January 6, 2020
Using low-intensity fire to help manage forests offers many benefits, according to Jesse Kreye, assistant professor of fire and natural resources management in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. Among those benefits are promoting desired tree species such as oak, spurring new growth that provides food and cover for wildlife, controlling invasive plants, and suppressing ticks, which often carry pathogens such as the one that causes Lyme disease.
January 6, 2020
Ukraine is called the “breadbasket of Europe,” a moniker earned because of the fertile, black soils that blanket its landscape. As a longtime professor of environmental soil science in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, Rick Stehouwer has studied this famed “chernozem” soil, knowledge he acquired through books, lectures and lab samples.
December 11, 2019
Innovators from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences upheld a winning tradition recently at the TechCelerator pitch competition hosted by the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern Pennsylvania. The team was awarded a $10,000 investment for their fledgling enterprise, RealForests. Their victory makes RealForests the sixth team from the college to win one of Penn State’s most prestigious pitch competitions.
December 11, 2019
A Penn State project aimed at advancing conservation-based estate planning for forest landowners in two key regions of Pennsylvania is the beneficiary of an $80,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
November 25, 2019
A transition from wild collection of herbs to forest farming needs to occur in Appalachia to make the opaque, unstable and unjust supply chain for forest medicinal plants such as ginseng sustainable, according to a team of researchers who have studied the market for more than a decade.
November 25, 2019
Patrick Drohan, associate professor of pedology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, gave a keynote address at the Catchment 2019 conference in Wexford, Ireland, in early November.
November 21, 2019
"Following an intense collaboration between Penn State scientists and our design consultants, Didier Design Studio, we believe we have successfully married aesthetics with state-of-the-art knowledge about the biology of pollinators and birds," said Kim Steiner, director of the Arboretum and professor of forest biology in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
November 18, 2019
John Carlson, professor of molecular genetics in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, recently was named Mercator Fellow and Visiting Professor at Georg-August University of Göttingen in Germany.
November 14, 2019
For many first-generation college students, study abroad experiences seem out of reach. However, a new course offered by the Environmental Resource Management program in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences aims to make that aspiration a reality.
November 12, 2019
Emma Steely, a first-year environmental resource management student in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica through her participation in the Pennsylvania School for Excellence in the Agricultural Sciences at Penn State.
October 24, 2019
The Penn State Soil Judging Team placed fourth at the Northeast Regional Collegiate Soil Judging Contest in Easton, Maryland, in early October, qualifying for the national championship to be held in Ohio in the spring of 2020.
October 21, 2019
The Office of Multicultural Affairs in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences will showcase the career paths and accomplishments of five notable alumni during a minority alumni panel in November.
October 4, 2019
Over winter break, Penn State students in the embedded course, “ERM 499: Natural Resources in Chile/Patagonia,” will spend two weeks exploring the culture of Chile and the vast region of Patagonia with a focus on natural resources, climate and sustainability.
October 4, 2019
With last year being the wettest year on record in Pennsylvania, and this year staring out wet again, 2019 was set up to be the mother of all fall foliage displays. Trees in most areas were in great condition going into late summer. But then it quit raining — in a big way.
October 3, 2019
Interspecific feeding — when an adult of one species feeds the young of another — is rare among songbirds, and scientists could only speculate on why it occurs, but now, Penn State researchers have new insight into this behavior.
September 7, 2019
“Lingering ash." That’s what the U.S. Forest Service calls the relatively few green and white ash trees that survive the emerald ash borer onslaught. Those trees do not survive by accident, and that may save the species, according to Penn State researchers, who conducted a six-year study of ash decline and mortality.
September 5, 2019
Three Penn State researchers — Rachel Brennan, in the College of Engineering, and Mike Jacobson and Brian Thiede, in the College of Agricultural Sciences — recently received $250,000 in University Strategic Plan seed funding to address global Water-Energy-Food (WEF) challenges.
September 4, 2019
The Bruns research group aims to understand how beneficial functions of soil microorganisms can be promoted through better management of agricultural and mining-impacted lands. The group focuses on microbial processes important in nutrient cycling and water retention.
September 3, 2019
Selective browsing by white-tailed deer has been blamed by many for changing the character and composition of forest understories in the eastern U.S.; however, its impact on the forest canopy was previously unknown.
August 26, 2019
The latest Harbaugh Faculty Scholars include Julian Avery, assistant research professor of wildlife ecology and conservation.
August 14, 2019
Marc Abrams, professor of forest ecology and physiology and Steimer Professor of Agricultural Sciences in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work.
August 7, 2019
Jess Sourbeer, of Pittsburgh, has found her niche in forestry through internships at both Penn State Extension and Architect of the Capitol, the federal agency in charge of maintaining Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
July 31, 2019
Julian Avery, assistant research professor, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, is among those named as one-year fellow.
July 22, 2019
Sarah Isbell and Mara Cloutier, both Penn State graduate students and Microbiome Center researchers, will be supported in their studies by fellowships paid for by the United States Department of Agriculture.
July 22, 2019
Jack Storer, who earned the bachelor’s degree in forestry in 1950, has another commendation to add to his impressive inventory of achievement: the Penn State Distinguished Alumni Award, which is the highest honor presented by the University to alumni.
July 3, 2019
Genes in green ash trees that may confer some resistance to attacks by the emerald ash borer express themselves only once the tree detects the invasive beetle's feeding, according to Penn State researchers.
July 3, 2019
Jessica Briggs, a junior in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, received the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship this spring.
June 26, 2019
If Mike Messina has learned one thing from working for land-grant universities in three states for more than three decades, it's something he heard often during his stint with Texas A&M University: "Remember who you came to the dance with."
June 14, 2019
Margaret Brittingham, professor of wildlife resources in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, recently received PennFuture’s 2019 Woman of Lifetime Achievement in Conservation Award in recognition of her lifelong work to protect natural resources.
June 11, 2019
As fishes go, the Chesapeake logperch is hardly impressive.
