Since May 2005, the Stewardship Network has hosted monthly webcasts with an audience from across North America. These engaging sessions feature presenters who are leaders in their field and an online audience from across North America. Dynamic dialogue between presenters and audience is a hallmark of TSN’s online sessions. If you care about natural areas and engage in stewarding lands and waters, then join us – these webcasts are made with you in mind!
*Note that we have transitioned to Zoom as our webinar platform. Zoom link will be available on this webpage at 11:30am on the morning of the webcast. Email staff@stewardshipnetwork.org for call-in information.*
If you would like to suggest a topic for one of our upcoming webcasts, send us an email at staff@stewardshipnetwork.org.
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Next Webcast:
Wednesday, October 13th, 2021 @ 12pm EDT (11am CDT, 10am MDT, 9am CDT)
Webcast Archives
(click the title to access the recording)
September 2021 Webcast: Ecotourism of Raptors: Bringing birds (and people) to your spaces
w/ guest Sarah Gilmore (Michigan Avian Experience)
Birds of prey capture people’s fascination. How can you invite them to your park or natural area? We’ll look at small-cost management practices in natural areas can create an inviting habitat for these aerial predators – and the birders who cannot get enough of them.
Read Sarah’s bio below:
Sarah has always called Michigan home. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan with a concentration in environmental education. Sarah has been teaching and working directly with birds of prey for a decade and having more fun on the job than ever thought possible. She is a Certified Interpretive Guide through the National Association for Interpretation and in 2015 was awarded the Region 4 “Outstanding New Interpreter Award” through the same organization. When not working with raptors, she is also the Parks and Recreation Director for the City of Tecumseh in Michigan managing programs and more than 360 acres of public parks.
August 2021 Webcast: “Indigenous Peoples and Energy Justice”
w/ guest Dr. Kyle Whyte
George Willis Pack Professor, University of Michigan
“Indigenous peoples are among the populations in the U.S. who are increasingly calling for equity and justice in the energy transition to renewable energy. Major policy initiatives, proposed for legislation and adopted by the White House, are seeking to mobilize research to support Indigenous energy goals. The presentation covers research and best practices relating to ethics, justice, and partnership for the collaborations that are needed to ensure Indigenous peoples are among the leaders of the energy transition.”
Read Dr. Whyte’s bio below:
Dr. Whyte is George Willis Pack Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan, teaching in the environmental justice specialization. His research addresses environmental justice, focusing on moral and political issues concerning climate policy and Indigenous peoples, the ethics of cooperative relationships between Indigenous peoples and science organizations, and problems of Indigenous justice in public and academic discussions of food sovereignty, environmental justice, and the anthropocene. He is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
Kyle currently serves on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, the Management Committee of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, and the Board of Directors of the Pesticide Action Network North America. He has served as an author for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, including authorship on the 4th National Climate Assessment. He is a former member of the Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science in the U.S. Department of Interior and of two environmental justice work groups convened by past state governors of Michigan.
July 2021 Webcast: “Soil Carbon Management in Grassland Restoration”
w/ guest Steven I. Apfelbaum, M.S.
[Senior Ecologist and Science Advisor, Resource Environmental Solutions (RES) / Founder, Applied Ecological Services (AES)]
“Grassland restoration, specifically soil carbon management, has a multitude of benefits. Methods of soil carbon management in grassland ecosystems can be used to address climate mitigation, regrow water supplies, reduce flooding, enhance biodiversity, and even help manage invasive plants.
Steven Apfelbaum, M.S., Senior Ecologist and Science Advisor at Resource Environmental Solutions, will give us an update and overview of his work in grassland restoration and soil carbon management, expanding upon a presentation that he and others gave at the White House during the Obama administration. Citing his personal and professional experiences on the subject over many years, Steve will connect his research and findings to the broader themes within stewardship and management, sharing insights that will help inform the work of researchers, practitioners, and stewards of all kinds.”
Steve Apfelbaum, the founder of Applied Ecological Services in Brodhead, WI, has been a full-time research and consulting ecologist with AES since 1978 when he founded the company and in 2021, merged with Resource Environmental Solutions (RES). Steve has conducted ecological research projects in most biomes of North America, and since the early 1980s he has been one of the leading consultants in the U.S. in ecological restoration programs. Apfelbaum is trained as an animal and plant ecologist with graduate studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where he earned his MS Degree in Ecological and Biological Sciences in 1978. He has been a scientist in hundreds of field ecological projects and data analysis projects. During his career, Mr. Apfelbaum has authored or co-authored hundreds of technical studies, reports, ecological program plans, restoration plans, and monitoring and compliance reports for research projects and for regulatory program reporting. In recent years, his focus has been in soil carbon research and directing large soil carbon projects in Canada, Palouse Region and throughout the country. He has worked closely with hydrologists to understand landscape-scale hydrologic changes associated with land settlement in the Midwestern U.S. This work has direct application to many millions of acres in North America and elsewhere. Mr. Apfelbaum has also presented results of his study of ecological restoration at hundreds of seminars and courses around the world and is a much sought-after speaker at educational events focusing on soil carbon, regenerative agriculture, ecological restoration, alternative storm water management and conservation development. Apfelbaum’s latest book, “Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land” (Island Press) and his personal account of thirty years of restoring their Wisconsin farm, in “Natures Second Chance” (Beacon press) have received a range of awards, including rave reviews in the New York Times and elsewhere. The later book has been recognized as one of the top ten environmental books of 2009 and best books for people to personally learn about what they can do to address climate change. Apfelbaum teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Design a course on the future of coastal systems and regenerative agriculture and holds adjunct professorships and lectureships at several other universities.
