Natural Resources and Conservation Commons^™

Annual Report 2018, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership

Publications

CBEP has been collaborating for over 25 years with a multitude of partners working hard to protect Casco Bay. 2018 brought us new and exciting collaborations.

The Casco Bay Nutrient Council, convened by CBEP, met for almost two years and produced a report that laid a path forward for all partners to tackle nutrient pollution.

CBEP worked closely with the EPA to establish the Casco Bay Monitoring Network, made up of over 20 member organizations, aimed at coordinating and upgrading monitoring in the Bay. The Network is currently updating the Casco Bay Monitoring Plan.

CBEP is an active participant in …

Landscape Scale Spectral-Temporal Modelling Of Bamboo-Dominated Forest Succession Within The Atlantic Forest Of Southern Brazil, Clara Greig

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Tropical and subtropical ecosystems have become vulnerable to biological invasion (i.e., bamboo) due to human induced forest fragmentation. Bamboo ecological processes have been found to impede forest development, resulting in a state of arrested succession, which has been found to significantly reduce biodiversity, thus contributing to biotic homogenization. In this study we use a semi-empirical approach to develop a community-level spatially explicit ecological process model (hybrid model) using a time-series of Landsat imagery to describe single-landscape scale ecological processes of a pervasive bamboo species (Merostachys skvortzovii) found throughout the Araucaria forest, a critically threatened subtype of Atlantic forest …

The Effects Of Fire On Snow Accumulation, Snowmelt And Ground Thaw On A Peat Plateau In Subarctic Canada, Elyse Mathieu

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

During the past century, the highest rates of warming have occurred at latitudes above 60^oN, where air temperatures have risen at twice the rate of other regions. In northwestern Canada, this warming has coincided with an increase in the frequency, size and severity of wildfires. The influence of such fires on the trajectory of on-going permafrost thaw is not well understood. As a consequence, the combined impacts of climate warming induced permafrost thaw and possible feedbacks arising from wildfires cannot be properly assessed. This study examines the impact of a 2.7 ha low-severity wildfire (July 2014) on water …

A Decade Of Governing The Blackfoot Community Conservation Area (Bcca): Community Involvement And Landscape Connectivity Through Public Private Partnerships, Alexander A. Barton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In recent decades, non-governmental organizations have acquired and established community forests and conservation areas in the U.S. However, there have been few empirical studies on their governance. This study focuses on the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area (BCCA) in the Blackfoot watershed of Montana, created in 2005. The BCCA is a 41,000 acre mosaic of private, state, and federal lands, including 5,600 acres known as the “Core” located near Ovando mountain and owned by the Blackfoot Challenge, a local watershed organization and leader in grassroots conservation. This research examined the definitions, activities and lessons learned over the past decade with regard …

40 Years On The International Flathead: An Assessment Of Transboundary River Governance, Jedd Sankar-Gorton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Global population growth, climate change, and industrialization, are putting extreme pressures on worldwide freshwater supplies (Cosens 2010). Of the global freshwater supplies, transboundary water sources play a crucial role in sustaining populations. Over 40% of humans on Earth rely on a transboundary river or lake for access to water, and 90% of the world’s population lives in countries that share bodies of water with at least one other country (UN 2008). Taken together, the motivations for improving governance of transboundary water systems have never been stronger. To meet the challenges associated with transboundary water governance, researchers working at multiple scales …

Mountain Pine Beetle Induced Changes To Lodgepole Pine Forest Stand Dynamics At Lubrecht Experimental Forest, Ben G. O'Connor

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Eliminate The Carbon Externality, Connor Mcfayden

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Before we do anything else, let’s establish two things: the global climate is changing at an alarming rate and the primary cause is human CO2 emissions. There is a worldwide scientific consensus on this fact. Even our own government, despite a remarkably vocal minority, has confirmed this. A report released this year by 13 government agencies identifies humans as the primary cause of global climate change and links this phenomenon to rising sea levels, increased incidence of droughts and floods, and the intensification of large storms. These events are the result of the carbon externality, the social costs of emissions …

A Forgotten Resource: Thorium, Daniel Rico

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

The year is 1945, the morning of August 6^th, 8:16am to be exact. The United States just dropped the world’s first militarized atomic weapon on Hiroshima, Japan. With this singular act the world virtually witnessed the end of its second world war, the birth of warfare like never before, and the foreseeable death of nuclear power. With this act an aura of negativity and destruction accompanied the word nuclear that it would likely never be rid of despite untapped high grade energy potential that can outweigh its military application. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was composed of 64 …

Lithium-Ion Batteries: It’S Not About The Lithium., Jace Kranau

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Malnourished children and tired men chip away with ancient tools at Cobalt-containing rock for you to have the next best electronic device. The impoverished, artisanal workers of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) supply up to 25 percent of global Cobalt according to The Washington Post. The battery manufacturers don’t care. Their dominant thought is profit.

Artisanal workers are paid between two and three U.S. dollars a day. “We are suffering. And our suffering is for what?”, 29-year-old digger, Nathan Muyamba, told The Post.

The batteries in phones, laptops and for some, their cars, contain Lithium, Cobalt, Nickel …

Gmo Regulations Are Killing Biofuels, Megan Franklin

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Progress in creating profitable biofuels is being slowed down by strict regulations on genetically engineered (GE) crops (aka GMOs). Setbacks that biofuels face can be addressed with genetic engineering. However, public pushback and regulations make it extremely difficult to implement solutions. We should have more lenient regulations on GE crops so that we can speed up the progress of improving biofuels.

