Digital Commons Network^™

The Feather Of The Quill: How Folklore Shapes Human Relationships With Wildlife, Taylor Breeanne Nelson

Master's Theses

This thesis examines how folklore and cultural phenomena shape human relationships with wildlife, arguing that the stories a society tells about animals are not merely reflective of its values but are constitutive of them. Drawing on narrative research methods sourced from literature and academic journals and interviews with academics, conservationists, and community members, this project examines the role of animal folklore.

I discuss how narratives around wildlife evolved alongside the development of the United States, arguing that the beginnings of mainstream American conservation not only displaced existing communities but also erased the sophisticated human-animal relationships their traditions had long sustained. …

Environmental Inequities In Conservation Policies And Practices: A Brief Overview, Monyai Chavers

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

Conservation science and practice mirror racist notions of colonialism, prolonging a cycle in which policies and programs disregard land access. Many conservation leaders operate from a culture of land exclusion, focusing on nature to generate wealth, deeming the number of individuals removed from the commons as progress. By the turn of the 21^st Century, government conservation policies compensated private actors and groups for voluntarily adopting market-based mechanisms aimed at land conservation. Despite the emergence of various conservation programs, the data show that White Americans primarily benefit from federal conservation payments. However, the fragmentation of Black land ownership allows the …

Environmental Education Professionals And K-12 School Counselors: Collaboration For Engaging The Conservation And Natural Resources Workforce Of The Next Generation, Brent M. Erb

Education Doctorate Dissertations

Environmental education (EE) professionals often fail to reflect the diverse, intersectional identities of the students and communities they serve. As frontline professionals among the conservation and natural resources (CNR) professions, addressing this requisite and urgent disparity is vital for fostering equitable teaching and learning environments that are safe, welcoming, accessible, and inclusive. EE professionals play a pivotal role in filling knowledge gaps, fostering ecological literacy, and introducing students to CNR careers, just as K-12 school counselors play a meaningful role in helping students expand upon their interests and acquire experience and skills to cultivate self-efficacy to support the belief in …

Exploring The Multifunctional Landscapes Model In Areas Dominated By Non-Native Tree Plantations, Andrea Monica D. Ortiz, Eugenia M. Gayó, Noelia Carrasco Henríquez, Bárbara Jerez Henríquez, Aníbal Pauchard

SOSE Affiliate: Manila Observatory

Multifunctional landscapes offer an integrated approach to production, conservation, and human well-being. However, the challenges of implementing them in territories where plantations dominate are yet not well understood. This is the case in Chile, where plantations of non-native pines and eucalypts are extensively planted in its South-Central regions for timber and pulp. The resulting landscape homogenization, environmental degradation, and increased wildfire risk have caused and exacerbated conflicts, impacting biodiversity and the well-being of local communities and the Indigenous Mapuche Peoples. After the mega-wildfires in the region in 2023, science-policy discourse promoted the multifunctional landscapes model as a way to increase …

Biodiversity Loss & Urban Heat: A Nature- Based Wildlife Policy For The Las Vegas Metro, Zachary Billot

Student Research

As the population of the Las Vegas Metro continues to grow, new developments expand on the periphery. As Las Vegas continues to increase in size and develop further into wildlife habitat, not only are native animals and plants endangered, but residents are at risk of increasingly dangerous urban heat given the increase in impervious cover that makes Las Vegas the 2nd fastest warming metro in the U.S. This policy brief examines current policy and practice in place to highlight the need for positive human-wildlife interaction that will address the growing threat of biodiversity loss and heat vulnerability. This policy brief …

Women And Water: An Art-Based Academic-Community Partnership, Martina Angela Caretta, Bethani Turley

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Women constitute most volunteer water stewards in West Virginia. After having conducted participatory research on the motivations behind women’s engagement with water preservation and restoration work we carried out two participatory art-based activities. In this Practices and Curations, we reflect on these two art-based activities to facilitate networking between researchers and participants and to communicate to the wider public the role of women water stewards. Together with community partners we first organized an icebreaker for women to share a boundary object that signified their connection with water. These boundary objects were subsequently displayed in an art exhibit highlighting women’s connection …