June 2021: “A Follow Up on the Strategic Management of Stiltgrass in the Wake of Early Detection”
w/ guests Chloe Hernandez and Allison Krueger
“One of the biggest conundrums any land manager / property owner / community faces is how to respond to the early detection of an aggressive invasive species. Three years into this topic, partners from the Washtenaw Stiltgrass Working Group will present on the work and results since undertaking an ‘early detection and rapid response’ strategy in the first documented outbreak of Stiltgrass in Michigan. Learn how the community of conservation partners and private property owners quickly banded together and rather than wait for this species to invade their property worked quickly, strategically and in coordinated fashion. Most organizations and individuals were already part of The Stewardship Network Huron-Arbor Cluster which allowed for the capacity of an immediate control effort. Three years later we present on the results and ongoing efforts to contain the highly invasive and destructive stiltgrass from escaping further into Michigan’s natural communities.”
Chloe Hernandez is the Stiltgrass Coordinator for the Washtenaw Stiltgrass Working Group. She graduated from Eastern Michigan University’s Environmental Science and Biology program in December and has since been helping plan for the upcoming stiltgrass season alongside the Stiltgrass Working Group partners. She is responsible for coordinating treatment, community outreach, and spreading awareness about the threat of stiltgrass. By creating relationships with landowners in stiltgrass-invaded areas, the Stiltgrass Working Group has helped empower the community to become involved in local conservation efforts.
Allison Krueger is the Stewardship Manager for Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission. Her work prioritizes utilizing current scientific research and sustainable practices to develop strategic plans, designs, and land management activities across a portfolio of landscapes that includes over 6000 acres. She has a Bachelors of Science in Botany and a Masters of Landscape Architecture. Allison has been working in the field of ecological restoration for over 10 years, previously on projects along the Detroit River. Allison is also the Vice Chair of the Washtenaw County Brownfield Authority.
May 2021: “Facilitating It All: Tools and Skills for Conveners and Coordinators”
For our May 2021 Webcast, we present to you a recorded session from the Collaborating Well Track at Reimagining Connections: The Stewardship Network Conference 2021:
Facilitating It All: Tools and Skills for Convenors and Coordinators, Lisa Brush (The Stewardship Network), Shawn Johnson (University of Montana)
“Collaboration is a practice that includes a set of tools, techniques, and skills grounded in facilitation, coordination, and multi-party negotiation. This session will offer a glimpse into these tools and skills, focusing on how they help collaborative leaders build more informed, inclusive, transparent, and effective processes.”
The recording will be followed by a brief Q&A with Lisa Brush, one of the session presenters and Founder / CEO of The Stewardship Network.”
More about the Collaborating Well initiative:
“The Collaborating Well Initiative is focused on advancing collaborative approaches to landscape conservation and stewardship by developing curricula that can be delivered in a variety of ways to practitioners. Our goal is to build the scaffolding that can support the burgeoning landscape stewardship movement and increase partnership capacity at scale by enabling us to practice conservation in ways that are more inclusive, informed, and integrative.”
April 2021: Seeing the Trees from the Forest: Individual tree classification from imagery and lidar
with guest Andrew Brenner, PhD
“When we look at the forest we generally see a grouping of trees with merged attributes, this has allowed us to manage forests for decades. However, forests are made up of individual units that are significant for both their individual value and their function within the ecosystem. This talk will discuss how new remote sensing technologies and analyses can be used to identify individual trees within the forest and how these data may be helpful to those managing forested ecosystems.”
Read Andrew’s bio below:
“Andrew Brenner directs Water and Natural Resource Management Programs for Quantum Spatial (NV5 Geospatial). He has worked on geospatial data analysis for over twenty five years. Andrew has worked on forest analyses and land cover mapping working closely with federal, state and commercial mapping programs. His focus is how to create information from imagery and lidar that can be integrated with GIS decision making systems. His background is in natural resources and he has a Ph.D. in Environmental Physics and Forestry, from Edinburgh University and an undergraduate in Agriculture from Reading University, UK.”
March 2021: “Quantifying Carbon Storage with Remote Sensing Techniques”
with guests Jackie Edinger, Jessica Einck, Sebastian Kasparian, and Lavran Pagano (University of Michigan)
“The need for more accessible and feasible ecosystem service assessments is critical to the future of land protection efforts. Uncoordinated development around urban areas is associated with the loss and fragmentation of rural open space, wildlife habitat, and wetlands, and the consequential decline in biodiversity. The City of Ann Arbor Greenbelt Program was developed in 2003 to preserve and protect open space, farmland, natural habitats, and the City’s source waters inside and outside the city limits. Now in its 17th year, the Greenbelt Program consists of over 6,100 acres of protected land on more than 65 parcels. While successful, the program lacks adequate ways to report impact and motivate support beyond acres preserved and funds leveraged.
The goal of our project is to develop two carbon storage geoprocessing tools, one for soil and another for aboveground biomass. Using a combination of existing data from the USDA, LiDAR remote sensing data, and a minimal amount of fieldwork, we have found that this is a feasible method for estimating carbon storage in these two areas.
We have applied both of our models to all properties currently protected in the Ann Arbor Greenbelt and have been able to provide the Greenbelt Program with the ability to assess and report on the ecosystem services of individual parcels and over the total acreage already protected as well as any additional properties added in the future. We hope that our methodology can serve as a blueprint for regional land conservancy organizations to effectively advocate for the importance of conservation easements.”
