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19 September 2023

Assistant Professor Opprotunity!

Assistant Professor in Applied Environmental Economics

 

Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources /
University of Hawaii at Manoa

 

Title: Assistant Professor (Applied Environmental Economics)
Position Number: 0085403T
Hiring Unit: College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR), Natural Resources and Environmental Management (NREM)
Location: Manoa Campus
Full Time/Part Time: Full Time (50% Research; 50% Instruction)
Temporary/Permanent: Temporary

Other Conditions: To begin approximately January 2024 or soon thereafter. Funding is approved until 2026 with apossibility to extend, renewal dependent on grants awarded and satisfactory performance.

For more information, visit: https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/hawaiiedu/jobs/4189270/assistant-professor-applied-environmental-economics-85403t

For Inquiries, contact Dr. Melissa Price at pricemel@hawaii.edu

19 September 2023

Job Opening!

Tenure-track Junior/Assistant Extension Agent for Agricultural Finance

Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
University of Hawaii


Job Opening: Tenure-track Junior/Assistant Extension Agent for Agricultural Finance


CTAHR is a premier college that has a mission to provide exceptional transdisciplinary education, research, and extension in tropical and sub-tropical agriculture, natural resources, and human well-being to local and global communities. NREM is an interdisciplinary department, weaving multiple knowledge systems for stewardship of natural resources, and discovering and disseminating innovative, integrated solutions for sustainable natural resource use, farm and food systems, and environmental management. Visit https://cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu/nrem/.

We are seeking candidates for the tenure-track, Junior/Assistant Extension Agent for Agricultural Finance (Position # 84045).


For the complete job announcement and application information, visit https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/hawaiiedu/jobs/4129158/junior-assistant-extension-
agent-agricultural-finance-pos-84045


The University of Hawai'i is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution. We believe that inclusiveness and excellence are interdependent. Our local and global communities are best served by ensuring all populations are represented equitably throughout CTAHR. We strive to cultivate an environment that supports equitable opportunities for every member of CTAHR to achieve individual and common goals.

Fire and Clay 31 August 2023

Fire and Clay

NREM wildfire expert answers 50+ media calls

A heartfelt mahalo from the CTAHR ‘ohana to Clay Trauernicht of the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management. As the Maui wildfires tragedy unfolded, Clay was interviewed by at least 50 different media outlets from across the country and internationally. With the highest level of scientific integrity, advocacy, and professionalism, he represented NREM, CTAHR, UH, and the state of Hawaiʻi to millions of people around the world.

Aloha from Kenya 31 August 2023

Aloha from Kenya

Sharing community-led research in Nairobi

This past summer, four UH students traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, for the 19th Biennial International Association for the Study of the Commons conference. With our mentor, Dr. Mehana Vaughan of the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, we relished the rare opportunity to share community-rooted research with an international audience.

Blue Carbon 31 August 2023

Blue Carbon

NREM will leverage Fulbright award in Manila

“Blue carbon” is the carbon stored in mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrasses. These coastal and marine ecosystems sequester and store large quantities of blue carbon in both the plants and sediment below. In fact, recent research shows that 50% of all carbon in the ocean is stored in coastal habitats, despite taking up on only 2% of ocean area. Which means these ecosystems could be an underutilized yet critical component to battling climate change. 

26 June 2023

Sustainable, climate-smart food production focus of grad student’s work, research

person standing next to a plaque and flags

Approximately 90% of Hawaiʻi’s food is imported. There are also barriers to food production that create an uncertain future for the state’s agriculture industry. However, a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa graduate student is hoping to plant a new seed and create a more positive future in Hawaiʻi’s quest to become self-sufficient.

three people standing and smiling
Professor Susan Crow, Destiny Apilado and U.S. Rep. Ed Case

Destiny Apilado is pursuing her master’s of environmental management in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management (NREM). Under the guidance of Associate Professor Susan Crow, Apilado is part of a team that received a $40-million U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant to implement sustainable, climate-smart practices and establish stronger markets for locally produced, healthy food and forest products.

Click here to view the full article

22 February 2023

Rachael Cleveland (2022 MS Graduate) selected as a Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) Finalist!

See list of finalists here: https://apply.pmf.gov/finalists.aspx

NREM invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in Biocultural Resource Stewardship! 19 December 2022

NREM invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in Biocultural Resource Stewardship!

For further information, contact Dr. Mehana Vaughan (mehana@hawaii.edu).

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management (NREM) at the University of Hawaii Manoa (UHM) invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in Biocultural Resource Stewardship. This is a 9-month tenure track position with 50% teaching and 50% research responsibilities, teaching an average of three classes per year. This position is vital to NREM's strategic vision of becoming a department known for weaving multiple knowledge systems for stewardship of natural resources, building leadership in 'aina momona, and revitalizing and reconnecting ecosystems and communities. It is designed to support burgeoning student interest in indigenous approaches to resource stewardship in Hawai'i and UHM's role as a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning in the most foundational area of care of all forms of 'aina. This position reflects understanding that indigenous approaches to stewardship of land and waters underpin climate change adaptation, food security, and restoration and conservation of species and ecosystems towards a pono future. 

