You’ve probably heard about the importance of eating more locally grown foods. What are some ecological implications? Natural Resources and Environmental Management MS student Tanya Torres will discuss her findings during her defense of her thesis, “Quantifying the Environmental Footprint of Doubling Hawai‘i’s Local Food Supply.”

The Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds will be performed on Kaua‘i for the first time in February 2020, and help is needed to recruit teachers on the island to bring their students. All classes in grades 4–12, as well as home-schooled students, are welcome. It's a place-based interdisciplinary program that brings together science, music, art, dance, and education to tell the story of our endangered Hawaiian forest birds.

Clay Trauernicht (NREM) wrote a chilling article on a hot topic in Civil Beat. The wildland fire researcher and Extension faculty member discussed Central Maui fires that burned nearly 20,000 acres this summer (see image of burned area from the Sentinel-2 satellite). This “unprecedented” area reflects “dramatic increases in wildfires across the state,” he warns.

Join in the avian excitement as the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra performs the Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds, an original set of works produced by Hawai‘i’s composers, artists, biologists, and educators! Melissa Price of CTAHR’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management is a creator of the concert project, bringing to it her perspective on conservation and wildlife management. It’s all happening November 5 at the Blaisdell Concert Hall!

Noa Lincoln, of CTAHR’s Department of Tropical Plants and Soil Sciences, and Nathanial Wehr, of our Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, are co-authors of a new article published in the prestigious journal Science about the importance of earthworms in biosystems—and the necessity for studying these wriggly creatures so we can keep those biosystems healthy.