February 2021: “Coming of Age at the End of the World: An Existential Toolkit for the Climate Generation”
w/ guest Sarah Jaquette Ray
“A youth movement is reenergizing global environmental activism. The “climate generation”—late millennials and iGen, or Generation Z—is demanding that policy makers and government leaders take immediate action to address the dire outcomes predicted by climate science. Those inheriting our planet’s environmental problems expect to encounter challenges, but they may not have the skills to grapple with the feelings of powerlessness and despair that may arise when they confront this seemingly intractable situation. This talk is drawn from Dr. Ray’s 2020 book, A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet. Combining insights from psychology, sociology, social movements, mindfulness, and the environmental humanities, the book explains why and how the climate generation (and the rest of us) needs to let go of eco-guilt, resist burnout, and cultivate resilience while advocating for climate justice.”
Read Sarah’s bio below:
“Sarah Jaquette Ray has been Program Leader of the Environmental Studies Program at HSU since 2013. She received her PhD in Environmental Sciences, Studies, and Policy, with a focal department of English, at the University of Oregon in 2009. She holds a BA in Religious Studies (Swarthmore College) and a MA in American Studies (UT-Austin). Her first book, The Ecological Other: Environmental Exclusion in American Culture (University of Arizona, 2013) explores the ways that environmental discourse often reinforces existing social hierarchies, drawing on a legacy of nativist, racial, and ableist exclusion in environmental history. Dr. Ray has edited three collections, including Critical Norths: Space, Nature, Theory (2017), Disability Studies & the Environmental Humanities: Toward an Eco-Crip Theory (2017), and Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial (2019). Her second book, a Field Guide to Climate Change: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet (California, 2020) is an existential toolkit for the climate generation.”
January 2021: “Never Waste a Good Failure”
w/ guest Allison Catalano
How do you think about failure? How does your organization handle it? Failure or outcomes that are less than successful are not uncommon in conservation initiatives, yet we rarely discuss failure in systematic ways that make use of the learning opportunities failure presents. Here we will discuss alternate ways to think about failure and the individual and interpersonal dynamics that make it challenging. We’ll talk a bit about ideas we might useful adapt from other disciplines with longer histories of managing failure, such as aviation, medicine, and business. And we’ll talk about a few of the cognitive biases and group processes that get in the way of making difficult discussions productive.
Read Allison’s bio below:
Allison is pursuing a PhD in the Life Sciences Department of Imperial College and researches how conservation as a discipline learns from failure. She comes to this topic from a background that includes a BA in Environmental Geology from Bryn Mawr College, an MBA from Wharton Business School, experience as a consultant for Bain & Co. in London, as the US Embassy Community Liaison Officer in Ankara, Turkey, and as a US Naval Officer for 18 years. She has always been interested in leadership, learning, and how people work together in teams. She gets the greatest enjoyment from group discussions where ideas flow freely, connections are made, and people feel energized to keep making the world a better place.
December 2020: “Lake Erie Islands History”
w/ guest Mike Gora
“Michael Gora is the Middle Bass Island historian for the Lake Erie Islands Historical Society at Put-in-Bay, Ohio. A long-time summer resident of Middle Bass Island, he enjoys writing about local history and finding buried facts and stories. His most recent book, “Early Adventures at Put-in-Bay…” provides new evidence that the original Put-in-Bay harbor in the 18th century was probably today’s Burgundy Bay between Middle Bass and Sugar Islands.
Mr. Gora is a retired software executive and former software engineer who has also written 4 technical books and over 30 technical articles during a long career. He runs the Middle Bass Island web site at www.middlebass.org. When not on the islands, he lives in Hayesville, NC.”
November 2020: “Vegetation Mapping for Landscape Stewardship Collaboration”
w/ guests: Dylan Skybrook (Manager, Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network) and Kass Green (Kass Green and Associates)
“In this presentation will talk about the Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network’s cutting-edge vegetation mapping project for the Santa Cruz Mountains region. The SCMSN is a collaborative of 23 organizations that own, manage, or in some way steward land in the Santa Cruz Mountains. High quality mapping will provide “big picture” data that will support collaboration across property lines and jurisdictions. The project will collect data in multiple ways, including lidar and ortho imagery, and provide many data products, including wildland fuels maps that will help California’s fire department, Cal Fire, prioritize areas for treatment to avoid catastrophic wildfire.”
October 2020: “Turning the Tides,” a Conversation with Lisa Brush
Join us as TSN’s Rob Luzynski interviews Lisa Brush (Founder & CEO at The Stewardship Network) to discuss her life’s work in practicing and revolutionizing stewardship. Topics will include her wide array of personal and professional experiences, her journey in taking The Stewardship Network from an idea to the robust community that it is today, and how our collective vision and work are manifesting in the organization’s present and future.
Read more about Lisa’s bio below, and come ready to participate in an intimate and engaging conversation!
“Lisa Brush has been leading collaborative conservation initiatives in the environmental sector for over two decades. In her role as CEO and Founder of the award-winning Stewardship Network she has engaged thousands of professionals and volunteers in identifying community and conservation needs of the 21stcentury and determining strategic support The Network can provide. She has been involved in all aspects of organizational management including foundation/agency relationships; grant based project funding; budget tracking; contract negotiation, implementation, accountability; and staff and board development. Lisa has facilitated strategic planning sessions, focus groups, citizen task forces, community visioning sessions, and public involvement and feedback meetings with groups ranging in size from four to four hundred. Lisa serves on numerous boards of directors, has a BA in Science in Society from Wesleyan University, an MS from University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment, and is a graduate of Michigan State University’s Great Lakes Leadership Academy.”
