News

SAGE Magazine Wins Kroon Cup

May 18, 2012 — A student-run magazine with bold ambitions, a quirky sense of humor and a commitment to investigating environmental issues that elude the climate-saturated media has won the Kroon Cup.

F&ES to Confer 148 Degrees at 111th Commencement

May 18, 2012 — The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies will confer 148 degrees at its 111th commencement on Monday, May 21, at 12:30 p.m. on the Kroon Hall south courtyard.

MODs Revisited

May 18, 2012 — Rain did not stop 100 graduating Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies students from descending upon Great Mountain Forest for MODs 2.

Conference on Corporate Sustainability Research

May 17, 2012 — Over 100 scholars from a variety of disciplines are convening today for three days to discuss research on corporate sustainability at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Report Calls for REDD+ to Invest in Forest Communities

May 16, 2012 — Income generated from REDD+ should be given to forest communities to invest in their future, recommends a new report by The Forests Dialogue (TFD). Investing locally in this way should be part of understanding REDD+ as integral to broader development among forest-dependent communities.

Americans Support National Clean-Energy Standard

May 13, 2012 — The average U.S. citizen is willing to pay 13 percent more for electricity in support of a national clean-energy standard (NCES), according to Yale and Harvard researchers in Nature Climate Change.

Fertilizers Not the Cause of Marsh Drowning

May 10, 2012 — A five-year experiment in a Long Island Sound salt marsh has found that fertilizers do not cause marsh drowning, according to researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Julie Zimmerman to Receive Huber Prize

May 10, 2012 — A Yale environmental engineering professor has received a Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize for innovative research and developing sustainable, cost-effective technologies for the treatment of drinking water.

F&ES Doctoral Student Receives Public Scholar Award

May 8, 2012 — F&ES doctoral student Sébastien Jodoin will receive a Public Scholar Award from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for his work on human rights and global environmental governance.

Research on Corporate Sustainability Focus of Conference

May 8, 2012 — Over 100 scholars from a variety of disciplines will convene for three days, from May 16 to 18, to discuss research on corporate sustainability at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

URI to Plant Trees as Part of Yale Day of Service

May 7, 2012 — The Urban Resources Initiative will be planting trees in New Haven as part of the Yale Day of Service on Saturday, May 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Day of Service at Yale Myers

May 7, 2012 — The Yale Club of Boston and the Yale Club of Eastern Connecticut are co-hosting a family-friendly Day of Service at Yale Myers Forest on Saturday, May 12, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

What's Green? Distilling Results from Competing Studies

May 7, 2012 — As life cycle assessments (LCAs) have become almost commonplace in business and public policy, decision-makers face the need to make sense of multiple and competing environmental analyses.

31 F&ES Students Receive TRI Fellowships

May 3, 2012 — Twenty master’s and 11 doctoral students from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) have been awarded TRI Endowment Fellowships by the Tropical Resources Institute.

Global Initiative Addresses Economic Invisibility of Nature

May 3, 2012 — Experts in a variety of academic disciplines have launched an effort to address a root cause of environmental exploitation—the economic invisibility of nature—through a global initiative called The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB).

New Publication Interprets Peer-Reviewed Research

May 1, 2012 — A new online publication that publishes summaries of peer-reviewed research spanning the natural and social sciences in leading academic journals aims to influence public policy and promote informed decision-making.

Study Suggests Local Land Use Linked to Global Urbanization

April 30, 2012 — As more and more people live in cities, local land-use and urban sustainability policies must be analyzed for their social and environmental tradeoffs in faraway places, asserts a Yale-led National Academy of Sciences study published today.

Ten Students Awarded Sabin Fellowships

April 30, 2012 — Ten students have been awarded Andrew Sabin International Environmental Fellowships by the Tropical Resources Institute at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES).

Oil Palm Surging Source of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

April 26, 2012 — Continued expansion of industrial-scale oil palm plantations on the island of Borneo will become a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 unless strong forest and peatland protections are enacted and enforced, according to a National Academy of Sciences study.

