Justin Swanson’s Post

The latest issue of the University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources alumni magazine Momentum is now available! Check out the latest features on research, what we're doing in our communities, and what our fearless students and alumni have been up to. Read the full issue at https://lnkd.in/epCCV5qE. #agricultureandfarming #research #naturalresources

The newest edition of our eDigest is live. Read about plant giveaways, conservation research, and our newest exhibit!

Dr. Kelley Langhans, a #NatCapper and Stanford University PhD graduate, returns with her research on birds, people and community farms! Focusing on SF's #FlorenceFangCommunityFarm relationship with birds, Kelley discusses the question: how do people in under served communities interact with and use nature in their lives? 📽️: @vitheleaf (YouTube and Twitter) #EcosystemServices #UrbanNature #NatureInCities https://ow.ly/JP6H50PZLAL

Check out our new paper! “The people who live, work, and recreate within bear habitat play a crucial role in their conservation. While the public is often enthusiastic about grizzly bears, and opportunistically report their observations to government staff, these reports are not systematic or rigorously collected and lack key information. As such, we developed GrizzTracker as a community science program. Following several years of successful deployment, we analyzed community scientist data and evaluated the efficacy of the program through an online user survey. We found that the GrizzTracker app was useful as a data collection and public engagement tool, yielding information for applied management, and that community scientists were generally satisfied. We provide considerations for future program development, including considerations for human, social, technological, and financial capital investment related to design, development, and implementation of data collection protocols, the importance of clearly communicating outcomes, and opportunities for educational outreach.” https://lnkd.in/gW9C3XFg

Everything about the birds and the bees 😁 Headhunterzz.com..Use your Brain for a Change! #investing#energy#sustainable#eco#globalwarming#climatechange#carbonneutral#shareholderactivism#finance#parisagreement#banking#Risk#chemicals#pollution#solution#alternative#solutions

"Children are like buffaloes”, walking through the planting, disturbing the soil.   A curious insight from tracks pupils had trodden through deep planting beds, passing between the school buildings.   So, what do you do? Do you fence if off? Do you plant spiky bushes?   Well, it’s like buffalo in grassland, was the comment. They’re continuously moving over and disrupting the ground.    And what thrives in this environment? Annuals. They flourish in disturbed soils – waiting for the opportunity to burst into life.   An interesting perspective. Perhaps we need to think differently. Embracing dynamic natural processes and intriguing proxies to nature. #landscapearchitecture #biodiversity #natureconnection

At the recent Comhlámh, Irish Association of Development Workers and Volunteers webinar, Eoghan Daltun - sculpture conservator, high nature value farmer and rewilder - shares his journey of regenerating a temperate rainforest on 73 acres on the Beara peninsula in West Cork. This talk is about reconnecting with nature through relationships of care, plugging back into Mother Earth, retuning our own lives and minds through very real, practical, meaningful actions. The resilience of nature, its indominatable spirit and life force, and the model it offers us as individuals and communities is life-giving and nourishes us at every level. The talk is magical, visionary and also grounded in the logic of considering farming and care for nature in tandem, of telling new stories about sharing nature, not dominating it, so that nature can continue to feed and shelter all species, not just our species, that as humans, we return to being 'partners' not 'masters'. Maybe Eoghan's story is what Tyson Yunkaporta calls 'right story'. These are the kinds of stories that Riane Eisler says is one of the four cornerstones for cultural transformation from a dominator social configuration towards Partnerism - a socio-economic system that values and rewards care for one another, nature and our collective future. #partnerism, #IrishAtlanticRainforest

What can we say - just watch this #FirstWeds conversation with Eoghan Daltun and dive into the magic of rewilding with this visionary author. Thank you, Caroline Crowley, PhD, for such a beautiful insight and recommendation!

new paper showing that even in restored grassland, the pollinator community may be just as healthy as in remnant grasslands. "differences in community composition and diversity did not appear to impact network metrics including nestedness, connectance, modularity, and network specialization, which were similar between remnant and restored sites. Our results suggest that the structural characteristics of plant–pollinator networks can be maintained by different plant communities." https://lnkd.in/gnjvbgKh

How does wildlife contribute to our sense of home & homemaking? ANU College of Science features Sociologist and trained snake catcher Gavin Smith from ANU School of Sociology & Ruby Ekkel from ANU History in this great piece!