September 2020: Equity and Justice Training for Environmental Organizations
w/ guest Paco Ollervides, PhD (Executive Director, Green Leadership Trust)
“The purpose of this webinar is to assist leaders and organizations in their commitment to diversity, equity, inclusivity, and justice and apply this knowledge to their everyday decisions, programs and activities. Through structured engagement amongst participants, even those with divergent DEIJ points of view, I will ensure a transformative culture change for the attendees. I will walk attendees through the why of diversity considerations for their organizations; suggest a few mechanisms for the how to ensure diversity, equity, inclusion and justice; and chart next steps as we embark in a journey to continue building the DEIJ culture of these organizations.
Prior to the training, it is recommended that participants read the 2014 Green 2.0 report to be aware of the three primary handicaps for diversifying the environmental movement and be prepared to suggest opportunities to circumvent these obstacles in their own organization. Another recommended reading is this article by Deeohn Ferris. Tons of resources can be found at The DEIJ in Action guide commissioned by the Chesapeake Bay Trust.”
Francisco “Paco” Ollervides, PhD has worked directly with individual leaders and organizations in diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice initiatives in the environmental sector for over 20 years. He assists strategic planning as well as conceptualizing, innovating, and driving forward initiatives that allow individuals to learn and act equitably and as stewards to our planet. His focus is on building the power of the environmental movement by facilitating opportunities for People of Color to excel in the sector through client and sponsor relationship management, customer satisfaction and retention, and staff management.
He leads the Green Leadership Trust as Executive Director. He leverages the knowledge, networks, and resources of People of Color and Indigenous people serving Boards of environmental organizations to build and diversify the environmental movement’s power. Prior (2013-2019) he acted as Leadership Development Manager and consultant in the Great Lakes region for River Network. Here he coordinated and provided organizational development services to dozens of Partner non profit organizations. From August 2006 – December 2010 he served as Senior Field Coordinator for Latin American programs within Waterkeeper Alliance. He connected, supported, and enhanced the activities of several dozens of non-profit member organizations.
He has trainings from the Watershed Coordinator Course from Ohio State University and served as lecturer to the Michigan Water Stewards program from Michigan State University. He was part of the Leading from Within Leadership course from Institute for Conservation Leaders and is a certified coach in Open Standards of Conservation from Conservation International. He is a Great Lakes Network Weaver and a National Senior Fellow with the Environmental Leaders Program. He received Racial Justice training from Race Forward; Civic Discourse training from Knoll Farm; Community Organizing and Family Issues Facilitation Training from the COFI Institute; Story telling for Social Change from Environmental Leaders Program; internal inclusivity training from Raben Group; completed the Arm in Arm 4 Climate Campaign and the BIPOC Climate Leadership Program.
He is a biochemical engineer and a bio-acoustician. His field work included assessing the impacts of boat noise on gray whale behavior. He holds both M.S and PhD degrees from the Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Department at Texas A&M University.
August 2020: “Integrated Pest Management”
w/ guest Michael Hahn
Our guest this month is Michael Hahn, Stewardship Specialist at the City of Ann Arbor – Natural Areas Preservation. Read his bio below:
“Mike Hahn grew up in the Chicago area and has been working in the ecological restoration field for the last 13 years. Five years ago he moved his family to Michigan to work for the City of Ann Arbor in the Natural Area Preservation program as a Stewardship Specialist. There he helps to coordinate stewardship activates throughout the 1200 acres of undeveloped city parkland. Prior to working for the City, he was employed by a land trust managing natural areas and coordinating volunteers. Mike and his wife have two fun-loving children. They enjoy their time together playing outside looking for mushrooms, fishing, hunting and working in their garden.”
July 2020: “Space-making in the Native Landscape”
This discussion-based presentation will be looking at the ecological benefits of native plants, especially in human-dominated landscapes where ecological function may be an afterthought, with a special emphasis on the design considerations that can ensure a long-lasting habitat. In addition, the presentation will include new developments in grading and drainage in the home native landscape!
Our guest this month is Mike Appel of Mike Appel Environmental Design, LLC. You can read the description of their work below:
“Our work is informed by hands-on stewardship in the natural communities of southern Michigan. From the designs we conceive to the landscapes we construct and maintain, our experience in the field inspires what we do. Our goal is to create and care for spaces in which our clients can cultivate their own personal connection to the outdoors.”
June 2020: Explorations in Virtual Stewardship
“As individuals and organizations continue to adapt to an ever-changing professional landscape, virtual programming has played an increasingly important role in continuing work that can no longer be done in-person. From FaceTime hikes to Zoom conferences and everything in between, we are all constantly learning and iterating upon best practices for bringing life to our online experiences.”
Our guests this month are Tina Stephens, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator for City of Ann Arbor – Natural Area Preservation, as well as Armando Quintero, Executive Director of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at University of California – Merced.
Tina Stephens will begin with a discussion about her experience with hosting the recent “Garlic Mustard Weed Out Week” in coordination with The Stewardship Network’s Spring Invasive Species Challenge. We will follow with contributions from Armando Quintero, who will be sharing his experiences and insights as it relates to virtual events, fundraising, and collaboration. Lastly, we will have a presentation and discussion guided by our Network Administrator, Rob Luzynski, as he shares information regarding best practices in virtual conferencing, the challenges and opportunities associated with these new platforms, and how to engage with audiences in a meaningful and impactful way.