A genetically engineered crop is one that has DNA from a different species inserted into its own DNA. As a result from GE crop benefits, CO2 emissions were reduced by 26.7 billion kg in 2012, and poverty was alleviated …

Palm Oil: The Hidden Costs, Rachel Goehring

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

ENSC 230. Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policy

12/7/2017

Palm Oil: The Hidden Costs

Lurking behind your soaps, cosmetics, pantry groceries, and household cleaning supplies is a product killing endangered species in Southeast Asia. This same product is destroying the survival mechanisms for local communities in Southeast Asia while pumping large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. To keep its identity hidden, it uses over twenty different names on ingredient labels. What is this product? Palm oil. Palm oil is the most widely used vegetable oil in the world and increased demand for palm oil in our …

Cardboard Ban Is An Investment Opportunity, John Schwaninger

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Lincoln’s cardboard ban was a hot topic in 2016, but 2017 has shifted focus to the city’s recycling education contract. Gone is discussion of Mayor Chris Beutler’s failed, revived and ultimately victorious struggle to reform Lincoln’s recycling program. In its place, an air of financial discomfort stagnates over the city’s already troubled budget.

The cardboard ban will take effect April 2018. The recycling education program was drafted in part to support the ban by educating households about recycling drop-off locations and sorting requirements. However, the recycling education contract’s $850,000 cost raised eyebrows, undermining Beutler’s earlier effort.

The recycling education contract’s …

Crop Productivity In The Ag Belt On Borrowed Time, Logan Winters

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Most people by now have heard the terms “climate change” and global warming. Many acknowledge that it’s a problem, but they may not know how it can impact them directly. This is especially true for those living in the middle of the country, because most of the media attention goes to the coastal impacts of climate change. While putting adequate focus on the coastal impacts is a good start, since the most widespread and severe impacts will be coastal, but there needs to be more talk and discussion about the future impacts over the middle of the country. One big …

How Innovative Companies Gain From A Cap And Trade Agreement, Lucian Montgomery

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

The purpose of both a cap and trade agreement and a carbon tax is to reduce emissions by setting a price on carbon. However, that is where the similarities end.

A cap and trade agreement gives a certain amount of allowances to each company that adds up to an emissions cap, allows companies to trade them. Companies only pay for carbon emissions if they produce more than the amount of allowances they are given, either by paying penalties to the government, or by buying more allowances from other companies. This creates a market for allowances, and based on demand, sets …

Building Our Way To A Better Future, Brad Shaner

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

The potential demolishing of the Clean Power Plan by the federal government in early October is looking like a losing fight in our war against carbon emissions at one of the biggest sources of these emissions. But we can continue to fight in this war and make an even bigger impact by focusing our efforts on the most ordinary and consistent thing in our modern lives; the buildings we live and work in. Some would say that high efficiency or green buildings are a commodity that only the wealthy individuals or businesses can achieve, but this doesn’t have to be …

The Fossil Fuel Energy Industry Vs. The Endangered Species Act, Cody Willnerd

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

It was several weeks ago that the Congressional Republicans made a push to reform the landmark Endangered Species Act to make it more friendly to landowners and fossil fuel industries. They would do this by releasing species earlier on the ESA list than before and instead focus on species that are in the greatest of need of attention. The reform would also have agencies focus on the economic costs to deny listings of species, require the agency to listen towards states concerns, and limit payouts for attorney fees in ESA litigations. This would be incredibly damaging to many species that …

Energy Star Tax Holiday Simply Advertising Gimmick, Lauren Klaasmeyer

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

In January of this year, Senator Harr introduced Legislative Bill 325. From 12:01 A.M. on the first Friday of October through midnight of the first Sunday, all Energy Star products less than $1500 will be exempt from sales and use taxes. The special interest group, Nebraska Retail Federation, proposed the idea to Senator Harr. There was no move to advance the bill last session, so it could be brought back up this coming session or amended to another bill. When speaking with people at the capitol, it was said that the main reason it was not advanced was because of …

The Tax That Will Actually Do Something Is Not In The Current Bill, Steven Kirchner

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

If we are going to be talking about tax reform, we should be talking about solutions that will actually solve a problem. The combustion of fossil fuels has much more than environmental implications. Burning fossil fuels is a blatant catastrophe for our entire economic system. The current American energy market is entirely reliant on fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas). Negative externalities have flooded the American economic system because of the combustion of fossil fuels. A negative externality is a cost that indirectly affects someone outside of the economic transaction. That third party entity must bear the burden of …

Recent Increase In Deadly Storms, Westin Longacre

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

These last few years have hit us with some devastating storms that continue to wreck havoc on our earth. We have been hit with multiple storms that are so strong that they are predicted to happen every 50 years, so is God punishing us? Or do we have something to do with this? This issue should be a huge concern to us because who knows how many more of these devastating storms we can handle. When looking at why these tragic storms are happening more frequently the main factor that is leading to these events is the increase in atmospheric …

Wind Is Nebraska’S Future, With Or Without The Clean Power Plan, Megan Pamperin

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

The Clean Power Plan was issued in October 2015. President Trump called for a review of the plan this March and on October 16^th, 2017 the EPA released a proposal to repeal it. The Clean Power Plan would have reduced Nebraska’s state emissions to 22,250,000 tons of carbon dioxide by 2024, down by about 5 million tons compared to 2012 emissions.¹ The new projection for 2020 without the plan is 34 million tons of CO₂ emitted.

Coal and other fossil fuel energy sources are the main culprits of these carbon emissions, and here in Nebraska coal …