2009 GEM Student Ambassadors going abroad

May 7, 2009 — Four UWSP-College of Natural Resources students will head to international destinations in May as 2009 GEM Student Ambassadors. The students will spend 12 weeks working on service learning projects in natural resources with GEM partners.

Lindsay Gafford, a junior majoring in wildlife research and management with biology and Spanish minors, will work in the Sierra Norte region of Oaxaca, Mexico. Lindsay will stay with host families in small mountain villages, such as La Neveria, and will work with villagers who have received some training in sustainable agricultural practices. She will be evaluating how the training is being implemented, and will contribute her labor to the farming enterprises.

Anna Johnson, a junior soil and land management major, and Briana Soroko, a sophomore resource management major, will live and work at Nyumbani Village, an eco-community whose mission is to provide homes for children orphaned by AIDS and for grandparents who have lost their children to AIDS. In an ongoing project, GEM has provided training in gardening to improve nutrition, and sustainable agricultural and forestry practices to improve the health and economic status of the village. Anna and Briana will work to advance these initiatives.

In South Africa, Adam Skadsen, a junior majoring in water resources, will assist Dr. Kevin Winter of the University of Cape Town on surface water quality issues.

Beyond their project work, the students will be immersed in a foreign culture, living closely with their hosts and learning first-hand about other ways of life.

GEM TIES Watersheds Seminar in Mexico

March 1, 2009 — Eight Mexican watershed professionals and two US-AID staff completed a ten-day field-based seminar on TIES watershed projects in Mexico in February, 2009. All three US-AID projects promote sustainable economic development in Mexico while protecting valuable watershed features of the natural landscape. Future generations of Mexican citizens will benefit from cooperative efforts between US and Mexican watershed management professionals.

The seminar was hosted by GEM Director and Professor of Forestry Dr. Victor Phillips and GEM Watersheds Program Manager-Emeritus Dr. Wes Halverson. Click here to read a final report on the seminar on this website.

GEM Critical Issues International Seminar Series

The GEM Critical Issues International Seminar Series began its fifth season on the UWSP campus Oct. 7 with a discussion of environmental issues in the Panama Canal watershed.

Bolivar Pou presented “The Panama Canal: the watershed and its people, issues past, present and future,” at 7 p.m. in the Dreyfus University Center Theater. Pou was the first of four accomplished international natural resource professionals scheduled to address this year’s Critical Issues Series theme, “Water Issues on the Water Planet.” All seminars are free and open to the public. The series is hosted by the Global Environmental Management Education Center (GEM), a center within the College of Natural Resources on the UWSP campus.

Speakers scheduled in the 2008-09 GEM Critical Issues International Seminar Series are:

• Oct. 7: Bolivar Pou, "The Panama Canal: the watershed and its people, issues past, present and future”
• Nov. 18: Jay O’Keeffe, “A brief mystery of time: long-term sustainability versus short-term economics”
• March 3, 2009: Simone de Hek, “Thirsty planet: Solving conflicts in private control and public access to drinking water”
• April 14, 2009: Susan Kilani, “Water Resource Issues in Jordan”

Each is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Dreyfus University Center Theater, on the UWSP campus. The series is hosted by GEM with funding from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. For more information contact Ron Tschida, GEM communications coordinator, 715-346-4266, Ron.Tschida@uwsp.edu

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