[toggles] [toggle title=”Executive Order Reshapes Climate Policies“] President Trump signed an Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth, Mar. 28, at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters surrounded by roughly a dozen coal executives and miners. Welcoming his visitors, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt stated, “We’re no longer going to have a regulatory assault on any given sector of…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday 3 April 2017 Contact: Julia Marsh, julia@esa.org, 202-833-8773 ext. 224 The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s Graduate Student Policy Award (GSPA). This award provides graduate students with the opportunity to travel to Washington, DC for policy experience and training. Six recipients were selected for this year’s…
Ecological Society of America tipsheet for 30 March 2017
[toggles] [toggle title=”Budget Blueprint Slashes Non-Defense Discretionary Budgets“] On Monday, March 13, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch” directing the director of the Office of Management and Budget “to propose a plan to reorganize governmental functions and eliminate unnecessary agencies.” That order, combined with the president’s previously announced federal hiring freeze,…
[subtoggles] [subtoggle title=”Transition Update”] Trump addresses Congress and signs two STEM bills President Trump addressed a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, February 28. (Trump’s first official State of the Union address will be in 2018, but the president’s office called this his “State of the Union address.”) The reviews were generally positive as the president, mainly sticking to the…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, 1 March 2017 Contact: Liza Lester, 202-833-8773 ext. 211, LLester@esa.org The Ecological Society of America (ESA) will present the 2017 awards recognizing outstanding contributions to ecology in new discoveries, teaching, sustainability, diversity, and lifelong commitment to the profession during the Society’s Annual Meeting in Portland, Ore. The awards ceremony will take place during the Scientific…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday 1 March 2017 Contact: Lars Sandved Dalen, NIBIO, Lars.Dalen@nibio.no Liza Lester, ESA, 202-833-8773 ext. 211, LLester@esa.org Until the modern era, the human mark on the northernmost forests of North America, Europe, and Asia was light. Human populations in these challenging environments were too small to make a big impact through agriculture or timber…
[toggles] [toggle title=”Transition Update”] Pruitt begins at Environmental Protection Agency Newly confirmed and sworn in, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt had his first meeting Tuesday, February 21, with agency staff anxious about broad changes. In an 11 minute speech, Pruitt asked listeners to give him a chance before judging. He also, however, hinted at broad changes on his…
[toggles] [toggle title=”Scientists and doctors unite against Trump immigration order”] President Trump’s Executive Order: Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, January 27, stirred many. Letters from medical, research and academic societies decried the Trump immigration order and called for its withdrawal. The Ecological Society of America joined 151 other scientific and engineering societies, national associations,…
RELEASE DATE: Monday, 6 February 2017 Contacts: Liza Lester, 202-833-8773 ext. 211, LLester@esa.org; Julia Marsh, 202-833-8773 ext. 224, Julia@esa.org; Alison Mize, 202-833-8773 ext. 205, Alison@esa.org WASHINGTON, DC – The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is pleased to announce its 2017 Fellows. The Society’s fellowship program recognizes the many ways in which its members contribute to ecological research and discovery,…
[toggles] [toggle title=”Expedited Environmental Reviews and Approvals”] President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday, January 24, directing the still unnamed chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality to exercise broad authority for “expediting environmental reviews and approvals for high priority infrastructure projects,” mandating a thirty day decision timeline. President Trump commented, “And if it’s a no, we’ll give…
David Lodge, Director of the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell University, became President of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) on August 12, 2016. As President, Lodge now chairs ESA’s governing board, which establishes the Society’s vision, goals and objectives. “The need is greater than ever for rigorous scientific information about the dependence of humans on nature, and…
Monday September 26, 2016: David Lodge, Director of the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future at Cornell University, became President of the ESA on August 12, 2016. Elected by the members of ESA for a one-year term, he now chairs ESA’s governing board, which establishes the Society’s vision, goals and objectives. Lodge brings a background of collaboration with economists, historians, theologians and philosophers, and he has partnered with such organizations as The Nature Conservancy to bring his scientific work into public policy.
Black-billed magpies and American crows, both members of the clever corvid family of birds, have adapted comfortably to life in urban and suburban communities. In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the two species often nest nearby each other in backyards and parks. Nesting near their much larger crow cousins affords magpies a margin of extra safety from a common enemy—ravens, an even larger corvid species. Do magpies pay a food penalty for nesting near larger rivals? To find out which of the two corvids were more intrepid snack scouts, Esposito presented breeding pairs with a set of Cheetos challenges. She will present her results today at ESA’s 101st Annual Meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, 4 August 2016 Contact: Liza Lester, 202-833-8773 ext. 211, LLester@esa.org Ecological scientists are not known for elevated fashion sensibilities. Many take pride in a sartorial identity rooted in a field work chic of practical hats, cargo pants, and judicious applications of duct tape. Button-downs in botanical prints and ties in tiny repeating motifs of anatomically…
To restore the grasslands of the Great Plains, a Nebraska ecologist says, bring back high intensity fires FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, 1 August 2016 Contact: Liza Lester, 202-833-8773 ext. 211, LLester@esa.org Ecologist Dirac Twidwell wants to change the way we think about prescribed burns. The University of Nebraska professor says he can harness extreme fire to restore grasslands on…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday 25 July 2016 Contact: Liza Lester, 202-833-8773 ext. 211, LLester@esa.org One hundred and thirty years ago, the volcano Krakatoa erupted in what is now Indonesia, unleashing a cataclysm locally and years of cool temperatures and rain globally. On the far side of the world, a bumper crop of saguaro cacti were getting their start in…
Ecological dimensions of mosquito-borne disease are on the minds of ecologists as they head to southern Florida for the 101st Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, 8 July 2016 Contact: Liza Lester, 202-833-8773 ext. 211, LLester@esa.org The resurgence of Zika virus has raised anxieties about the spread of infectious disease by mosquitoes as…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, 7 July 2016 Contact: Alison Mize, 202-833-8773 ext. 205, alison@esa.org On Sunday, August 7, 2016, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) will present its ninth annual Regional Policy Award to Shannon Estenoz, Director of Everglades Restoration Initiatives for the US Department of Interior during the Society’s Annual Meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The ESA award recognizes…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11:00 am EDT Tuesday, 28 June 2016Media Contacts: Ginger Pinholster, AAAS, 202-326-6421, gpinhols@aaas.org Joan Buhrman, AGU, 202-777-7509, jbuhrman@agu.org Kasey S. White, GSA, 202-669-0466, kwhite@geosociety.org In a consensus letter to U.S. policymakers, a partnership of 31 leading nonpartisan scientific societies today reaffirmed the reality of human-caused climate change, noting that greenhouse gas emissions “must be substantially reduced” to…