Month: February 2019

Categories
biweekly update

Biweekly Update – February 28, 2019

New Announcements:

1.    Save the Date: Protecting Pollinators in Urban Landscapes –  Cincinnati, Ohio – October 7-9, 2019

2.    Cullowhee Native Plant Conference – Western Carolina University – July 17-20, 2019

3.    2019 Sustainable Urban Agriculture Certificate Program – March 9-June 1, 2019

4.    Piedmont Master Gardeners and Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards Annual Sale – Charlottesville, VA – May 4, 2019

5.    Education Day 2019 for Virginia Master Gardener Association – Roanoke, VA – May 4, 2019

6.    2019 New Mini-Grant Application Guidelines – due April 26, 2019

a)    Please talk to your Agent or Coordinator directly if you are interested in looking at these grants.

7.    Innovation in Greenhouse and Vertical Farming – Richmond, VA – March 12, 2019

8.    Monticello | UVA 23rd Annual Historic Landscape Institute, “Preserving Jefferson’s Gardens and Landscapes” – June 23-28, 2019

a)    This one-week course uses Monticello and the University of Virginia as outdoor classrooms to study historic landscape preservation.

b)    https://www.monticello.org/sites/default/files/HLI2019Flyer.edit_.pdf

March Announcements:

9.    25th Anniversary of the 2019 Horticultural Extravaganza – Yorktown, VA – March 2, 2019

10. Trees, Construction and Uninvited Guests: 2019 Roanoke Tree Care Workshop – Roanoke, VA – March 6, 2019

11. Annual Grow the Good Life Seminar –  Central Virginia Community College, Bedford Campus – March 9, 2019 (Registration officially open)

12. Gardening in the Valley Symposium – Winchester, VA – March 9, 2019

13. 26th Annual Gardening in the Northern Neck Seminar – White Stone, VA – March 23, 2019

a)    Website: http://nnmg.org/nngardeningseminar.asp

14. Weekly Calendar Updates – Northern Shenandoah Valley – March 2019

15. CSVMGA Bug Hotel Workshop – Central Shenandoah Valley – March 23, 2019

16. Register Now for 2019 Gardening in the Northern Neck Seminar – White Stone, VA – March 23, 2019

17. 2018 Food Security Summary – National Survey – Deadline: March 15, 2019

18. Loudoun County Gardening Symposium: “Let’s Get Growing” – Leesburg, VA – March 23, 2019 (Registration opens February 1)

19. Extension Good and Bad bugs webinar series – Feb 1 – Dec 6, 2019

a)    https://articles.extension.org/pages/74786/2019-all-bugs-good-and-bad-webinar-series

April Announcements:

20. Horticultural Horizons – Chesterfiled County, VA – April 30, 2019

a)    Registration Form

21. Mid-Atlantic Garden Faire – Abingdon, VA – April 19 & 20

a)    Daily Admission $6

22. Spring Symposium: Wild about Natives – Fredericksburg, VA – April 13, 2019

23. Chesapeake Master Gardener Volunteers’ 2019 Annual Plant Sale – Chesapeake, VA – April 26-27, 2019

May Announcements:

24. VMGA Education Day – Virginia Western Community College – May 4, 2019

25. Save the Date: Annual Plant Sale – Piedmont, VA – May 4, 2019

Other Announcements:

26. Follow the State Office on social media:

·      Facebook

·      Instagram

·      YouTube

27. Save the date for 2019 Master Gardener College!

September 19-22, 2019, Norfolk, Virginia

28. Resources for fertilization of lawns and for those involved with Healthy Virginia Lawns programming  

29. Do you have questions coming in to your Extension Master Gardener program and need to find some answers? Extension Search Resources for EMG Questions

30. Registration now open for online Plant Identification Classes by Longwood Gardens and NC State – Click Here

Categories
Distinguished Lecture Series News Seminars, Workshops, Lectures

2019 Distinguished Lecture: Dr. Andrew Hoffman, Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan

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View the Full Lecture Here

 

Andrew Hoffman, the Holcim Professor of Sustainable Enterprise for University of Michigan and author, will visit Virginia Tech on Friday, March 22.

Hoffman will give a 3:30 p.m. distinguished lecture titled “How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate” at the Lyric Theatre in downtown Blacksburg. The lecture will be followed by a question and answer session and book signing.

The event is coordinated by the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech, with funding from the Fralin Life Science Institute and the Virginia Tech Graduate School. It is free and open to the public.

