Center for the Environment

Dr. Joseph N. Boyer Named Director of PSU's Center for the Environment

A marine scientist and professor is the new director of Plymouth State University’s Center for the Environment (CFE). Dr. Joseph N. Boyer, a native of eastern Pennsylvania, comes to PSU from Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, where he has served as faculty since 1995; he also was associate director of the Southeast Environmental Research Center at FIU from 2003 to 2009 and Director since 2009. He has over 25 years of experience in marine microbiology and ecosystem ecology spanning from Florida to Canada.  Dr. Boyer believes that expanding the Center for the Environment’s expertise will ultimately better serve the public, the University, and the state.

“I believe the CFE has the potential to become a central player in the region and northeast U.S.” said Boyer. “The terrific relationship between University, community, and government is a testimony to prior leadership and should be further nurtured and developed.”

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The 49^th Annual Cooperator’s Meeting of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem was held on July 11-12, 2012 at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Scientific presentations are a traditional part of the meeting and the following PSU and CFE researchers presented their research at the meeting:

• Scott Bailey: “Nuts and bolts of watersheds: Testing the concept of Representative Elementary Area”
• Denise Burchsted: “A valley-wide view of stream channel controls in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest”
• Mark Green: “An updated evapotranspiration trend for Watershed 1”
• Joe Molloy: “Analysis of snowpack losses due to sublimation at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest”
• Christopher Nealen: “The relative importance of watershed hydrology and forest harvest on the mobilization of aluminum in the White Mountain National Forest, NH”
• Michele Pruyn: “The spring fling: Sapflow during thaw-refreeze cycles”
• Erik Thatcher: “Measuring soil moisture potential: A methods comparison”
• Geoff Wilson: “Climate change and the ski industry: Conversations with stakeholders yields new ways to communicate our data”

July 19, 2012; 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Margret and H.A. Rey Center, Waterville Valley, NH

Join Plymouth State University’s Center for the Environment post-doctoral scholar Denise Burchsted to learn all about beavers. Denise will introduce participants to these amazing rodents and discuss her research looking at the impacts of beaver ponds on stream habitats. The program will begin with an indoor session and then head outdoors to explore a local beaver pond. Bring bug spray and an extra layer of clothing and wear shoes that can get wet and/or muddy.

Fee: There is no charge to attend this program thanks to generous support from Plymouth State University. Transportation from the indoor session to the beaver pond will be provided.

Advance registration requested. To register contact the Margret and H.A. Rey Center at programs@thereycenter.org or 603-236-3308.

Ages: This program is designed for adults and families with children ages 8+.

(Photo from http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/beaver/)

The Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (RBFF), New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHFGD), and the Center for the Environment have partnered on a project to conduct research to assist the New Hampshire angler program in more effectively reaching fishing participants to encourage license sales to promote conservation. This project, entitled, “Using Community Based Social Marketing to Improve Angler Retention in New Hampshire,” involves a focused assessment of the New Hampshire angler population to identify perceived barriers to and attitudes about purchasing a license. This work will contribute to an understanding of the specific dynamics of fishing license purchasing and perceptions of NHFGD conservation efforts in New Hampshire.

Graduate student Matt Bartley and his advisor, PSU faculty member Dr. Brian Eisenhauer, will use Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM) to guide the outcomes of their work. Their research involves a mixed methods approach; they will be using key informant interviews, focus groups, and a random sample survey along with analysis of RBFF’s data on national motivations for and barriers to anglers purchasing fishing licenses. The project will help NHFGD and RBFF develop more effective marketing programs for angler recruitment and retention. The project is supported by $15,000 grants from both RBFF and NHFGD. For more information, visit the project webpage.

Hydrologist Mark Green is serving as a judge for the 2012 U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize national competition. The Stockholm Junior Water Prize is the world’s most prestigious youth award for a water-related science project.

The competition challenges high school students to address current and future water challenges. Students from around the United States will gather from June 14-16, 2012 in Boston, MA, where they will have the opportunity to meet with like-minded students to discuss their research projects and exchange ideas.

Mark Green, assistant professor of hydrology, has been awarded a Fulbright Researcher Position to study at the University of Tokyo, Department of Forest Science from September 2012-June 2013. Mark’s research will concentrate on improving our understanding of hydrologic resilience in temperate forested watersheds. He will explore hydrologic data from Japanese and U.S. forested watersheds to see how resilient the hydrologic function has remained over history. The focus of this work will be to identify any irreversible hydrologic changes and study the reasons for those changes. Through exploration of case studies and long-term data sets a framework will be developed to understand the dynamics of hydrologic resilience.

• Full story: PSU Professor Mark Green Receives Fulbright Research Scholarship

Graduate student Marguerite Crowell presented a talk, “A Climate of Change:  The need for water resource education in Pakistan to meet the current and upcoming challenges,” at the 2012 Project WET Annual Conference at Bridgewater State University on May 22-25, 2012.

Pakistan is faced with growing issues concerning water availability and quality. Participants in the US State Department grant funded Pakistani Educational Leadership Project at PSU are trying to improve water literacy in Pakistan to prepare for how climate change and other management factors affect water resources in that country. Marguerite’s talk focused on her research on water resource education in Pakistan which she is doing for her MS in Environmental Science and Policy.

Five Center for the Environment students attended the 2012 New Hampshire Environmental Educators Annual Conference on March 14, 2012 at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, NH.  The students, all participants in Principles of Interpretation graduate course taught by Doug Earick, took part in hands-on workshops and presentations that highlighted many of the environmental education projects going on in the state.  This year’s conference, “Meeting Standards with Citizen Science”, had a specific focus on encouraging groups to engage in science outreach work with various non-science groups via citizen science programs.

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Mark Green and Doug Earick are part of a team of people awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation on the “Interactions Among Climate, Land Use, Ecosystem Services, and Society.” This project is part of a five-year $20 million grant from NSF, to the University of New Hampshire, Dartmouth College, St. Anselm College and Plymouth State University for a statewide research and education project known as Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) to bring together researchers from around the state to better understand the environment and the complex interactions of the climate-ecological-human system as well as provide critical information for state decision makers.

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The 2012 New Hampshire Water and Watershed Conference was held on March 23, 2012 at Plymouth State University, hosted by CFE. 225 people attended the event to hear over 35 talks on a variety of water related topics on Tropical Storm Irene, water infrastructure, floodplain management, surface water quality, low impact development, and the Great Bay. For the first time, the conference included a poster display featuring student research projects and other important water topics. Plenary talks covered the Governor’s Commission on Water Sustainability and an overview of a new New Hampshire based research project on the interactions among climate, land use, ecosystem services, and society.

The NH Water & Watershed Conference is organized by a group of people from PSU’s Center for the Environment, NH Department of Environmental Services, UNH NH Water Resources Research Center, UNH Cooperative Extension, NH Rivers Council, NH Lakes Association, NH Fish and Game Department, US Geological Survey, White Mountain National Forest, Weston & Sampson.

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