We hope that you will join us to share your thoughts and questions with us. As we prepare to host our first ever virtual edition of The Stewardship Network Conference in 2021, we are committed to being responsive to the needs and wants of our community to ensure that we can give our supporters the best experience possible.
May 2020: “The Work Continues: Insights on Adaptation”
As we all settle into new ways of living and working, individuals and organizations need to be flexible and innovative in the way that they engage with their supporters and collaborators. We will talk with environmental professionals about their approaches to adaptation in the face of the current societal context: What has stayed the same? What has changed? What will continue to evolve going forward? We encourage attendees to share their insights and ask questions in the chat, as well all contribute to enhance our collective understanding of the current situation and best practices for navigating new challenges and opportunities.
With special guests:
Jason Frenzel, Huron River Watershed Council: “Jason facilitates current and potential watershed stewards. Previously, he worked with the City of Ann Arbor’s Natural Area Preservation program for 10 years as its Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator. Jason holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Michigan State University in “facilitating tree hugging.” He joined HRWC in 2011 and lives in the Traver Creekshed.”
Lori Seele, Duluth CISMA: Lori Seele is one of The Stewardship Network’s Collaborative Conservation Community Coordinators, leading the Duluth CISMA in Minnesota – “A Collaborative Invasive Species Management Area (CISMA) working to address the economical, ecological, & public safety impacts of terrestrial invasive plants in Southern St. Louis County.”
Yakuta Poonawalla, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy: “Yakuta Poonawalla was born and raised in India, and her love affair with the natural world began during her first trek in the Himalayas in 1999. Since that initiation, she has had the opportunity of working with various non-profits and social enterprises, both in India and the US to educate, inspire, and cultivate deep love and respect for the environment. Yakuta currently works for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy where she leads the San Francisco Park Stewardship Program and is developing creative programs that focus on inclusion, cultural relevance, and mindfulness. She is a member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee at the Parks Conservancy, and is deeply involved in various initiatives across the park.”
April 2020: “Nature Connection in a Pandemic”
w/ guest Cayla Samano
An unexpected consequence of social distancing and public lock downs in the era of Covid-19 has been a noticeable increase in the number of people enjoying park and rec areas. In a world of increasing environmental instability, where viral pandemics like Covid-19 may become more frequent, how might our relationship with nature be forced to evolve? This presentation explores these questions from a forest therapy perspective, accompanied by original works of art and photography focusing on the future of the human/nature relationship.
Cayla is a forest therapy guide and former art teacher. She is starting an MFA degree (Master of Fine Arts) in Fall 2020, with a focus on exploring how our nature connection practices have changed over time.
March 2020: “A Great Lakes 2020 Platform – Advancing a Shared Agenda” (Recording)
w/ Laura Rubin (Director, Healing Our Water – Great Lakes Coalition)
Laura Rubin has spent more than 30 years working on environmental protection, policy, and conservation issues. She is currently the Director of the Healing Our Waters—Great Lakes Coalition, which has been harnessing the collective power of more than 160 groups representing millions of people, whose common goal is to restore and protect the Great Lakes. The Coalition has earned a well-deserved reputation as a national leader in securing federal investment in regional ecosystem restoration efforts.
Before that Rubin worked as executive director of the Michigan-based Huron River Watershed Council since 1998, where she transformed the nonprofit from a low-profile organization to a high-impact, high-visibility national leader in the field of watershed management. HRWC leads in the development and dissemination of cutting-edge conservation and public-education projects and serves as a model for watershed organizations around the country and world.
She has served as a board member or advisor to local, state, and national organizations including the Michigan Environmental Council, the Alliance for the Great Lakes, the Great Lakes Integrated Science and Assessment Center, the University of Michigan School Of Natural External Advisory Board, the City of Ann Arbor’s Greenbelt Commission, and others. For her national leadership in river protection, she received the River Network’s 2013 River Hero Award. Prior to leading HRWC, Laura worked with small and medium sized manufacturers on pollution prevention efforts, consulted on economic development strategy with the Navajo Nation, and served as a Program Director at Greenpeace, where she cut her teeth on policy development, community organizing, and environmental advocacy.
Originally from the Chicago area, Laura grew up a block from Lake Michigan and learned to love and appreciate the beautiful waters, recreational opportunities, and rich ecology of the Great Lakes. She earned Master’s degrees in Business Administration and Natural Resource Policy at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute, and a Bachelor of Arts in business economics from Colorado College.
February 2020: “Private Forest Management in the Changing Northwoods”
W/ guests Dr. Paige Fischer (Assistant Professor – School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan) and Dr. Riva Denny (Postdoctoral Fellow – School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan).
The forests of northern Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, or the Northwoods, have undergone substantial environmental changes in the recent past including severe storms, insect and disease outbreaks, droughts, heat waves, winter thaws, and wildfires. In this webinar, we will share preliminary results from a mail survey-based project that investigates how private landowners have experienced and responded to these severe events in Northwoods forests. Our goal is to inform policies and programs that help private forestland owners adapt to changing environmental conditions.
Building on a series of nine focus group interviews that we conducted across the three states in 2017, we designed the mail survey to gather data about forest owners’ experiences with severe events, risk perceptions, management responses, environmental beliefs, and sources of information and advice. In late winter-early spring 2019, we sent the mail survey to a statistically representative sample of individual forestland owners in areas that were exposed to severe events in the Northwoods. We used GIS data on pest and disease outbreaks, storms, wildfires, and dramatic shifts in temperature and precipitation in the past two decades to identify the areas of higher than average exposure. We achieved a 39% response rate. In this webinar, we will share what we learned about the following questions:
- How have forest owners experienced to severe events in the Northwoods forests?
