This issue of Policy News concludes ESA’s series of special editions covering the US Presidential Transition. With many vacant positions remaining in the new administration, we will continue to report on relevant updates in our regular Policy News and monitor them in the Federal Agency Transition Tracker. In This Issue: President Trump’s Use of Executive Authority in the First 100 Days Modern…

Stephanie Green, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford University, shares this Frontiers Focus on the effects of oil sands development on ocean ecosystems, from the March 2017 issue of ESA Frontiers. North America contains some of the largest sources of bitumen—a thick, sticky petroleum extracted from land-locked clay and sand deposits known as oil sands….

We are keeping you up-to-date on the appropriations process with a Federal Budget Tracker for FY 2018. We are also continuing to update our Federal Agency Transition Tracker. In This Issue: Executive Order Reshapes Climate Policies President signs order at EPA, directs agencies to review fossil fuel actions, implications for international agreements increasingly unclear EPA Budget Funding cuts, program eliminations, and…

Steven Brady is an evolutionary ecologist with the Department of Water and Land Resources at King County in Seattle, Wa. He and colleague Jonathan Richardson, an assistant professor at Providence College, share this Frontiers Focus on the ways in which species adapt to the pervasive presence of roads—and how those adaptations are not always beneficial for survival in the wider…

Edwin Peeters, associate professor at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and Edward Morris, postdoctoral scientist at the University of Cádiz, Spain share this Frontiers Focus on managing local threats to wetlands so that we may continue to enjoy their benefits as the climate changes, in the March 2017 issue of ESA Frontiers. Wetlands are exciting places to spend our free time, exploring…

The George Mercer Award recognizes an outstanding and recently-published ecological research paper by young scientists. ESA recognizes Jennifer Williams, Bruce Kendall, and Jonathan Levine with the 2017 Mercer award for their paper “Rapid evolution accelerates plant population spread in fragmented experimental landscapes,” published in Science. Biological invasions, and migrations of native species in response to climate change, are pressing areas…

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 award: Jason M. Aloisio (Fordham University), Tyler C. Coverdale (Princeton University), Anna M. Groves (Michigan…

We are keeping you up-to-date on the appropriations process with a new Federal Budget Tracker for FY 2018. We are also continuing to update our Federal Agency Transition Tracker. In This Issue: Budget Blueprint Slashes Non-Defense Discretionary Budgets Hiring freeze, agency reorganizations, and budget blueprint cause concern in scientific community House Science Committee Seeks to Prioritize Basic Physical Sciences Research NSF…

The Sustainability Science Award recognizes the authors of the scholarly work that makes the greatest contribution to the emerging science of ecosystem and regional sustainability through the integration of ecological and social sciences. ESA recognizes Jianguo Liu, Harold Mooney, Vanessa Hull, Steven J. Davis, Joanne Gaskell, Thomas Hertel, Jane Lubchenco, Karen C. Seto, Peter Gleick, Claire Kremen, and Shuxin Li with…

Ensuring the protection of our oceans means we must stem the tide of poaching in Marine Protected Areas. However, doing so requires understanding how much poaching is going on and the reasons why people do it.

RSVP if you plan on participating in the March for Science in Washington, D.C. or in another city. ESA, the largest society of ecologists in the world, endorses the nonpartisan March for Science. The Society joins over 28 organizations and scientific societies in supporting the mission of the March to publicly communicate science as a pillar of human freedom and…

The Ecological Society of America’s Commitment to Human Diversity in Ecology Award recognizes long-standing contributions of an individual towards increasing the diversity of future ecologists through mentoring, teaching, or outreach. Gillian Bowser, a research scientist in the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL) and affiliated faculty with The Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability and Department of Ethnic Studies at Colorado…