Position #: 0083740

Position Title: Assistant Professor in Biocultural Resource Stewardship

Best Consideration Date: January 11, 2023 

Hawaiʻi Needs Good Soil To Grow More Food. Here’s How That Can Happen 15 February 2022

Hawaiʻi Needs Good Soil To Grow More Food. Here’s How That Can Happen

There’s a renewed focus among lawmakers and scientists as the state faces a “quantum moment” to develop a more self-reliant and sustainable system

A growing number of local scientists and farmers are focusing on soil for the future of Hawaii’s food system and for the state’s resilience against climate change.

That group has grown to include lawmakers who have introduced a suite of bills this session that directly and indirectly relate to the health of the state’s soils.

Soil’s potential to help address climate change was previously understated, according to a 2017 study. Soil stores about 2,500 gigatons of carbon worldwide, more than three times the amount in the atmosphere and four times what’s in plants and animals.

Many feel that developing better soil in Hawaii is the key to a more self-reliant and sustainable food system

Click HERE the read the full article

Hālana ka Manaʻo 27 December 2021

Hālana ka Manaʻo

Final 2018 Flood Reports and Products from U.H. Mānoa student work (2019-2021)

We are excited to share with you all of the final resources we have assembled since our visits to Kauaʻi, our project, Hālana ka Manaʻo Reflections, from the 2018 Kauai Floods.  It has taken over two and a half years since we began to work on documenting lessons from the floods, to finish this work. Nearly 80 community members took time to share their manaʻo. Many of the resources below, created through this project, have already been shared in presentations and emails, except for the report, which was just completed.  Mahalo to Hawaiʻi Community Foundation - Kauaʻi Flood Relief and Recovery Fund for helping to support this effort.  

Students have created the following five products: 

  1. Video - 10 min. YouTube video, Hālana ka Manaʻo shares flood experiences, video and photos collected across Kauaʻi.
  2. Report - This written report is full of quotes and stories from the floods in your own words, along with emerging lessons.
  3. Story maps - These Arc GIS story maps, have pages that cover the floods by ahupuaʻa impacted around the island of Kauaʻi, as well as a page for each of the key themes and lessons which emerged.
  4. Waiʻaleʻale - This piece published in 2020 in The Value of Hawaiʻi III, Hulihia, was written as a poem for the 2020 Kauaʻi Community College commencement exercises.
  5. Recommendations list - This two page recommendations list summarizes findings from this research with on the ground actions and policy implications for our island.

We hope this work will help Kauaʻi and other places to learn and build resilience for the future, and help future generations to understand this pivotal event for our island.  We hope you might take time to watch the video, or view the story maps with your ʻohana, including keiki.  It has been a great honor to work with so many people from the Kauaʻi community who shared so generously, and to transcribe and analyze all of your manaʻo to capture lessons for future generations.

There's a goal of ensuring Hawaiʻi has 100M trees by 2030 22 October 2021

There's a goal of ensuring Hawaiʻi has 100M trees by 2030

HPR Interview with Dr. Travis Idol

Helping 100 million trees to thrive by 2030. That’s the goal set by Gov. David Ige's office.

In order to meet that mark, the state plans to plant or conserve thousands of acres of forest in the coming decade. It’s part of a larger statewide strategy to fight climate change. But what’s behind that number — 100 million?

The Conversation spoke with Travis Idol, a University of Hawaiʻi professor of tropical forestry and agroforestry in order to find out. He said the 100 million trees as a goal is just the beginning.

"We have millions for sure. I think the state probably controls about a million acres of forest lands. And so if you think there are probably hundreds of trees per acre of land on some nice good forests, then you're talking about maybe 100 million trees or more just on state land," Idol said. "So we have hundreds of millions of trees, I bet."

While Hawaiʻi probably has at least 100 million trees right now, Idol said it's important to manage Hawaiʻi's forests and ensure their survival.

"They've been affected and highly altered by human activities for a long time," he told Hawaiʻi Public Radio. "We need to be out there managing them and sometimes that means planting new trees. It means even removing trees we don't want there such as invasive species. So all of those things that are mentioned in that pledge — conserving, restoring, planting, growing — all of those are things we do need to do, not only to maintain the trees we have, but to replace trees that probably are going to need to come down, and maybe in the right kind of conditions, to expand the forests that we have."

This interview aired on The Conversation on Oct. 11, 2021.

Listen to the full interview here.