Dr. Andrew Hoffman

Hoffman applies organizational behavioral models and theories to assess the cultural and institutional aspects behind environmental issues, including climate change. His work also addresses how environmental issues evolve socially, politically and managerially. Hoffman has published 14 books and more than 100 articles and book chapters on these topics, which have been translated into five languages. His 2015 book, How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate, garnered international media attention.

Hoffman’s work has resulted in a long list of honors, including the Aspen Institute’s Faculty Pioneer Award, the Maggie Award, an Aldo Leopold Fellowship, the Rachel Carson Book Prize, and the Klegerman Award.

In this lecture, Hoffman will discuss the sociology and psychology of why people reject climate change and how to address this issue. He offers suggestions for building trust and effectively communicating despite opposing viewpoints, arguing that culture is the barrier to acting on climate change.

“The current public and political debate over climate change in this country is not about carbon dioxide or climate models,” Hoffman said in a lecture at Yale University. “It’s about conflicting world views among people who feel their values are being threatened. We need to understand where they’re coming from.”

Top media outlets such as The New York Times, Scientific American, National Geographic, Atlantic, and National Public Radio have featured Hoffman’s work. He has also served on several prestigious research committees, including a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee.

Hoffman’s visit represents the sixth lecture in a public Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech. The lecture series brings some of the world’s leading scholars to the Blacksburg community to discuss critical environmental and societal issues in an open forum.

“Dr. Hoffman is a dynamic speaker with a strong interdisciplinary perspective on environmental issues.  His work has transformed the way we think about the critical leadership role of businesses in environmental sustainability, and on the way culture shapes the discussion around environmental issues.  We are extremely fortunate to have him join us in Blacksburg to discuss how factors other than scientific data, such as norms, values, and communication, influence people’s perceptions and beliefs about climate change,” said William Hopkins, director of the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech and professor of fish and wildlife conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment.

For more information about the event, please contact the Global Change Center at 540-231-5400 or via email to jcoker@vt.edu.

The Lyric Theatre is located at 135 College Ave. in Blacksburg. Doors will open at 2:30 p.m. Metered parking is available on the street as well as in the Kent Square garage. Anyone parking on the Virginia Tech campus before 5:00 pm will need a permit.

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Categories
Accolades Climate Change Ideas Invasive Species invasive species working group News Research Seminars, Workshops, Lectures

Virginia Tech researchers tackle the biological invasions crisis

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From VT News

February 18, 2019

Cover image: Land managers, scientists, educators, and policymakers attended the Biological Invasions: Confronting a Crisis workshop at Virginia Tech in April 2018.

Biological invasions by non-native organisms are one of the most important aspects of rapid global change, costing the global economy greater than $1 trillion annually. Globally, biological invasions also decimate local flora and fauna, contribute to disease outbreaks and agricultural loss, and threaten human health.

In April 2018, Virginia Tech researchers held a two-day workshop, titled Biological Invasions: Confronting a Crisis, that was supported by the Global Systems Science Destination Area. The conference was attended by land managers, scientists, educators, and policymakers.

Findings from this workshop on how to build partnerships and bridge science and policy to address the biological invasions crisis were published recently by the Virginia Tech researchers in the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management.

“Biological invasions are one of the grand socio-environmental challenges facing the globe as exotic species threaten biodiversity, food security, and human health. Addressing such a complex crisis requires engagement from the diverse stakeholders that are impacted,” said Jacob Barney, first author on the paper and associate professor of invasive plant ecology in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences.

The authors of the paper and organizers of the workshop were a subgroup of faculty members from the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech, an arm of the Fralin Life Science Institute. They include Jacob Barney and David Haak of the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Todd Schenk of the School of Public and International Affairs in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies; Scott Salom of the Department of Entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; and Bryan Brown and Erin Hotchkiss of the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science.

“We are so pleased to see the incredible and rapid progress made by this diverse interdisciplinary team. They epitomize the Global Change Center’s mission of bringing together expertise from all corners of campus to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing the environment and society,” said William Hopkins, the Center’s director and professor of wildlife in the College of Natural Resources and Environment. “Since their recent inception, they have already offered multiple new team-taught courses, built a strong network of external collaborators, held this high-profile spring workshop, and developed multiple manuscripts. Because of their hard work, Virginia Tech is well positioned to be a global leader on invasive species issues.”

The diversity of invasive species ranges from viruses to plants to crayfish to hippos. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment projected that the rate and impact of biological invasions will increase with global trade, climate change, and the rise in economic prosperity.