An Anthropogenic Mass Extinction: Speculation About The Future Of Humanity And Other Species, Grace M. Nelson

Student Theses 2015-Present

This thesis will address the possibility of a sixth mass extinction at the hands of humanity and the adaptations ecosystems may undertake in recovery. Today, the world is witnessing incredibly fast changes in climate conditions that are causing severe biodiversity loss. Haiti is a region that encompasses the impacts of both environmental degradation and humanity’s social influences on the environment. Haiti will be examined throughout this thesis to provide an understanding of how climate change impacts people and the natural world today. Non-anthropogenic rapid climate change is the root of most past mass extinctions. However, after these events, ecosystems have …

My Legacy Document: A Story Told Through A Pedagogical Lens Of Three Landscapes. School, Work, And Faith, Debra Williams

Dissertations

Too often professionals, when answering the question “Who are you?”, resort to listing what they do. Although individuals are gifted, experienced, and qualified, as these persons influence and significantly impact others, one could get lost as a person and be unfulfilled. That’s a problem.

Positioning myself as the study of research, utilizing autoethnography as the chosen methodology, my doctoral journey is chronicled. Three landscapes, school, work, and faith, serve as the areas of emphasis.

You Don't Need Green To Dream, Marisol Oriana Ruiz Gonzalez, Abdias Garcia Gabriel

Fiction and Poetry

YOU DON’T NEED GREEN TO DREAM ...you just need patience, love, and hard work. In this beautifully illustrated and bilingual children's book, you'll join the author on a journey from San Francisco to New Mexico, Texas, and Pasadena to find ways to help our environment without spending a dollar!

NO NECESITAS VERDE PARA SOÑAR...solo necesitas paciencia, amor y trabajo duro. En este libro infantil bellamente ilustrado, te unirás al autor en un viaje desde San Francisco a Nuevo México, Texas y Pasadena para encontrar formas de ayudar a nuestro medio ambiente sin gastar un dólar.

Work Motivation And Occupational Attitudes: An Application Of Self-Determination Theory Among Rangers, Richard L. Elligson Jr

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Job attitudes of rangers play a key role in the implementation and effectiveness of conservation initiatives. As such, scholars have begun to examine the attitudes rangers hold towards their role, organization, and external working environment. However, little is known about work motivation among rangers. Work motivation is a key predictor of employee performance, job attitudes, and well-being. The relationship between work motivation and ranger occupational attitudes may offer insight that conservation agencies can leverage to improve positive job attitudes. Guided by self-determination theory and the criminal justice literature, this study examines the relationship between ranger work motivation and attitudes towards …

Pathways For Recognition: Indigenous Land Rights In Panamá, Caruna Gillespie, William Ascher

CMC Senior Theses

Indigenous communities in Panamá face the same challenge that many Indigenous communities experience around the globe: a lack of recognition of their land rights. Over the last several decades, the Panamanian government has developed policies and ratified international agreements that recognize Indigenous rights. The comarcas that institutionalize these rights have had some success. However, despite a seemingly progressive framework for recognition, Indigenous communities across the country continuously have their rights violated by conservation projects and resource extraction efforts in the name of economic development. The Panamanian government crafts recognition policies using loopholes, exceptions, and ambiguous language that allow for them …

Land For Whom? Diversity, Land Trusts, And Farmers And Gardeners From Marginalized Backgrounds In New England, U.S., Julie C. Keller, Blake Harrison, Corey Lang

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications

Land trusts in the U.S. play an important role in preventing the loss of farmland to development. Farmers seeking affordable land may benefit from these conservation efforts. Yet the distribution of these benefits across farmer groups is unclear. This study asks: To what extent are land trusts meeting the needs of farmers and gardeners from marginalized backgrounds? Interviews with land trust staff and focus groups with marginalized farmers and gardeners in New England, USA reveal discrepancies in how diversity and land access are discussed. Access to adequate, affordable land was a serious concern among farmers and gardeners, yet few land …

