September 25, 2018
While a warming climate in recent decades may be a factor in the waning of some local populations of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders, it cannot explain the overall steep decline of amphibians, according to researchers.
September 18, 2018
Fracking has eaten up nearly 1,800 acres of state forest in Pennsylvania over the past decade — wiping out critical habitat for native species and creating corridors for invasive species to thrive. How do we best revive areas cleared for fracking?
September 18, 2018
Despite many decades of annual brook trout stocking in one northcentral Pennsylvania watershed, the wild brook trout populations show few genes from hatchery fish, according to researchers who genotyped about 2,000 brook trout in Loyalsock Creek watershed, a 500-square-mile drainage in Lycoming and Sullivan counties celebrated by anglers for its trout fishing.
September 11, 2018
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $3 million grant to an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers to create a new graduate program that will train students to find solutions to real-world problems facing Food-Energy-Water (FEW) systems.
September 10, 2018
Soil may be a natural filter that can act as a tertiary treatment for wastewater, preventing antibiotics from contaminating groundwater, according to researchers who conducted a study at Penn State's Living Filter.
September 7, 2018
The inaugural Pennsylvania One Health Symposium, which focused on zoonotic diseases — infectious diseases that are caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi spread between animals and people — was sponsored by the Maurice K. Goddard Chair in Forestry and Environmental Resource Conservation.
August 27, 2018
Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has awarded funding to three individuals and two teams to support the development of innovative curricula under the college's Harbaugh Faculty Scholars program.
August 24, 2018
Jillian Barskey, an environmental resource management major in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, aspires to reduce game-day waste by serving as this year's student sustainability coordinator for Intercollegiate Athletics and Penn State's Sustainability Institute.
August 11, 2018
August 8, 2018
Anywhere large-bodied mammalian carnivore species are present, other, smaller carnivores are less likely to occur, according to an international team of researchers that conducted the first global assessment of carnivore interactions using camera trap data.
August 6, 2018
Elizabeth W. Boyer, associate professor of water resources, has been honored with the 2018 Witherspoon Lecture Award by the American Geophysical Union. She will present the lecture at the organization's fall meeting, Dec. 10-14, in Washington, D.C.
August 2, 2018
A Penn State Extension article about butterflies prepared by Margaret C. Brittingham, professor of wildlife resources, and Judith Mank, former graduate research assistant.
August 1, 2018
The looming threat posed by the invasive spotted lanternfly will take center stage in the College of Agricultural Sciences Exhibits Building and Theatre during Penn State's Ag Progress Days, Aug. 14-16. Displays and presentations in the building also will highlight programs related to pond management and bait-fish production, hemp research, animal health, and agricultural policy.
July 31, 2018
Research underway at the Joseph Valentine Turfgrass Research Center on the University Park campus is focusing on the effectiveness of a neonicotinoid insecticide — imidacloprid — in controlling grub populations.
July 31, 2018
Carrie Zamonski, of Brookhaven, Pennsylvania, is spending her summer at the beach -- but she's not there just for a vacation. Zamonski, a senior majoring in environmental resource management and minoring in watershed and water resources and marine science, is an intern at the Bald Head Island Conservancy in North Carolina.
July 25, 2018
Researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences examined the use and user-friendliness of SILVAH-Oak — short for Silviculture of Allegheny Hardwoods — a decision-support tool developed by the U.S. Forest Service for making silvicultural decisions in mixed oak forests.
July 23, 2018
Throughout the eastern United States, forests of eastern hemlock, Tsuga canadensis, are under attack by a tiny invasive insect with an insatiable appetite for these giant trees. This attack is causing the decline of eastern hemlock and as a consequence, it is driving the disappearance of a variety of birds that are specialized to them, according to a recent study.
July 12, 2018
How forests respond to elevated nitrogen levels from atmospheric pollution is not always the same. While a forest is filtering nitrogen as expected, a higher percentage than previously seen is leaving the system again as the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, say researchers.
June 22, 2018
This spring, Penn State DuBois was the first university to participate in the inaugural Alternative Break Service Program at Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Although this is the first time the memorial has hosted an alternative break program, students in the Penn State DuBois Wildlife Technology program have participated in work at the site for five years, reclaiming areas that are former strip mines.
June 18, 2018
Charles H. “Skip” Smith, the Penn State alumnus and philanthropist whose giving has fueled the creation and supported the growth of The Arboretum at Penn State, has made a major new gift to enrich this University resource. Smith and his sons, David, Jeffry and John, have committed more than $1.8 million to launch construction of the Bird Garden in the Arboretum, which will be designed to attract birds year-round and educate the Arboretum’s many visitors.
June 18, 2018
Elizabeth Boyer is an Associate Professor of Water Resources in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Penn State University.
June 14, 2018
How do a landscape and its people evolve through time? SOILS 499A & B examined this question, and focused particularly on the role natural resource management has played in the evolution of culture, society, and civilization in Ireland.
June 8, 2018
A graduate student in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences recently was named the recipient of a scholarship from the Soil Science Society of America.
June 1, 2018
Burning trash in the backyard has long been known to cause air quality concerns, but a recent Penn State study sponsored by the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority has found that the longtime practice of burning trash also puts harmful toxins in the soil.
May 10, 2018
Five alumni recently received 2018 Outstanding Alumni Awards from Penn State's Forest Resources Alumni Group. The purpose of these awards is to recognize outstanding graduates of the former School of Forest Resources and the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
May 1, 2018
The cruel truth is that throughout the white-tailed deer's range only about half of all fawns live to see their first birthday — most are killed by predators. However, they have a much better chance of surviving if they are born in farmland rather than in forest, according to Penn State researchers, who collaborated with Pennsylvania Game Commission deer biologists.
April 27, 2018
Dr. Patrick Drohan and Dr. Heather Gall received a grant (the Harbaugh faculty scholar award) from the College of Agriculture at Penn State to collaborate on urban green infrastructure education via their classes. As part of this grant's activities, Dr. Drohan's SOILS 404 (Urban Soils) class visited Greenfield Elementary School this past week to speak to 5th graders about soil and why it matters to people in cities.
April 27, 2018
A group of students in the Penn State DuBois Wildlife Technology program partnered with local and state organizations to help improve the habitat of a wild trout stream in the area.
April 1, 2018
Researcher, author and educator Kevin McGowan will recount the results of his 30-year study of more than 2,500 individual crows -- including their home and family life, flock life, and crow-human interactions -- at 5 p.m. on April 4 in 112 Forest Resources Building on Penn State's University Park campus.
March 23, 2018
Jason Kaye, professor of soil biogeochemistry, is the recipient of the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences' 2017 Alex and Jessie C. Black Award for Excellence in Research. The honor recognizes a tenure-track faculty member in the college whose significant accomplishments include exceptional and original agricultural research conducted at Penn State.