Sue Wells Receives Sustainability Award

April 25, 2012 — At a school where the sustainability ethos is written into its DNA, it’s pretty hard to distinguish yourself among committed greens. Yet Susan Wells, director of finance and administration at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, has managed to do exactly that.

Six Students Named Hixon Fellows

April 23, 2012 — Six students have been awarded research fellowships totaling $32,000 from the Hixon Center for Urban Ecology.

Island President Wins Best Feature Film at Yale Film Festival

April 19, 2012 — The “Island President” was named best feature film at the fourth annual Environmental Film Festival at Yale. The film, about the world’s lowest-lying island nation threatened by rising sea levels, was selected by a jury of Yale faculty, students, staff and alumni.

Expert on Climate Opinion Receives EPA Award

April 19, 2012 — A Yale expert on American and international public opinion on climate change and the environment will receive an Environmental Merit Award from the New England Office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

New Study Shows Americans Connecting Extreme Weather to Climate Change

April 18, 2012 — More than two-thirds of the American people believe global warming made several recent extreme weather disasters worse, according to a new report released by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.

Talk on Food System Sustainability

April 16, 2012 — The director of the Yale Sustainable Food Project will discuss how Yale could make a significant contribution to the sustainability of the nation’s food system on Wednesday, April 18, at noon as part of the F&ES Seminar Series.

Gordon Geballe Receives Ivy Award

April 12, 2012 — Gordon Geballe, associate dean for external and alumni affairs and lecturer in urban ecology, was one of seven individuals and two groups presented with Yale University Seton Elm-Ivy Awards by President Richard Levin and Mayor John DeStefano at a ceremony on April 10, it was reported in YaleNews on Tuesday.

Greeley Greenhouse Transformed

April 12, 2012 — Deferred maintenance, old experiments and growing weeds took a toll on the Greeley Greenhouse over the years. After several months of diligent work and improvements, the greenhouse is not only more aesthetically pleasing, it will also help Yale University achieve its larger sustainability goals.

New Journal Publications by Ji-Young Son, G. Brooke Anderson, Michelle Bell, Ben Cashore, and Harvey Weiss. New book chapters by Ben Cashore and Laura Bozzi. Recent awards to Stefan Renckens, Catherine Doyle-Capitman, and Charissa Rujanavech...

Talk on New Haven's Environmental History

April 9, 2012 — A talk exploring New Haven’s environmental history in the late 1800s and early 1900s through the examination of two social movements will take place on Wednesday, April 11, at noon in Burke Auditorium as part of the F&ES Seminar Series.

Forestry and Environmental Science Students to Present Research

April 9, 2012 — Second-year students studying environmental and forest science will present the results of their research on Friday, April 13, in Kroon Hall.

Making One Company’s Waste Another Company’s Raw Materials

April 5, 2012 — Making one company’s waste another company’s raw material has long been one of the most intriguing notions in industrial ecology. This strategy known as industrial symbiosis—by analogy to the manner in which some species in nature cooperate to mutual advantage—came to public attention in the early 1990s.

Herpetologist to Discuss Pleistocene Initiative

April 3, 2012 — One of the world’s leading experts on snakes and herpetology will discuss “Pleistocene Rewilding: Lions in a Den of Daniels?” on Wednesday, April 4, at noon in Burke Auditorium as part of the F&ES Seminar Series.

MEM, MF Students to Present Research

March 28, 2012 — Candidates for master’s degrees in both environmental management and forestry will discuss their work in a series of short presentations on Friday, March 30, in Kroon Hall.

Research News: March 28, 2012

March 28, 2012 — New Journal Publications by: Ben Cashore, Peter Raymond, David Butman, Michael Stone, Yajie Song, Haibao Yu, and Graeme Berlyn...

Yale Professor Receives Monaco Award

March 26, 2012 — Michelle Bell, an expert on the environment and human health, has received the inaugural Prince Albert II de Monaco/Institut Pasteur Award for outstanding contributions to her field.