- What risks do owners associate with these changes?
- How have owners’ responded to these events through changes in management?
- How do owners perceive their ability to respond to sever events?
- What major psychological, social, economic, and geographic factors influence their risk perceptions and responses?”
“Paige Fischer is Assistant Professor in the School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan. The focus of her research and teaching is on human behavior as it relates to the sustainability of forests as socio-ecological systems. She investigates factors that enable and constrain human adaptation to natural hazards and climate-driven change in forest systems. Paige has been interested in human-forest interactions throughout her life. She grew up in Oregon where she developed a deep appreciation for forests and the communities that depend on them. She pursued undergraduate study in cultural anthropology at Hampshire College. After graduating she received a Fulbright Scholarship to study cultural influences on forest use in a village in Sri Lanka. She then worked for the San Francisco-based conservation organization, Pacific Environment, leading a program on international forest and trade policy in the Pacific Rim region. Paige received master’s and PhD degrees in natural resource sociology at Oregon State University. Her research there was on private landowners’ behavioral motivations to conserve oak habitat. Before joining the faculty at SNRE she was a Research Social Scientist with the Pacific Northwest Research Station of the Forest Service where she investigated private landowner wildfire risk perceptions and mitigation behaviors and the capacity of a network of natural resource organizations to adapt to increasing wildfire risk.
Riva C. H. Denny is a postdoctoral research fellow at the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. She has a PhD in Sociology from Michigan State University, and an MS in Rural Sociology from Auburn University. Her core research focus is on the interactions between social and environmental systems, particularly the way that the biophysical environment influences, or fails to influence, human decision-making at multiple scales. She uses both qualitative and quantitative methods and specializes in using multi-equation regression techniques like multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling with latent variables, and longitudinal analysis. She has worked extensively with survey data as well as large secondary datasets.
January 2020: Community Engagement Through Stewardship w/ Urban Neighborhood Initiatives
Our guest this month is Lisa Marie Rodriguez, Curator of Parks & Green Spaces at Urban Neighborhood Initiatives
“One of the challenges the City of Detroit faces is being unable to provide oversight of vacant lots, blight, and illegal dumping. The city’s waning tax base due to population decline prevented government officials from pursuing absentee landowners and the investigation of illegal dumping. This is significant as we consider the Springwells neighborhood to be one of many coping with the expanse of vacancy and blight.
Without city resources to hold landowners accountable, the prevalence of physical disorder continued to increase. While it has become imperative for dangerous and blighted structures to be removed, it has also become vital for the community to seek ways to redevelop the lot. Generous community partnership can help us purchase commercial grade landscape equipment, maintain existing power equipment, rent heavy duty earth moving equipment, rent dumpsters, purchase hardy perennial plants, grass seed, purchase contractor grade trash bags and safety glasses.
The Land Stewardship Initiative of Urban Neighborhood Initiatives (UNI) works to address vacant lots and illegal dumping. Absentee landowners stand to be amongst one of the most prevalent variables in creating the problem. In addition to absentee landowners, the increase of vacant side lots due to the City’s blighted structures demolition program contributes to the problem. Under the leadership of Lisa Marie Rodriguez, the Curator of Parks and Green Spaces, UNI receives nominations of vacant lots to be taken under stewardship annually. UNI also recruits neighborhood residents to serve as stewards of these lots”
December 2019: The Value of Citizen Science in Bird Conservation
Our guest this month is Francie Krawcke, Executive Director of the Michigan Avian Experience:
“Birds are all around us, making anywhere we can observe them a place of potential discovery. Ecologically, they are widespread in many different types of natural communities and respond quickly to changes in the environment. For this month’s webcast, Michigan Avian Experience’s Director, Francie Krawcke will lead us in a conversation focusing on “Bird Focused Citizen Science.” We will discuss the value of citizen science from an agency/organizational perspective, the benefits for the participants, and the impacts on wild bird populations, providing key takeaways that decision-makers can use to make informed decisions about whether this methodology is right for them.”
Francie’s Dad once asked her what she wanted to do with her life. Be happy was her response. Little did they know at the time Francie was to embark on a journey that would take her to 35 different states and 2 countries teaching with birds of prey. With over 15 years raptor training experience and almost 20 years teaching in the environmental education and interpretation field, she is one of about a dozen individuals in the country that have successfully trained a wild bald eagle to free fly. In addition, she has free flown 10 different species and trained over 20 different species of raptors. With a degree from Northern Michigan University and a Certified Interpretative Guide from the National Association of Interpretation, Francie is specifically trained in theory and practice of interpretation and environmental education. During that time she has presented at national and international conferences, organized two Michigan Raptor Connection workshops, teacher training workshops, developed environmental conservation curriculum and had loads of fun. As Executive Director of Michigan Avian Experience, she is able to share her work with others.
November 2019: Monitoring Impacts of Deer on Vegetation in Natural Areas
w/ guest Dr. Jacqueline Courteau:
“How can we assess deer impacts on species, communities, and ecosystems? Dr. Jacqueline Courteau will explore a range of different monitoring methods, and will discuss the challenges addressing indirect effects and interactions. We will consider deer impacts beyond direct damage to plants that are browsed, such as the ways in which deer browsing may decrease flower availability, leading to declines in pollinators—and other such “trophic cascades.” Examples from research in southeast Michigan over the past 20 years will be used to illustrate different approaches.”
