NREM Professor Emeritus Chennat Gopalakrishnan is guest editor of a special issue of the Journal of Natural Resources Policy focused on “Institutional Entropy: Causes, Consequences, and Corrective Measures.” The journal is issuing a call for papers that clarify and illuminate all aspects of institutional entropy, examining in detail its causes and consequences and suggesting possible solutions. 

NREM alumna Flavia da Silva, project management specialist for USAID/Timor-Leste, recently led an Ocean Talk at the Our Oceans Conference 2018 along with Timor-Leste Secretary of State for the Environment Demitrio do Amaral de Carvalho. Flavia (right) explained, “Our Oceans Conference was an excellent opportunity for USAID/Timor-Leste to highlight its work on the protection of Timor-Leste’s marine biodiversity." 

ROD education and outreach specialist Corie Yanger (NREM) was a significant contributor to the ‘Ōhi‘a Love Festival, hosted by UH and DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife on the Big Island. ROD, or Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death, is a fungal disease that has killed off hundreds of thousands of acres of native ‘ōhi‘a forests on the island.

Grad student Hunter Heaivilin (NREM) will be the next presenter at the weekly Seminar Series on Climate Change Adaptation presented by UH Manoa’s Institute for Sustainability and Resilience. He will speak on “Assessment of Climate Change Impact to Hawaii Crops” on October 22, from 12 to 1:20 p.m. (lunch starts at noon, the presentation at 12:15) at the iLab (Building 37).

CTAHR was well represented by a number of faculty presenters at the annual conference of the Landscape Industry Council of Hawaii. Dean Comerford kicked off the day with a talk describing his vision for landscaping and ornamentals over the next five years. Participating also were TPSS, PEPS, and NREM faculty, including Ken Leonhard (pictured).

Clay Trauernicht (NREM) recently published an article in Civil Beat’s “Community Voices” forum entitled “Fire Is the One Hawaii Disaster We Can Avoid.” As he explains, there’s nothing people can do to prevent many of the natural disasters that have hit our state in the past few months. But one natural crisis that we can prevent is wildfire.

 

There was lots of participation from NREM this year at the 25th Annual Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference (HCC). The 48 total participants from NREM gave 76 presentations over the two days of the conference, on subjects of great environmental importance and interest, from endangered native land snails to aerial drones.

 

The first speaker in the UH Manoa Institute of Sustainability and Resilience's interdepartmental seminar series will be Clay Trauernicht (NREM), who will discuss wildfire ecology on Monday, August 27, from 12 to 1:20 p.m. in the iLab (Building 37).  RSVP for lunch by Friday, August 24.

The Hawaii Symphony Orchestra will again be performing the successful multimedia collaboration Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds, spearheaded by Melissa Price (NREM), on October 31 and November 1 for students in grades 4 through 12. If you know any teachers who might like to bring their classes to a performance, make sure to let them know!

Susan Crow’s (NREM) project “Putting the Farmer in the Driver’s Seat: Integrative Web Tool for Improved Soil Health and Carbon Assessment, Monitoring, and Planning” just won one of three grants from NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative for soil and nitrogen data tools.

Melissa Price (NREM, left) was one of the scientists who participated in the live broadcast of Hawai‘i Public Radio’s Science Friday filmed at the Hawaii Theatre Center in Honolulu, where she discussed efforts to engage school children with science and conservation efforts, including her recent Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds.

Clay Trauernicht and Patricia Fifita (both NREM) organized the American Samoa Extension Climate Forum with partners at American Samoa Community College (ASCC), similar to the climate forum for Extension personnel that they organized last year at UH. Jonathan Deenik and Jensen Uyeda (both TPSS) also presented and attended.

Extension forester and winner of CTAHR’s 2018 Award for Excellence in Extension J.B. Friday (NREM) is quoted in a UH News story announcing that the two species of fungus that are causing Rapid ‘Ohi‘a Death, or ROD, have been described and named in a recently published paper.

Wildfire expert Clay Trauernicht and Pua‘ala Pascua (both NREM) are co-authors of a paper, “Bringing Multiple Values to the Table: An Assessment of Future Land-Use and Climate Change in North Kona, Hawaiʻi,” that recommends a collaborative approach in working with stakeholders to assess the multiple values that different ecosystems in Hawaiʻi provide.

Congratulations to graduate student Nicholas Krueger (NREM), who has been awarded the ARCS Foundation’s Helen Jones Farrar Award in Tropical Agriculture! He researches ways to measure soil carbon stocks in Hawaiian rangelands and is one of nine UH doctoral candidates who will receive $5,000 ARCS Scholar awards.