Wildfires, Climate, And Equity: Towards Sustainable Forest Management And Conservation, Mark Regier Kreider

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Forest and conservation sciences are both fields that inherently combine land and people, concerning topics such as the wildfire crisis, impacts of human-caused climate change on ecosystem functioning, and inequity of access to outdoor spaces. The research and science communication in this PhD dissertation explore these issues, integrating the biophysical and social sciences to promote understanding, stewardship, and conservation of human-forest systems. Chapter 1 assesses how humans shape patterns of fire through fire suppression, inadvertently ensuring that fires occur under the most severe conditions and effectively selecting for high-severity fire occurrences. Chapter 2 uses a wilderness area with a fire …

A Conceptual Framework For Understanding Lake Governance: Lake’S People, Development, Conservation, And Government, Bing Baltazar C. Brillo

Asia-Pacific Social Science Review

Governance’s concept is well-established, multifarious, and too considerable in meanings, indicators, and frameworks, making it distinct to different people and unappealing to apply in lakes. Under this, governance ought to be reductionist-parsimony to be manageable and straightforward in refocusing the primary reference—lake governance. Lake governance’s concept is rarely utilized in scholarly literature nor acknowledged in the lake’s discourse. To ameliorate, the article intends to be a discourse—elucidate, understand, and contribute to lake governance’s analytical framework, respectively, the constituent’s interrelationship among the lake’s people, development, conservation, and the government, its most influential compartment. With this, lake governance asserts (a) development and …

Improving The Land Trust Model’S Impact On Environmental Conservation In Northern California, Peter Talbot

Master's Projects and Capstones

For years, the land trust sector of California and much of the United States has operated with a dollars and acres mentality that has prioritized fundraising as a result of acreage protected. Within California, nearly 5.8 million acres of land have been protected by 132 land trusts throughout the state. To accommodate for the diverse cross-section of land and the many needs of the population, land trusts take on numerous shapes and sizes. A unique aspect of this diversity is the rich agricultural and natural spaces found throughout the state. This mix of land and variety of land uses has …

Best Practices Are Never Best: Evaluating Primate Conservation Education Programs (Pceps) With A Decolonial Perspective, Michelle Bezanson, Montserrat Franquesa-Soler, Martin Kowalewski, Allison Mcnamara, Rahayu Oktaviani, Michelle A. Rodrigues

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Who do we aim to educate with primate conservation education programs (PCEPs)? In a commentary published in a recent AJP, Annette Lanjouw suggested that many efforts to “educate” habitat-country communities can be neocolonial in their approaches. Forest destruction and habitat loss are a result of global consumption and expansion. We therefore need to approach conservation education from many angles including local stakeholders, policy makers, government officials, and the humans living in industrialized nations who are major consumers of the items that shrink primate habitats. In this review, we investigate PCEPs to determine if the conservation education goals, education methods, and …

Women In Sustainable Leadership: A Case Study On The Perspectives, Opportunities, And Challenges Of Biologist And Conservationist Estrela Matilde, Ella Lyons

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Despite the relatively small population of 8,000 occupants and the minimal international recognition of the Island of Príncipe, located off of the Gulf of Guinea on the Western Coast of Central Africa, the region has increasingly become a leading example of sustainable practices to be taken on a global scale in the near future to combat our current climate crisis. This case study explores the sustainable practices that Príncipe has learned to embrace under the leadership of Portuguese conservation biologist and project manager for the NGO Fundação Príncipe, Estrela Matilde. Estrela integrates social, cultural, and environmental conservation to align with …

About Sdlp, Sdlp

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

The Sustainable Development Law & Policy Brief (ISSN 1552-3721) is a student-run initiative at American University Washington College of Law that is published twice each academic year. The Brief embraces an interdisciplinary focus to provide a broad view of current legal, political, and social developments. It was founded to provide a forum for those interested in promoting sustainable economic development, conservation, environmental justice, and biodiversity throughout the world.