Dr. Jacqueline Courteau is an ecologist, consultant, and writer/editor. She has taught courses including field ecology and ecology labs, restoration ecology, sense of place, natural history, and environmental writing at University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. As a project manager and editor, her most recent work has been a book about training donkeys to harness for use on small farms and homesteads. Through her company, NatureWrite LLC, she does research and consulting including ecological assessment and monitoring, restoration plans, forest regeneration, deer impacts on vegetation, and other plant-animal interactions, and invasive species, and has worked for Ann Arbor’s city parks, Washtenaw County parks, Huron-Clinton Metroparks, and the Michigan DNR, as well as Michigan Natural Features Inventory, Huron River Watershed Council. She has offered talks, hikes, and workshops on tree ID, invasive species, oak regeneration, climate change, ecological assessment, monitoring deer impacts, and spring wildflowers. She enjoys helping people connect to their land and the plants that grow on it, through learning about ecosystems as well as more meditative connections through nature journaling.
October 2019: Ticks & Fire – Can long-term prescribed fire be used to reduce risk of tick-borne disease?
w/ guest Elizabeth R. Gleim, assistant professor of biology and environmental studies at Hollins University
“For the past several decades, both the incidence and emergence of tick-borne diseases has increased dramatically. As more and more citizens become concerned about contracting tick-borne diseases like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever or alpha gal (the “red meat allergy”), it’s critical that effective, practical approaches to reducing tick populations and tick-borne disease risk be identified. Could prescribed fire be the answer? Join Elizabeth Gleim to hear about her research investigating the impacts of long-term prescribed fire on tick populations and disease risk and more broadly about the work that has been done on this topic and its implications for use of fire to reduce ticks in the Midwest.”
“Elizabeth “Liz” Gleim received her B.A. in biology from Hollins University. Prior to her graduate work, Liz spent two years working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Division of Parasitic Diseases and then went on to get her Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology and Management with a focus on disease ecology from the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. At UGA, her research focused on the impacts of long-term prescribed fire on tick populations and tick-borne disease risk. Following her doctoral work, she was a visiting faculty member in the biology department at Oxford College of Emory University and has spent the last three years back at Hollins, her alma mater, as an assistant professor of biology and environmental studies. At Hollins, Liz’s research continues to study forest pest and disease ecology with a particular focus on tick-borne disease ecology.”
September 2019: Recovering America’s Wildlife Act
w/ guests Naomi Edelson (Senior Director, Wildlife Partnerships – National Wildlife Federation) and Dan Kennedy (Endangered Species Coordinator – Michigan DNR, Wildlife Division)
“The bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (HR3742) would dedicate $1.3 billion for state-led conservation efforts and $97.5 million to Tribal nations to recover and sustain healthy fish and wildlife populations. If passed, this would be the most significant new investment in wildlife conservation in more than a generation. This groundbreaking legislation will help ensure that future generations can enjoy the same abundant fish and wildlife and outdoor recreation opportunities that we have today. Naomi and Dan will give an overview of this important legislation and provide suggestions on how to help support the national campaign.”
Click here to learn more and to support this important piece of legislation!
August 2019: Collaborative Efforts to Reduce Invasive Phragmites Australis in the Great Lakes Basin
w/ guest Elaine Ferrier
“Elaine is a Sr. Program Specialist with the Great Lakes Commission and works with a core team of Great Lakes Commission and USGS staff to coordinate the Great Lakes Phragmites Collaborative. She facilitates communication and strategic advancement for the Collaborative’s efforts across states, provinces, and tribal nations. She first began working with Phragmites since 2010 when it appeared in restoration monitoring plots in Wasaga Beach Provincial Park. She later worked on strategic planning for phragmites with Ontario Parks and was a volunteer co-chair for the Ontario Phragmites Working Group before joining the Great Lakes Commission team in 2016. She holds a BA from Trent University in natural resource studies and a Masters in Environmental Studies from University of Waterloo.”
July 2019: Strategic Management of Stiltgrass in the Wake of Early Detection
w/ guests Becky Gajewski and Katie Carlisle:
“One of the biggest conundrums any land manager / property owner / community faces is how to respond to the early detection of an aggressive invasive species. Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum), a notoriously invasive sprawling grass introduced from Asia in the early 20th century when it was used as packing material for fine china, was recently discovered for the first time in southeast MI. Learn how the community of land managers and private property owners quickly banded together and rather than wait for this species to invade their property worked quickly, strategically and in coordinated fashion. Most organizations and individuals were already part of The Stewardship Network Huron-Arbor Cluster which allowed for the capacity of an immediate control effort in combination with significant on-the-ground efforts by the landowners to form the Wasthenaw County Stiltgrass Working Group and how they are addressing this urgent issue.”
Becky Gajewski is a Stewardship Specialist for the Natural Area Preservation (NAP) division of the City of Ann Arbor’s Parks and Recreation Services Unit, where her mission is to protect and restore Ann Arbor’s natural areas and to foster an environmental ethic among its citizens. With several years of experience in ecological restoration, botany, and parks, she oversees NAP’s biological inventory program and assists with management planning for park natural areas. As manager of the inventory program, she coordinates two field biologists and numerous volunteers who participate in several citizen science-based wildlife survey programs. Becky is also in charge of data management and mapping for NAP and serves as a burn boss on prescribed burns. She graduated from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment with an MS in Natural Resources and Environment, and also holds a certificate in GIS from Penn State University.