Additionally, invasive species are associated with disrupting ecosystem processes, reducing food production, and threatening human health. The recent Ebola and Zika epidemics highlight the devastating impacts of biological invasions, as well as how such invasions can be mitigated with strategic and coordinated action.

Examples of invasive species threatening Virginia include a sap-sucking invasive insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid, which has decimated the hemlock tree population, and the spotted lanternfly, which attacks grapes, peaches, hops, and many tree species.

The researchers’ goal for the workshop was to bring together representatives of diverse stakeholder groups in the Commonwealth of Virginia to create connections, foster collaboration, and facilitate a solutions-focused discussion about the pressing invasive species challenges. The scale at which invasive species impact society and the environment range from local to international and involve many stakeholders and policies across that continuum.

“Our goal was to create an environment to foster communication across these domains to identify the successes and roadblocks to addressing this problem. The workshop was designed to engage the 62 participants representing academic researchers, Extension and education, nongovernmental organizations, agencies from the local to the state level, land managers, and citizens in a variety of activities to engage each other. Simply getting these folks together in a room to discuss their shared struggles and successes was a major step and is, unfortunately, a rare occurrence.” said Barney.

The diversity of workshop participants reflected the broad reach of invasive species. The workshop format was designed to facilitate dialogue across the research, management, and policy perspective and was not focused on a single invasive species or ecosystem.

“While invasive species may at first appear to be an issue exclusively for the biological sciences, it quickly becomes apparent that the human dimension is integral. Land managers and other stakeholders make decisions that, we hope, are informed by science, but also reflect their respective interests and priorities and the complex social and political realities they find themselves in. Advancing better policy and management to address invasive species requires that we take those political and social factors into account,” said Todd Schenk co-author of the paper and assistant professor of Urban Affairs and Planning in the School of Public and International Affairs.

Two guests recognized across the United States in the biological invasions field — Heather Reynolds, associate professor of biology at Indiana University, and Jamie Reaser, executive director of the United States National Invasive Species Council — gave keynote talks to highlight the impact of the biological invasions crisis. Workshop participants also took part in active-engagement sessions and community reporting to identify communication and coordination gaps.

“To me, one of the most striking outcomes of the workshop was hearing different stakeholders’ opinions on how to make progress. As academics at a university, our focus is predictably on research involving invasive species, and obviously that research is important and will continue to be important for addressing invasive species issues. However, a prevailing theme from the workshop was that the major things we need to do to make progress involve communication and collaboration. Hearing those perspectives from nonacademic stakeholders was pretty eye-opening,” said Bryan Brown, co-author on the paper and associate professor of aquatic ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences.

Continuing to confront the invasive species crisis will require a concerted effort. Strategic and coordinated action by different groups requires collaboration beyond traditional biological and technological boundaries. Although the workshop was limited in membership to one U.S. state, it can provide a model on which future efforts can be built.

“The workshop was an exciting first step,” said Schenk. “Moving forward, we seek to engage more people from groups underrepresented at this first workshop to facilitate broader conversations on effective management in practice when interests and priorities are not aligned, further research the interactions between the biology and human dimensions of invasives, and play a central role in what is an emerging coalition seeking to advance impactful changes in this space in Virginia and beyond.”

Virginia Tech researchers are continuing to identify collaborative spaces to increase communication among stakeholders and broaden the capacity to confront the biological invasions crisis.

“Immediately, we have plans to expand the horizons of current graduate students through an immersive experience in science, policy, and advocacy over spring break in Washington, D.C. In addition, we are planning an Invasive Species summit in Richmond, Virginia for late spring. The goals of this summit are to broaden our communication platform to include voices that were notably missing from the workshop and to provide catalytic activities for forging new collaborations,” said David Haak co-author of the paper and assistant professor of plant and microbial genomics in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences.

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CONTACT:
Kristin Rose
(540) 231-6614

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Categories
Accolades News Undergraduate Experiential Learning

Julia Simpson awarded the 2019 GCC Science Policy Fellowship

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February 19, 2019

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The Global Change Center recently awarded the 2019 Undergraduate Science Policy Fellowship to Julia Simpson to attend the Washington Semester Program during summer semester this year.  Ms. Simpson is the sixth student to receive this award.

Julia Simpson

Julia is a junior double majoring in Biology and Spanish at Virginia Tech, with a minor in Creative Writing.  She is interested in the intersections between microbiology and national security, and holds ambition to work with an agency such as the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in the future.  Julia also has a passion for writing and activism, and intends to grow her experience in the political realm so that she can effectively contribute to the fields of science writing and public policy making.

