ESA Policy News In This Issue: UN-administered IPBES Identifies Impact of Land Degradation on Climate Change Concludes that land degradation, caused by human activities, is a significant driver of climate change and biodiversity loss. EPA Talking Points Memo to Staff Downplays Climate Change Coordinated strategy to discredit climate science. Quick Reads USGS director confirmed, National Park Service removes mentions of human’s…

ESAFrontiers study reviews the global importance of vertebrate pollinators for plant reproduction Bees are not the only animals that carry pollen from flower to flower. Species with backbones, among them bats, birds, mice, and even lizards, also serve as pollinators. Although less familiar as flower visitors than insect pollinators, vertebrate pollinators are more likely to have co-evolved tight relationships of…

ESA Policy News In This Issue: ESA Selects Graduate Student Policy Award Winners Ten students receive the 2018 Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award Congress Completes FY 2018 Appropriations with Passage of Massive Spending Bill Omnibus rejects the president’s proposed cuts to science, provides largest increase to research spending in almost a decade EPA Administrator Pruitt Raises HONEST Act…

  The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award (GSPA). This award provides graduate students with the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. for policy experience and training. Ten recipients were selected for this year’s award: Aaron W. Baumgardner (California State University, Bakersfield), Stephen R. Elser…

Action Alert: Ask your Members of Congress to restore funding for science Dear ESA Member: As you may know, President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) budget request sent to Congress would flat-fund or cut research accounts at several federal agencies for America’s scientific enterprise. There is a realistic opportunity to achieve budget increases for scientific research because Congress came to a…

  Dear ESA Member: As you may know, President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) budget request sent to Congress would flat-fund or cut research accounts at several federal agencies for America’s scientific enterprise. There is a realistic opportunity to achieve budget increases for scientific research because Congress came to a two-year budget agreement Feb. 29 that suspends the debt ceiling for…

  President Trump released his Legislative Outline for Rebuilding Infrastructure in America (53 pages) Feb. 12. The outline offers $200 billion in federal spending over 10 years and aims to spur an additional $1.3 trillion in state and private infrastructure spending. It seeks to limit environmental oversight while shortening regulatory review to two years. It includes a directive to the White…

A study published in Ecological Monographs follows 9,685 wandering albatrosses throughout their long lives, seeking the intrinsic differences that make some individuals outstanding performers

ESA Policy News In This Issue: President’s Budget Proposes Cuts to Science, Research While in some cases not as severe as originally proposed, the Trump budget would cut research and science, eliminate important programs Quick Reads Infrastructure hearings, NSF updates, House hearing on sexual harassment, climate advisor resigns, secretarial order to improve game corridors, USGS scientists resign over data, science…

ESA Policy News In This Issue: Congress Reaches Budget Deal and Budget Caps Raised Agreement suspends debt ceiling, raises budget caps, funds government until March 23 ESA Members Visit the Hill for Climate Science Day Annual event brings scientists to DC to talk climate science Quick Reads Trump unveils infrastructure plan, EPA updates, WOTUS delay, Farm Bill priorities, LOBO science…

A special issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment looks for new solutions to old problems by pooling the knowledge of scientists, ranchers, feds, community groups, and tribes   Tension between the needs of cattle and fish is a source decades of controversy in northeast Oregon’s Blue Mountains. Endangered bull trout, steelhead trout, Chinook salmon, and sockeye salmon require…

The ESA Governing Board announced today that Dr. Catherine O’Riordan, interim co-CEO and chief operating officer of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), will join the Society’s staff as its new executive director on April 16. O’Riordan, an ocean scientist and highly accomplished association executive, will be only the third executive director in ESA’s 100+ year history. “I am excited…