Toxic Criminals: Prosecuting Individuals For Hazardous Waste Crimes Under The United States Resource Conservation And Recovery Act, Dr. Joshua Ozymy, Dr. Melissa Jarrell Ozymy

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

The U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) contains criminal provisions which allow prosecutors to seek substantial penalties when individuals commit hazardous waste crimes involving significant harm or culpable conduct. However, our empirical understanding of enforcement outcomes is limited. We used content analysis of 2,728 criminal prosecutions derived from U.S. EPA criminal investigations from 1983 to 2021 and examined all prosecutions of individual defendants for RCRA violations. Our results show that 222 prosecutions were adjudicated, with over $72.9 million in monetary penalties, 755 years of probation, and 451 years of incarceration levied at sentencing. Seventeen percent of prosecutions centered on …

Environmental Activism: Pro-Environmental Behavior, Consumerism, And Environmental Justice, Kaden Uribe, April Chapman-Ludwig

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

This literature review examines established research on the concept of pro-environmental behaviors (PEB) and its subsects: activism and consumerism. There are competing opinions regarding the salience of pro-environmental activist behavior. This dichotomy is characterized by the role of social media, which can be simultaneously used for performative identity signaling and as a platform to facilitate global collective activism. The research shows a stark contrast between pro-environmental activism and pro-environmental consumerism, with the former acknowledging historical injustices and addressing the social, economic, and environmental disparities created by neo-liberal policies designed with the purpose of profit extraction at the expense of marginalized …

Solving Contemporary Issues In Conservation Through A Market-Based International Park System, Ian Finley

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In 2016, the United States National Park Service celebrated its centennial, which caused a flurry of calls for reflection and recommendations for improvements for national parks.1 People began urging the national parks to reaffirm their commitment to conservation and recreation, along with encouraging more research.2 It seemed to be a natural time to revisit the original “justification for both Yosemite and Yellowstone park [that] was the protection of unique scenery in the national interest.”3 That being said, in light of developments in national parks over the last one hundred years, it is important to challenge or at least qualify that …

Advancing Assessments Of Climate Change Vulnerability Of West Virginia Watersheds, Joseph T. Molina

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As climate change is becoming increasingly recognized as a threat to aquatic ecosystems, climate adaptation planning, in both the long- and short-term, is becoming more common in natural resource management. There is a need within conservation agencies to develop methodologies and assessments that support adaptation planning to efficiently disperse conservation dollars and effectively strengthen ecological and community resilience as climate changes continue. My thesis aims to provide West Virginia natural resources managers with climate vulnerability assessments that can be used to determine where and how conservation efforts should be administered. Additionally, I demonstrate a methodology that can be built upon …

Lorax (1971) By Dr. Seuss, Megan Jane Laverty

Picture Books

Megan Jane Laverty interprets Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax (the 1971 book, the 1972 television cartoon, and the 2012 feature film) as a multi-layered philosophical fable. First, she examines how the story reveals the dangers of our enthusiastic but short-sighted pursuit of innovation, success, and wealth—ambitions that can lead to far-reaching and often tragic consequences. Secondly, she explores how the narrative vividly illustrates the environmental devastation that results when commercial enterprises treat nature as an inexhaustible resource for production and progress. Laverty proposes several ways for students to engage with the story’s philosophical themes, including the aesthetic exploration of their local …

Scientists And Activists Work To Save The Planet, Myriam G. Vidal Valero

Capstones

Climate change and human intervention in nature are affecting people, ecosystems and ways of living all over the world. This portfolio of environmental pieces showcases the dire consequences of not addressing these issues, how solutions can be reached and the challenges facing those who try to change things.