Talk on Art of Wood Architecture

March 26, 2012 — Architects from two international firms will discuss “The Art of Wood Architecture” on Monday, March 26, at 5:30 p.m. in Kroon Hall.

“Restoring Forest Health: We Need to Pick Up the Pace” - A talk by U.S.D.A. Forest Chief Tom Tidwell

March 26, 2012 — Under Tom Tidwell's leadership, the Forest Service is restoring healthy, resilient forest and grassland ecosystems—ecosystems that can sustain all the benefits that Americans get from their wildlands, including plentiful supplies of clean water, abundant habitat for wildlife and fish, renewable supplies of wood and energy, and more.

Talk on Making Organizations Sustainable

March 23, 2012 — The director of the Yale Office of Sustainability will discuss “Pathways Toward Sustainability: What Does It Take to Transform an Organization?” as part of the F&ES seminar series on Wednesday, March 28, at noon in Kroon Hall’s Burke Auditorium.

Sage Magazine Holds Young Environmental Writers Contest

March 23, 2012 — The magazine is accepting essays, short stories, memoirs, poetry, graphic novels, reporting, sky-writing and excerpts from longer works. The contest is intended to generate debate on emerging topics in the environment, natural resources and sustainable living, according to co-editor-in-chief Aaron Reuben.

Yale Environmental Film Festival Examines Humanity’s Impact

March 21, 2012 — An Academy Award-nominated film on Japan’s tsunami, an advance screening of Disneynature’s Chimpanzee and a Martin Scorsese film on the environmental price of progress will highlight the fourth annual Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY) from April 9 to 15.

April 2 Deadline for Conservation Conference Presentations

March 20, 2012 — Graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and early-career professionals interested in conservation science are encouraged to present their work at the Student Conference on Conservation Science-New York at the American Museum of Natural History from October 10 to 12.

Yale Corporation Appoints Two Faculty to Named Professorships

March 16, 2012 — Two members of the faculty at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) have been appointed to named professorships by the Yale Corporation for their outstanding contributions to scholarship. Xuhui Lee has been named the Sara Shallenberger Brown Professor of Meteorology. John Wargo has been named the Tweedy/Ordway Professor of Environmental Health and Politics.

Reinventing Fire: A Conversation with Amory Lovins

March 6, 2012 — Video of Amory Lovins, chairman and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, giving a lecture titled "Reinventing Fire" at Yale F&ES on February 15, 2012.

In conversation: Sir Peter Crane

March 5, 2012 — Evolutionary biologist Sir Peter Crane has been dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (F&ES) since 2009. A former director of Chicago’s Field Museum and chief executive of England’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, he recently spoke with Yale News about F&ES’ internationalism, the role of business in environmental management, and what it was like to be knighted at Buckingham Palace, among other topics.

Department of Energy to Hear Yale Student Plans

March 1, 2012 — Six students representing the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Yale School of Management will present proposals for making commercial buildings more energy efficient to Department of Energy (DOE) officials on Friday, March 2, in Washington, D.C.

Citizens’ Summit to Address Sustainability

March 1, 2012 —

A major summit to encourage sustainability in the United States and Canada will take place on March 24 and 25 at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The US/Canada Citizens’ Summit for Sustainable Development will host 180 diverse experts, leaders, advocates, entrepreneurs and decision-makers from the United States and Canada.

Journal Features Tropical Research by F&ES Students

February 23, 2012 — Eight F&ES master’s students engaged in research on the conservation and management of tropical resources have published their results in the annual journal of the Tropical Resources Institute at Yale (TRI).

Research News: February 22, 2012

February 22, 2012 — New Journal Publications by: Oswald Schmitz, Steven Brady, Robert Mendelsohn, Shun Chonabayashi, Laura Bakkensen, and Anthony Leiserowitz. New Book Publication by: Mark Ashton, Mary Tyrrell, Deborah Spalding, and Bradford Gentry...

Glacial Carbon May Hold Record of Environmental Change

February 20, 2012 — New clues as to how the Earth’s remote ecosystems have been influenced by the Industrial Revolution are frozen in glaciers, according to a paper in the March issue of Nature Geoscience.

