Life Sciences Commons^™

Navigating Challenges For Locally Produced Food, Paul Cook

SACAD: John Heinrichs Scholarly and Creative Activity Days

There is much interest in locally produced food and the benefits it can have on communities across the state of Kansas. By interviewing city managers, we have identified some of the unique factors and challenges that city officials face when considering their community’s local food systems. Through interview and survey data, we sensed that there is a desire for more local food in communities but lack of resources, lack of policies and the nature of large commodity agriculture in Kansas appear as challenges. Ad-hoc groups coming from schools, churches, and committees at the county level make up the majority of …

Resource Allocation Of Ecosystem Services Of Cross Timbers Forests, Iryna Mcdonald

SACAD: John Heinrichs Scholarly and Creative Activity Days

Abstract

Forested ecosystems offer numerous goods and services, many of which are challenging to quantify directly. The productive potential of the Cross-Timber Forest region requires significant policy attention resulting from the economic contributions these services offer the locality – extending from southern Kansas to central Oklahoma and into Texas, including the metropolitan areas like Tulsa (Oklahoma), Oklahoma City (Oklahoma), and Dallas (Texas), providing ecosystem services to millions of residents along the Midwest-South continuum. Stand variety, in this transitional ecoregion, is largely comprised of post oak (Quercus stellata) and blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica) woodlands with varying tree densities interspersed with patches …