During the summer of 2018, Julia worked as a research technician for the MouseLight project at Janelia Research Campus, a neuroscience research facility in northern Virginia, and the experience both solidified and amplified her excitement about a career in science. Currently, when she isn’t attending classes, Julia occupies her time serving as an undergraduate TA for Biology 1106; conducting research in microbial ecology under Steven McBride; writing and editing for The Interloper; and most recently, working as Events Chair for the newly-formed creative writing club on campus, CreativiTEA.

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The School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) at Virginia Tech offers the Washington Semester Program to all undergraduate students, regardless of major. The program provides a unique 11-week immersion into work experience within the nation’s capital. Students work on challenging science policy issues that shape communities locally and nationally while obtaining academic credit.

The Global Change Center (GCC) offers competitive fellowships to undergraduate students to cover the cost of in-state tuition, housing and fees to attend the Washington Semester Program. You can read more about this program here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Accolades Ideas News Research

The Fralin Life Science Institute supports sustainability and green lab efforts

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From VT News

February 15, 2019

Laboratories are one of the largest energy-consuming sectors in the country. Ultra-low temperature freezers can use as much energy as an average household every day. These are just some of the facts that Ph.D. student Ellen Garcia shared at the Sustainability and Green Labs seminar at the Fralin Life Science Institute in August.

Over the past three years, Garcia has been implementing green practices in labs at the Biocomplexity Institute, as well as spreading the message across campus. She has created a grassroots green lab effort at Virginia Tech and is working to build a Green Lab Program, which is supported by the Office of Sustainability and the Office of Energy Management.

“The green lab effort at Virginia Tech is starting to gain traction, but there is still so much that can be done. Many sustainable practices begin with awareness and simple changes in behavior,” said Garcia, a Ph.D. student in Daniela Cimini’s lab at the Biocomplexity Institute.

Cimini, a Biocomplexity Fellow, is also professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science. Garcia was instrumental in helping the Cimini lab become the first certified green lab at Virginia Tech, and it is now close to being a zero-waste lab (excluding hazardous waste).

This past summer, Garcia led a Sustainability and Green Labs seminar at the Fralin Life Science Institute that encouraged Fralin-affiliated graduate students, lab managers, and faculty to take an assessment from My Green Lab, a nonprofit organization based out of California. She reviewed strategies to make their labs more sustainable and how the certification process works.

These strategies include implementing recycling streams, always shutting the sash on fume hoods, regularly turning off lights, and increasing the temperatures on ultralow temperature freezers from -80 degree to -70 degrees.

In most cases, the actions are simple and people just need to be encouraged and reminded to do something until it becomes a new habit. Researchers can also order their supplies from companies with sustainable principles. Corning, for instance, recycles its packaging free of charge to the consumer. My Green Lab has also created a new eco-nutrition label for scientific products and equipment.

At least five Fralin-affiliated labs, including the Dean lab, Sobrado lab, Allen lab, Lahondère lab, and Auguste lab in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, have been inspired by Garcia’s message and have committed to making the practices in their lab more sustainable.

Hannah Valentino, a third-year Ph.D. student in Pablo Sobrado’s lab on the first floor of Fralin Hall, was influenced by Garcia’s seminar.

“I just hadn’t thought about the immense amount of energy that can be saved by unplugging equipment that is not in use or setting it on timers until I attended the seminar,” said Valentino. She comes from a pro-recycling family and has introduced recycling streams to the lab, been diligent about closing the fume hood, and encourages other lab members to turn off lights and equipment when not in use.

The Sobrado lab focuses on determining the chemical mechanism, 3D structure, and identification of inhibitors of enzymes important for pathogenesis in Aspergillus fumigatus, Trypanosoma cruzi, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which cause fungal infections, Chagas disease, and tuberculosis.

Kylie Allen, an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry, has a lab on the second floor of Fralin Hall. She has had a career-long interest in sustainability and is dedicated to making the labs at Fralin more green.

“I found it helpful to hear from Ellen about the small changes I could make in my lab, like turning the -80 degree freezers up to -70 degrees. I appreciated that there was scientific research from the University of Colorado-Boulder that showed this would not affect the viability of my samples and reagents,” said Allen.

Allen is instilling a culture of sustainability within her lab and encourages her graduate and undergraduate students to turn the lights and general equipment off when not in use. Heat blocks and water baths are turned off when not in use over the weekend, and the Allen lab is also participating in the Fralin EPS (Styrofoam) recycling program.