Deep Soil 12 October 2021

Deep Soil

NREM will participate in a study on terrestrial ecosystems

If you’re looking for a high concentration of carbon, skip the trees and atmosphere, because soil contains more carbon than both of them combined. In fact, the highest stocks of carbon can be found where very deep soils exist – such as in the tropics.

Unfortunately, few people get to spend much time this close to deep soil. But that’s about to change with the Deep Soil Ecotron, a facility to be built at the University of Idaho that will enable scientists to conduct experiments on columns of soil up to 10 feet deep, using an $18.9M grant from the National Science Foundation.

The facility will contain as many of 24 “eco-units,” each with roughly three meters of intact soil monolith transported to Idaho from diverse places, potentially including tropical and volcanic ash soils from Hawaiʻi.

“Hawaiʻi’s soils provide key climate, weathering, and mineralogical end-members in global soil diversity, says Susan Crow of the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management. “As part of the Ecotron, Hawaiʻi’s soils will help us better understand the profound changes the earth system is currently undergoing, and hopefully better care for the earth’s ecosystems.”

By housing diverse soils together, scientists can establish a common set of experimental conditions, or subject one soil to a full set of interacting environmental variables. This capability will allow them to disentangle complex ecological processes that act together in response to climate, land use, and management change.  

Susan adds, “As a co-PI, my role is to be a member of the scientific leadership team that oversees the Deep Soil Ecotron commissioning and advising a cohort of graduate students focused on professional development in large-scale project development, implementation, and management (in addition to their deep soil research).”

Read more about the Deep Soil Ecotron.

Students win new UH awards to protect oceans 7 October 2021

Students win new UH awards to protect oceans

NREM Students and Faculty are featured

Ten University of Hawaiʻi students have been selected to receive $1,000 each through a new award program aimed at completing a project to conserve the living resources of the ocean. The Ocean Conservation Awards are funded by a donation from the Global High Seas Marine Preserve organization, and administered by the UH Foundation. The student practitioners were chosen by faculty mentors for the 2021–22 academic year.

“The Ocean Conservation Award program is a wonderful way to recognize, support and mentor students who wish to make a positive difference for our oceans,” said program manager Mark Hixon, the Hsiao Endowed Professor of Marine Biology in the School of Life Sciences at UH Mānoa.

Danny Quintana, Global High Seas Marine Preserve president and founder, is motivated by the need for immediate action to save the seas. “We will succeed. Failure is not an option,” he said.

The faculty mentors, who are all experts on ocean conservation issues, will guide the development and implementation of student projects during the academic year. Student awardees range from first-year undergraduates to post-baccalaureate students in multiple disciplines, focusing on a variety of projects:

  • Kanoʻeaunainoa Awo (Hawaiian Studies, UH Mānoa; mentored by Assistant Professor Noelani Puniwai): “Kiaʻi Kai–kuleana for Hawaiʻi’s oceans”
  • Helena Bakutis-Kekaula (Hawaiian Studies, UH Mānoa; mentored by Assistant Professor Puniwai): “Kiaʻi Kai–kuleana of visitors to Hawaiʻi’s shorelines for conserving our ocean”
  • Joel Burgess (Environmental Law, UH Mānoa; mentored by Professor Denise Antolini): “Reducing marine plastics–legal solutions to a wicked problem”
  • Kalā Diaz (Hawaiian Studies and Hawaiian Language, UH Mānoa; mentored by Assistant Specialist Kawika Winter): “He Aliʻi ke Kai–developing a pilot ocean conservation education program for a youth paddling club”
  • Sydney Lewandowski (Natural Resources and Environmental Management (NREM), UH Mānoa; mentored by Faculty Instructor Mahealani Kaneshiro): “The art of preventing the marine plastic problem”
  • Tehani Louis-Perkins (Environmental Law; UH Mānoa mentored by Professor Antolini): “Protecting marine limu–a proposal for Puaʻena Limu Management Area”
  • Kara Murphy (Marine Science, UH Hilo; mentored by Marine Option Program Chair and Marine Science I
Nests in Your Neighborhood 28 September 2021

Nests in Your Neighborhood

NREM improves the protection and stewardship of seabirds

ʻUaʻu kani, or Wedge-tailed Shearwater, is a seabird species common in Hawaiʻi. Though historically found nesting along coastlines, human development in these areas has likely reduced the availability of nesting habitats, pushing the seabird colonies to nest in undeveloped islets.

However, many coastal residents continue to observe ʻuaʻu kani nesting nearby – or on their properties – where they are unprotected and threatened by nest trampling due to human activity or construction; predation by rats, cats, mongoose, and dogs; and potentially, stress caused by proximity to human activity.

Surprisingly, a new study from the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management finds no significant difference in nesting success of the Wedge-tailed Shearwater at an unprotected, popular beach park versus a site with restricted public access.

