCC network plays in meeting the challenge posed by invasive species in a warming world. Established in 2016, RISCC is supported by NE CASC, a federally funded research initiative that delivers actionable science to help fish, wildlife, water, land and people adapt to a changing climate. Invasive species and climate change represent two of the five major global threats to ecosystems, according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The intersection of these threats is particularly challenging...

UMass Amherst Among Top-20 “Coolest Schools” on Environmental Issues

September 9, 2021 by Comment Closed

Sierra Club ranked UMass No. 18 on its list of North America’s greenest colleges and universities The Sierra Club’s national publication, Sierra Magazine, recently announced that the University of Massachusetts Amherst is among the top-20 environmentally friendly institutions of higher learning in North America. UMass, which ranked 18 out of 328, is among those that “have displayed a deep and thorough commitment to addressing climate change, protecting the natural world and encouraging environmental responsibility both through their campus operations and course curricula,” according to Sierra Magazine. Schools were ranked by independent researchers on a host of criteria, including environmentally focused curricula, renewable energy and waste management operations, student engagement with environmental activism and each school’s planning and administrative standards. Some of the recent efforts that caught the attention of Sierra Magazine include the fact that UMass is home to the state’s first fast-charging Electric Vehicle (EV) station; that it has three operational solar canopies and five large rooftop systems, with two more canopies on the way. When complete, these arrays will deliver a whopping 10 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, which could power 1,420 homes for a year. The campus is...

Interested in transferring into BCT?

September 2, 2021 by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed

Many of our BCT students transfer into the program during their studies at UMass or from other colleges. This was highlighted in a recent interview where Kevin Van Develde, Senior Assistant Director of Transfer Admissions, talked to BCT program director Alexander Schreyer about the program, career options, and how to join the program. You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUbUuUZ49z8 Interested in learning more about the BCT program? Contact us here....

CNS Updates

August 31, 2021 by Comment Closed

Noteworthy news from the College of Natural Sciences Research, grants, awards, achievements, and other events at the College of Natural Sciences' 13 departments and two schools. August 12, 2021: Psychological and Brain Sciences' Mélise Edwards and Agnès Lacreuse win a competitive Gilliam Fellowship. Read on... August 11, 2021: The Katsumata Research Group in the Polymer Science and Engineering department recently published a paper, "Molecular Design of Polymer Coatings Capable of Photo-Triggered Stress Relaxation via Dynamic Bond Exchange, in the Journal of Polymer Science. Read on... August 10, 2021: Geosciences Prof. Michael Rawlins was recently interviewed by AMC Northeast Public Radio and MassLive.com on what the most recent IPCC report will mean for the current and future climate of the Northeastern U.S. Listen here... August 1, 2021: Yulong Lu, from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, has won an NSF grant on the mathematical foundation of machine learning. This grant will complement a previously received interdisciplinary TRIPODS grant devoted to scientific machine learning. August 2021: Marco Keiluweit, assistant professor, Soils and the Environment, Stockbridge School of Agriculture, has received an NSF Career Grant. The objective of...