The Allen lab researches methane, a potent greenhouse gas as well as a valuable energy source. Her lab focuses on understanding the production and consumption of methane in nature. “A more complete and deeper understanding of methane metabolism could allow for the development of alternative fuels and potential remedies for climate change,” Allen said.

Researchers in front of a fume hood.
Chloé Lahondère, a research assistant professor of biochemistry, and master’s student Forde Upshur make sure to always shut the sash on the fume hood when not in use.

Chloé Lahondère, research assistant professor of biochemistry and affiliated faculty member of the Global Change Center, has been interested in sustainability since beginning her master’s degree. Now running her own lab, she is excited to incorporate green lab practices. She was also inspired by Garcia’s seminar to reduce waste and implement waste streams in her lab. Lahondère has implemented printed signs and stickers to remind her lab members to turn off lights and shut the sash on the fume hood. She has also chilled up her ultralow temperature freezer.

“Overall, I remind lab members to be careful with consumables and to limit waste. We’ve created a compost for paper towels and will continue to go through our green labs checklist and hopefully become a certified green lab,” Lahondère said.

Lahondère researches the effects of temperature, and by extension climate change, on the physiology and behavior of disease vector insects, the vector-host-pathogen interactions, and the disease vector insects’ ability to invade new areas.

After the initial Sustainability and Green Labs seminar, Garcia then joined the biochemistry journal club this past fall to review green lab practices and ways students can integrate sustainability into their research.

In October, the Fralin Life Science Institute sponsored Garcia’s trip to the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories conference  in Raleigh, North Carolina. There were 500 people in attendance from universities across the country including University of Colorado – Boulder, UC Santa Barbara, Harvard, MIT, Yale, University of Virginia, and University of Alabama-Birmingham.  

“We were very pleased to have Ellen participate in this conference. I think she has taken on an important task by informing our research community about various ways that we can reduce our energy footprint, sometimes with very little effort by individual investigators. As Ellen points out, small measures can make a big difference, and her efforts certainly are making a big difference,” said Dennis Dean, director of the Fralin Life Science Institute.

The meeting is the leading international conference focused on strategies to meet the challenges of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in laboratories and related facilities. The conference is a technical forum where information covering the life cycle of the laboratory, from design to use, is exchanged.

This past year, the conference had a heavy engineering focus; talks were given by engineers about designing green labs and collecting data for large-scale changes. These were balanced by talks about user-based engagement and sustainable behavior changes for individuals. Garcia gave a talk about the progress she has made with implementing a Green Lab Program at Virginia Tech.

“I feel like I came back from the conference with an action plan. It helped me make connections and created a network with other researchers passionate about green lab and sustainability efforts. I was able to gather more data from the conference to help me make the case that a Green Lab Program is something we should be investing in for labs across the university at Virginia Tech,” said Garcia. 

Inspired by the conference, Garcia is now formalizing a Green Lab Program at Virginia Tech with the Office of Sustainability, the Office of Energy Management, The Energy and Sustainability Committee, Lab Connect, and the Green Engineering Program.

“Ellen Garcia is the one who brought these nationwide green lab efforts to the attention of our office. She has opened our eyes to what other colleges and universities are doing and what resources are available. We are excited to formalize a Green Lab Program here at Virginia Tech with her help,” said Karlee Siepierski, manager of the Office of Sustainability at Virginia Tech.

Garcia and Siepierski have implemented an EPS (Styrofoam) recycling pilot program led by a large team of student interns as part of their recycling program at Virginia Tech, and Fralin Hall is one of the test buildings in their pilot program. Test buildings have designated spots for EPS recycling, and interns from the Office of Sustainability pick up the EPS monthly and deliver it to RADVA Corp. in Radford, Virginia, which recycles the EPS into new packaging.  

If the pilot program is successful, Siepierski hopes to implement it in all buildings on campus.  

Another person on campus helping Ellen Garcia lead the green charge is Kerry Gendreau, the Sustainability Officer and a Fellow with the Interfaces of Global Change IGEP in the Global Change Center, an arm of the Fralin Life Science Institute.

“Ellen Garcia was my inspiration in pursuing the green lab cause and sustainability practices on campus,” said Gendreau. She met Garcia while she was a lab technician at the Biocomplexity Institite. Gendreau is now a second-year Ph.D. student in Joel McGlothlin’s lab in the Department of Biological Sciences, and she is currently studying the evolutionary arms race between toxin-harboring newts and their predators.

With the Interfaces of Global Change program, she hopes to connect and collaborate with environmental researchers and experts and become actively involved in the protection and conservation of biodiversity.