Something Stinks: The Need For Stronger Agricultural Waste Regulations, Audrey Curelop

Washington and Lee Law Review

In the twentieth century, the American agricultural industry underwent significant changes—while most food animals were once raised on small family farms, now, over fifty percent are produced entirely inside concentrated animal feeding operations. These large‑scale farming operations house hundreds to thousands of cows, swine, or chickens, which collectively produce hundreds of millions of tons of waste per year. The primary method of waste disposal is land application, a process in which waste is sprayed or spread onto land with no required pretreatment. After land application, waste byproducts make their way into the surrounding air and waterways, posing significant threats to …

Emergent Landscapes Of Renewable Energy Storage: Considering Just Transitions In The Western United States, Bethani Turley, Alida Cantor, Kate Berry, Sarah Knuth, Dustin Mulvaney, Noel Vineyard

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Governments, utilities, and energy companies are increasingly looking towards energy storage technologies to extend the availability of variable renewable power sources such as solar and wind. In this Perspective, we examine these fast-shifting developments by mapping and analyzing landscapes of renewable energy storage emerging across the Western United States. We focus on the rollout of several interrelated leading technologies: utility-scale lithium-ion batteries, supported by increasing regional lithium mining, and proposals for new pumped storage hydropower. Drawing on critical resource geography, we examine energy storage as both a component of renewable transition and as its own driver of landscape transformation, resource …

Ecosystem Connectivity For Livable Cities: A Connectivity Benefits Framework For Urban Planning, Carole Hardy, Catherine De Rivera, Leslie Bliss-Ketchum, Eric P. Butler, Sahan Dissanayake, Dorothy A. Horn, Ben Huffine, Amanda M. Temple, Michael Vermeulen, Hailey Wallace, Jennifer Michelle Karps

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urbanization disrupts landscapes and ecosystem functions, which poses threats to biodiversity, social systems, and human health, particularly among vulnerable populations. Urban land-use planners are faced with competing demands for housing, safety, transportation, and economic development and often lack tools to integrate these with protecting environmental functions. We identify three major barriers to integrating the benefits that flow with connected, functioning ecosystems into land-use planning. The lack of a shared language among planners and stakeholders poses a barrier to the restoration and preservation of ecological features. Methods of incorporating the benefits from connectivity are not standardized because values are not readily …

Persistence In The North Pacific: The Makah People And Their Fight To Protect Their Cultural Heritage, Jeff Cocci

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

In the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of North America a whale swims blissfully unaware of its own significance. It is a Gray Whale; scientists would call it Eschrichtius robustus and at nearly forty feet long, it is large enough that it does not have to worry about sharks or other carnivorous animals. Yet there are those that are brave enough to hunt the whale. They are the Makah People of the Olympian Peninsula, in upper Washington state. By doing so, they place themselves at the center of a complex ethical debate amongst activists, scientists, and the general public. …

Comments In Response To Request For Information To Inform Interagency Efforts To Develop The American Conservation And Stewardship Atlas, John C. Ruple, Jamie Pleune

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

On January 2, 2022, the Department of the Interior published a notice in the Federal Register seeking Information to Inform Interagency Efforts to Develop the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas. This letter responds to the Department’s request for information.

Our comments focus on what we believe would be a useful framework for the Atlas. Our comments proceed in 5 parts: (1) broad comments about conservation, the Conservation and Stewardship Atlas, and the America the Beautiful Initiative; (2) the need to provide a universal baseline of ecological health that includes ecological potential, existing conditions, and a landscape health assessment; (3) the …

Rooted In Environmental Justice: Phytogeography And Ethnoecology Of Serianthes, Else Demeulenaere

Biological Sciences

Serianthes Benth. (Fabaceae) is one of the most endangered plant genera in the world, with 12 of the 18 species listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Serianthes trees are culturally important to island communities of the Indo-Pacific region for canoes, boats, traditional houses, and medicine. Habitat loss and ecosystem degradation increased pressure on these trees, also threatening its Indigenous cosmology and traditional practices. This interdisciplinary study integrated genomic, biogeographic and ethnoecological approaches to develop appropriate policies that protect the Indigenous biocultural diversity of Serianthes. Phylogenomics of 401 nuclear exons and non-coding flanking regions using both a multi-species …