F&ES Paper Finds Arsenic Supply at Highest Risk

February 16, 2012 — Modern technology depends on reliable supplies of a wide variety of materials, but there is increasing concern about the dependability of those supplies.

Wyss Scholars to Promote Land Conservation Out West

February 14, 2012 — “The Wyss Foundation is pleased to support a seventh class of Wyss Scholars at Yale as part of our commitment to building leaders in western land conservation,” said Matt Hollamby, program officer at the Wyss Foundation.

Book Examines Science and Policy of Forest Carbon

February 14, 2012 — Managing Forest Carbon in a Changing Climate, written by researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, is a comprehensive review of the science of carbon sequestration in forests, management of forests for carbon mitigation and poverty alleviation, and the socioeconomic and policy implications of managing forests for carbon.

The Art of Wood

February 14, 2012 — The Art of Wood is a semester long celebration of the cultural and aesthetic values of forests and wood products, presented by The Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry.

A new educational tool in the field of tropical forest restoration

February 9, 2012 — The objective of the Tropical Native Species Reforestation Information Clearinghouse (TRIC) is to combine the information gleaned from different sectors throughout Latin America and tropical Asia into a single searchable database.

Internal F&ES Competition: Sabin Fellowship Applications Being Accepted

February 8, 2012 — Applications from current F&ES masters students, who entered in academic year 2011-2012, are now being accepted for the Andrew Sabin International Environmental Fellowship. This outstanding fellowship will provide up to $35,000 in tuition and post-graduate support to six exceptional students from developing countries.

New Methodology Assesses Risk of Scarce Metals

February 6, 2012 — Yale researchers have developed a methodology for governments and corporations to determine the availability of critical metals, according to a paper in Environmental Science & Technology.

Study Links Power Outages, Mortality During August 2003 Power Outage in New York, New York

February 3, 2012 — Novel research from Prof. Michelle Bell at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Dr. Brooke Anderson at Johns Hopkins University examines the relationship between power outages and mortality.

Road Runoff Spurring Spotted Salamander Evolution

January 31, 2012 — Spotted salamanders exposed to contaminated roadside ponds are adapting to their toxic environments, according to a Yale paper in Scientific Reports. This study provides the first documented evidence that a vertebrate has adapted to the negative effects of roads apparently by evolving rapidly.

Tropical Cyclones to Cause Greater Damage

January 31, 2012 — Tropical cyclones will cause $109 billion in damages by 2100, according to Yale and MIT researchers in a paper published in Nature Climate Change.

Switzerland Ranks at Top of 2012 Environmental Performance Index; Latvia Takes #1 Spot in New Trend EPI Rankings

January 26, 2012 — Switzerland leads the world in addressing pollution control and natural resource management challenges, according to the 2012 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) produced by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. Latvia, Norway, Luxembourg, and Costa Rica round out the top five positions in the 2012 EPI, which ranks 132 countries based on 22 indicators across ten major policy categories including air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity, and forest management.

Research News: January 25, 2012

January 25, 2012 — New Journal Publications by: Reid J. Lifset, Matthew J. Eckelman, E.M. Harper, Zeke Hausfather, Gonzalo Urbina, David Skelly, Yajie Song, Haibao Yu, Curt DellaValle, Michelle Bell, Gillian S. Paul, Florencia Montagnini, Graeme P. Berlyn, Dylan J. Craven, and Jefferson S. Hall...

Class of 1980 Student Project Fund Awards

January 24, 2012 — The Class of 1980 and the Office of Development and Alumni Services are happy to announce this year’s awardees for the Class of 1980 Student Project Fund, with sincere thanks to all the students who put in the time and effort to develop and submit a slate of excellent proposals.

Yale to Hold Conference on Tropical Forests

January 6, 2012 —

From January 26 to 28, the Yale chapter of the International Society of Tropical Foresters will host practitioners and researchers from government, academia, and environmental and development institutions to discuss ways to implement large-scale initiatives that would restore forests and human livelihoods. The three-day conference will take place in Kroon Hall.