As the Sustainability Officer for the Interfaces of Global Change program, Gendreau collaborates with groups on campus, as well as the Town of Blacksburg, to implement sustainability practices and raise awareness. Gendreau and Garcia were involved in the Sustainability Week this past September, which is a week-long series of events and a long-running collaboration between Sustainable Blacksburg, the Town of Blacksburg, and Virginia Tech’s Office of Sustainability and Office of Energy Management that embodies its tagline, “Celebrate. Educate. Motivate.”

Gendreau is hoping to introduce green lab and field practices to the graduate students who are part of the Interfaces of Global Change program with the help of Garcia; they hope these graduate students will incorporate sustainable practices into the labs they are currently a part of as well as when they start their own labs.

The Fralin Life Science Institute will continue to make sustainable changes to its buildings and support the Green Lab Program. All lights throughout Fralin Hall have been retro-fitted to LED bulbs which increases efficiency, saves electricity, and is projected to reduce energy costs by $76,000 annually. Occupancy sensors were installed in all labs, fume hoods, and the conference room.

If you are interested in learning more about the Green Lab Program at Virginia Tech, contact Ellen Garcia, ebgarcia@vt.edu.

Related article:

Leading the green charge: Ph.D. student Ellen Garcia introduces lab sustainability program to campus

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CONTACT:
Kristin Rose
(540) 231-6614

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Categories
Uncategorized

Biweekly Update – February 14, 2019

New Announcements:

  1. Come to the Garden with speaker Lisa Zeigler – Lexington, VA – March 16, 2019
  2. Save the Date: Annual Plant Sale – Piedmont, VA – May 4, 2019
  3. Innovation in Greenhouse and Vertical Farming – Richmond, VA – March 12, 2019
  4. Education Day 2019 for Virginia Master Gardener Association – Roanoke, VA – May 4, 2019
  5. Spring Symposium: Wild about Natives – Fredericksburg, VA – April 13, 2019
  6. Trees, Construction and Uninvited Guests: 2019 Roanoke Tree Care Workshop – Roanoke, VA – March 6, 2019
  7. Statewide Extension Master Gardener Infographics released
  8. Register Now for 2019 Gardening in the Northern Neck Seminar – White Stone, VA – March 23, 2019
  9. Registration now open for online Plant Identification Classes by Longwood Gardens and NC State – Click Here
  10. 25th Anniversary of the 2019 Horticultural Extravaganza – Yorktown, VA – March 2, 2019
  11. Save the Date: The Piedmont Master Gardeners and the Charlottesville – Charlottesville, VA – May 4, 2019
  12. Chesapeake Master Gardener Volunteers’ 2019 Annual Plant Sale – Chesapeake, VA – April 26-27, 2019

February Announcements:

  1. Western Reserve Herb Society: $10,000 National Horticulture Scholarship Available – Deadline: February 28, 2019
  2. Loudoun County Gardening Symposium: “Let’s Get Growing” – Leesburg, VA – March 23, 2019 (Registration opens February 1)
  3. Extension Good and Bad bugs webinar series – Feb 1 – Dec 6, 2019
    1. https://articles.extension.org/pages/74786/2019-all-bugs-good-and-bad-webinar-series
  4. Winter Symposium: 50th CVNLA Short Course Pesticide Recertification – Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden – February 13-15, 2019
  5. The 15th Annual EcoSavvy Symposium – Alexandria, VA – February 16, 2019
  6. February 2019 Public Education Programs – Arlington / Alexandria

March Announcements:

  1. Annual Grow the Good Life Seminar – Central Virginia Community College, Bedford Campus – March 9, 2019 (Registration officially open)
  2. Gardening in the Valley Symposium – Winchester, VA – March 9, 2019
  3. 26th Annual Gardening in the Northern Neck Seminar – White Stone, VA – March 23, 2019
    1. Website: http://nnmg.org/nngardeningseminar.asp
  4. Weekly Calendar Updates – Northern Shenandoah Valley – March 2019
  5. CSVMGA Bug Hotel Workshop – Central Shenandoah Valley – March 23, 2019
  6. 2018 Food Security Summary – National Survey – Deadline: March 15, 2019

April Announcements:

  1. Horticultural Horizons – Chesterfiled County, VA – April 30, 2019
  2. Mid-Atlantic Garden Faire – Abingdon, VA – April 19 & 20
    1. Daily Admission $6
  3. Horticulture Horizons Event – Chesterfield, VA – April 30, 2019
    1. Registration Form