“Though nesting success at Kailua Beach Park was slightly lower than nesting success at the restricted-access site, it seems so long as their underground nests aren’t trampled and collapsed, and no major predation events occur, colonies in busy beach parks can be successful,” says Jessica Idle, a graduate student in NREM’s Hawaiʻi Wildlife Ecology Lab.

Still, their conclusions have convinced stakeholders to construct “symbolic fencing” around the seabird colony at Kailua Beach Park to encourage park-goers to avoid walking through the nesting areas.

“We thank the City and County of Honolulu, Department of Parks and Recreation, for their support and permission allowing us to install signage and symbolic fencing at the Kailua Wedge-tailed Shearwater colony,” says Jon Gelman of Hawaiʻi Marine Animal Response, which constructed the fence. “We also thank the University of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Pacific University, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Islands Coastal Program for their collaboration and support of our seabird conservation projects.”

Stephanie Araki, Honolulu City and County’s Department of Recreation, adds, “Kudos to Ms. Idle and her colleagues for their commitment to protect our precious wildlife and to teach the rest of us about our seabird ‘ohana. We are honored to have played an insignificant role in this significant study and hope that the protective fences enable the Wedge-tailed Shearwaters to survive and return to their Kailua home for many years to come.”

NREM and its partners hope to encourage Hawaiʻi residents with seabirds nesting in their neighborhoods, local parks, and back yards to consider similar temporary fencing and signage.

“Further steps that everyone can take include keeping dogs leashed near nesting colonies, minimizing noise and activity near colonies at dawn and dusk when the adult birds are coming and going from the nests, and turning off indoor and outdoor lights in November and December to protect young seabirds leaving the nest for the first time,” Jessica adds.

Read the full study, “Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Ardenna pacifica) nesting success in human-dominated coastal environments,” which appears in the latest PeerJ.

Photos courtesy of Alex Awo and Hawai‘i Marine Animal Response.

ANRPO and UH 16 September 2021

ANRPO and UH

A Cooperative Stewardship in Natural Resources and Environmental Management

U.S. Army Garrison Hawai‘i’s Schofield Barracks is home to an elite unit whose mission is to protect the island of O‘ahu from invasion.

They use helicopters and four-wheel drive vehicles; often rappel down steep mountainsides; and use their highly trained special skills to carry out their assigned objectives.

While the description certainly brings to one’s mind the famed U.S. Army Rangers, this group utilizes their specialized acumen and knowledge in conservation biology to protect endangered species and habitats on more than 50,000 acres of U.S. Army training ground on the island. They are members of the Army Natural Resource Program on O‘ahu (ANRPO), an approximately $21 million project funded through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Army.

 As a federal agency, the U.S. Army is required by the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to protect any federally listed endangered or threatened animals and plants in their training areas and to ensure they are not negatively impacted. Additionally, they are bound by the Sikes Act that covers wildlife, fish and game conservation and rehabilitation on military reservations.

“In Hawai‘i, the U.S. Army is responsible for over 120 endangered plants and animals, the highest number of endangered species for any Army garrison in the United States,” said U.S. Army Garrison Hawai‘i Natural Resource Manager Kapua Kawelo. “Through ANRPO, the U.S. Army is able to maintain compliance in their five O‘ahu training areas, enabling service members from the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, National Guard and Reserve, as well as local law enforcement agencies, to successfully maintain their operational readiness.”

The ANRPO team consists of two U.S. Army Garrison Hawai‘i civilian employees and over 50 contract biologists and technicians who protect the native habitats via removal of pigs and goats from fenced units, invasive plant control and eradication, vegetation restoration, and rodent and slug control. In addition, ANRPO maintains and increases populations of endangered plants and animals through monitoring, cultivation and reintroduction. The program collaborates and consults extensively with conservation entities across the state of Hawai‘i including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hawai‘i State Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Hawai‘i State Department of Land and Natural Resources, the O‘ahu Invasive Species Committee, the Hawaiian Seed Bank Partnership, the Hawai‘i Rare Plant Restoration Group, and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, as well as many other municipal and private entities.

As new challenges and obstacles arise that often require innovative solutions, ANRPO regularly partners with researchers from various institutions and agencies from around the world. While the University of Hawai‘i has always been the defacto institution due to its location and expertise, a much stronger research relationship has developed when the University of Hawai‘i Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation (OVPRI) entered into a cooperative agreement to administratively oversee ANRPO in 2018.

“The outstanding conservation work done by ANRPO is not only vital to the operational readiness of military forces in Hawai‘i, but also to preserving and maintaining the state’s finite natural resources and habitats,” said UH Vice President for Research and Innovation Vassilis L. Syrmos. “The partnership allows us to seamlessly integrate our excellent cadre of researchers to work collaboratively with ANRPO staff to find innovative solutions to constantly evolving issues in environmental&

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