May Announcements:

  1. VMGA Education Day – Virginia Western Community College – May 4, 2019

Other Announcements:

  1. Follow the State Office on social media:
  1. Save the date for 2019 Master Gardener College!

September 19-22, 2019, Norfolk, Virginia

  1. Pollinator Survey with Oregon State University
  1. Resources for fertilization of lawns and for those involved with Healthy Virginia Lawns programming
  2. Do you have questions coming in to your Extension Master Gardener program and need to find some answers? Extension Search Resources for EMG Questions

 

Categories
Blog Interfaces of Global Change IGEP Science Communication Student Spotlight

IGC Seminar Reflection Series: What are the Facts? Moving Beyond Adversarial Science, by Devin Hoffman

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What are the Facts? Moving Beyond Adversarial Science
By Devin Hoffman  |  February 14, 2019

Complex problems require complex solutions and have far reaching impacts on different groups of people and stakeholders. Whether it be land use management, new/expanding energy sources, or climate change each stakeholder has their own set of goals and a different image of what “success” looks like when addressing any global change challenge. In too many cases stakeholders with conflicting views of success gather research that supports their view points, and both sides beginning flinging “facts” at each other in opposition. How can we address complex problems from a shared base of facts?

The technique we discussed in the IGC seminar on December 5, 2018 is known as joint fact-finding, which is an approach that aims to move beyond ‘adversarial science’ by engaging stakeholders to collectively identify their information needs, gather neutral experts to develop and implement research agendas, and collectively consider the results and the implications on policy-making and planning.

Our discussion began with a summary of the joint fact-finding process by Dr. Todd Schenk, Assistant Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs and faulty affiliate of the Global Change Center. Dr. Schenk is an expert on collaborative planning, particularly joint fact-finding, which was the subject of a book co-edited by Dr. Schenk. After familiarizing ourselves with the process of joint fact-finding, we broke into three random groups for a role-playing exercise of joint fact-finding. Our subject was the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Though this project is well beyond a possible joint fact-finding stage, its proximity and relevancy to the Interfaces of Global Change at VT made it useful as a hypothetical example for a role-play exercise. One group represented the energy and development companies behind the project, the second the many environmental groups and local land owners concerned about the project, and the third the many governmental regulators and courts that evaluate public concerns and legality of the project. After identifying our stakeholders, we decided what the priorities and objectives of our stake holder groups were, then decided what information we would need to evaluate if our concerns/objectives could be met and how we would go about doing that.

After the exercise we had a little bit of time to reflect upon the discussion. Clearly joint fact-finding and other collaborative planning methods are a better way to gather facts and find a fact-based solution to an issue. What is unclear is how we bring groups together early enough and willing to engage in the lengthy and sometimes costly process of joint fact-finding. Stakeholders must be willing and able to spend time sending representatives and agreeing on experts to meet their respective goals. Our final question was “What, if any, is the role of the IGC/GCC in facilitating or taking part in joint fact-finding initiatives?” As experts in our fields we can be willing to serve as neutral experts in charge of conducting research and gathering facts for joint fact-finding projects. As individuals we can be involved in collaborative planning and advocate for joint fact-finding over “adversarial science.”[/vc_column_text][vc_separator style=”shadow”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”24878″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Devin Hoffman is an IGC fellow working on fossil reptiles with Dr. Sterling Nesbitt in the Department of Geosciences. He studies diversification and ecology patterns related to mass extinctions.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Climate Change New Publications Research

Multi-institutional team evaluates several factors for the success of a species reintroduction

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February 14, 2019

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”28443″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Meryl Mims is lead author on a new paper published this week in Ecosphere. She and her colleagues evaluated the potential roles of environmental, demographic, and genetic factors in the success of a species reintroduction. Specifically, they used an individual-based, spatially-explicit computer modeling framework to simulate the reintroduction of bull trout into a river system in eastern Washington State. The research team evaluated where populations of bull trout might persist, their population numbers, and their genetics in the Pend Oreille River. They also looked at how specific traits of bull trout such as the probability of straying to new habitat affected the outcomes, and they examined the effects of dam removals from the river network.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”28465″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”28466″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]They found that the presence or absence of dams had the greatest overall effect on the probability of bull trout to survive following reintroduction. They also found that the landscape and biological factors such as carrying capacity and stray rate had a much greater effect on genetics over the 200-year simulation than the initial genetic characteristics of the population. This project is one of the first to simultaneously look at genetic outcomes and demographic factors on a realistic landscape with a high-powered computer simulation approach. This work also highlights the utility of simulations in evaluating possible outcomes of species reintroductions when empirical experiments are not feasible.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”28447″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Ideas New Courses News Research

Biology professor aims to better educate students on sex and gender

From the Collegiate Times

By Mike Liu  |  February 12, 2019

Sex and gender are two different concepts. The distinction is that sex is purely based on an individual’s reproductive system and secondary sex characteristics while gender is a person’s social role or personal identification of one’s own sex based on an internal awareness.

The differences between sex and gender has sparked many discussions in today’s society. Prominent news agencies such as The New York Times and BBC often publish articles to discuss and introduce new ideas about sex, sexuality and gender. In a society that is looking at the differences between these terms, it is critical that one should educate oneself about the basics of sex and gender.

Biology of Sex is a course at Virginia Tech intended for non biology majors. It is taught by Ignacio Moore, who is a professor in the department of biological sciences. The course has no prerequisites and can be used to fulfill one of the Area 4 courses for the Curriculum for Liberal Education (CLE) requirements, which a student needs to complete in order to graduate.

“There’s a lot of discussions nowadays with things like transgender individuals and who gets to compete in athletics as a female versus a male. We address all these types of questions. But again, I’m trying to understand the biological basis of these questions so the students are better informed, so when they become voting members of society, they can make informed decisions,” Moore said.

The course discusses sex both as a noun and as a verb. In addition to studying the biological differences between males and females, the course also examines the difference between sex and gender.

According to Moore, he believes that one of the problems in society is a general lack of scientific interest and understanding when it comes to sex and gender. That’s why he believes teaching a course like this could better educate people so that they can understand the concepts in a more scientific way.

“Genetics, hormones, differences in morphology or body type, and differences in behavior. We look at all these things and a lot of these questions are interesting political and social questions, but we try to address them from a pretty strict biological basis,” Moore said.

Moore often used discussions as a way to promote active learning among his students. In many lectures, Moore breaks students up into different groups and presents a series of questions for different groups to answer. Then the class reconvenes at the end to review each group’s answer.

“Basically, I just play devil’s advocate,” Moore said. “In a lot of these questions there aren’t right answers and that’s fine. The point is that they sit there and think about it and try to come up with some sort of coherent ideas.”

Moore hopes his course can help students become better thinkers when it comes to questions about sex and gender.

“When people consider these questions that they try (to understand), don’t be afraid of the science behind these questions. Instead of just having a knee jerk reaction, try to think about it,” Moore said. “You are students at Virginia Tech, you’re going to have college degrees here, supposedly educated, right? Use your education and think about what these questions mean because they’re really important questions.”

Moore also encourages students to ask questions if they have trouble understanding some concepts of sex and gender.

“There is no such thing as a dumb question, only dumb people because they don’t ask questions,” Moore said.

Although the course is not available in spring semester, it will likely be offered in the fall semester of 2019.

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Categories
Accolades Interfaces of Global Change IGEP News Student Spotlight

Interfaces of Global Change IGEP welcomes 6 new fellows in Spring 2019!

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Interfaces of Global Change IGEP welcomes 6 new Ph.D. fellows in Spring 2019. This brings the program’s enrollment to 54 fellows strong in 2019!

Meet our newest fellows:

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Lauren Maynard

Working with Dr. Susan Whitehead (Biological Sciences)

Research interests: Species interactions, trophic cascades, chemical ecology, tropical ecology, integrated pest management[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”28354″ img_size=”250×250″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Stephen Plont

Working with Dr. Erin Hotchkiss (Biological Sciences)

Research interests: stream ecosystem processes and biogeochemical cycles in the face of environmental change[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”28297″ img_size=”250×250″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Sam Silknetter

Working with Dr. Meryl Mims (Biological Sciences)

Research interests: Stream ecology and biodiversity, landscape genetics, traits-based approaches, species interactions[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”28247″ img_size=”250×250″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Daniel Smith

Working with Dr. Tess Thompson (Biological Systems Engineering)

Research interests: stream and wetland restoration, soil microbial ecology, soil erosion[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”28355″ img_size=”250×250″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Isaac VanDiest

Working with Dr. Kendra Sewall (Biological Sciences)

Research interests: Behavioral ecology, urbanization, ornithology, ecophysiology, and conservation biology[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”28256″ img_size=”250×250″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Suwei Wang

Working with Dr. Julia Gohlke (Population Health Sciences)

Research interests: Environment change impact on human health, urban versus rural population vulnerability to heat stress, personal heat exposure estimation[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]