Katie Carlisle is the Stewardship Coordinator at Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission. She is responsible for protecting and enhancing natural features in Washtenaw County Parks and Preserves in addition to promoting and coordinating volunteer opportunities. After receiving a Master’s of Science in Geophysics from Boise State University, she spent several years doing outdoor education, volunteer coordination, and stewardship work.
June 2019: Exploring Partnership & Stewardship Impacts
w/ guest Sharon Farrell
In her role at the conservancy, Sharon supports many of the organization’s conservation initiatives and community science, restoration, and stewardship programs. This includes advancing opportunities for engaging partners, scientists and community members in research, monitoring and many aspects of land stewardship. Sharon also works closely with agency partners to oversee the One Tam Initiative, a community initiative to help ensure a healthy future for Mt. Tamalpais.
Prior to joining the Parks Conservancy in 2004, Sharon was the Executive Director of the Watershed Project. Her work included capacity building for “Friends” groups, with a focus on partnership and fund development with municipalities and local governments. Sharon developed training and grants programs to support this work, and forged regional partnerships with other Bay Area non-profit organizations to support community-based stakeholder groups.
Sharon has also worked as an ecologist and resource specialist with the National Park Service, a resource planner with the Presidio Trust, and as an environmental consultant. Sharon holds a MS in Park Management with emphasis on Ecological Restoration and Community Stewardship, and a BS in Chemistry.
Sharon is an avid backpacker, nature photographer, and explorer. Originally from the United Kingdom, she now lives in the East Bay with her wife Sue, their two children, and their dog, Marco. Together they are frequent hikers of the amazing landscapes on Mt. Tam, Point Reyes, and the Marin Headlands.
May 2019: “Branching Out: New Insights on the Linkages between Trees and Water in Urban Ecosystems”
w/ guest Asia Dowtin, Assistant Professor of Urban Forestry at Michigan State University’s College of Forestry:
“In recent years, our understanding of the threats posed by rapid urbanization on environmental function and quality has prompted efforts to conserve and reintroduce green space within cities, with emphasis placed on increasing urban forest canopy cover. Many related initiatives have focused on expanding the urban street tree population, with little work done to deepen our knowledge of the environmental processes occurring within remnant urban woodlots. This study will explore the role these “micro-ecosystems” play in ecosystem function and service provision, specifically the capture and redistribution of water, nutrients, and pollutants within cities. Implications for urban conservation will be discussed”
“Asia Dowtin’s research uses in situ sampling and laboratory-based techniques to quantify hydrologic and nutrient cycling in the urban forest. Her work explores the relationships that exist between urban canopy structure, spatial context, and plant-water interactions to broaden our understanding of the influence of species composition and surrounding land use on urban forest function. A major goal of Dowtin’s work is to utilize this knowledge to inform the development of urban forest management plans, specifically those intended to optimize yield of select regulating and supporting ecosystem services by municipal trees. Her broader research interests include regional water resource management and hazard mitigation.”
April 2019: Spring Invasive Species Challenge Edition!
As we begin the 2019 field season, it’s important for us to remember that while our individual efforts may be geographically separated, they are all connected through the pursuit of a common goal:
“Pulling today for native plants tomorrow!”
The Stewardship Network’s Spring Invasive Species Challenge is a chance for us to appreciate the work we do in a larger context and see how our individual efforts are all a part of the larger collective impact that we can have together. Plus, you get to see how your work stacks up against other challengers for a chance at being crowned champion of your weight class.
Our guest this month is Kelly Kearns from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, who will be giving a presentation about some of the non-native, herbaceous plant species that are most effectvely treated in the spring months. The webcast will also feature additional special guests, as well as an overview of the 2019 Spring Invasive Species Challenge with everything you need to know about how you can get involved this work season. We will also be welcoming a few of our winners from the 2018 challenge, who will be discussing the work that they do and as well as their experience participating in the challenge.
March 2019 “Development of an Automated Monitoring Platform for Invasives in Coastal Ecosystems,”
with guests Joshua Cohen (Lead Ecologist of Michigan Natural Features Inventory [MNFI]) and Matthew Lewis (Chief Technology Officer of Michigan Aerospace Corporation [MAC])
“The Great Lakes region supports a wide array of coastal natural communities that are endemic and globally rare including lakeplain prairie, Great Lakes marsh, open dunes, alvar, and coastal fen. These ecosystems face a variety of threats, including the establishment and spread of invasive species. There is a critical need to develop scientifically credible and affordable methods for detecting and monitoring the impacts of invasive plant species in coastal ecosystems and assessing the success of restoration efforts to control invasives. Because monitoring efforts are costly and time-consuming, monitoring is often assigned the lowest priority in management plans and is often bypassed. Michigan Natural Features Inventory and Michigan Aerospace Corporation are partnering to develop a low-cost monitoring platform using drones equipped with high-resolution cameras and deep learning algorithms to identify invasive species in high-quality coastal ecosystems. In this presentation we will share results of our first year of research.”
February 2019: “Fire’s American Century”
“The late 19th century was a time of monstrous fires associated with settlement. The U.S. adopted a program of state-sponsored conservation in response, much as Europe’s colonial powers did. The Great Fires of 1910 mark the advent of modern fire protection. The next 50 years saw the creation of a national infrastructure for fire control with the U.S. Forest Service as an institutional matrix and a policy of suppression as a standard. In the 1960s a protest movement objected, and by 1978 a veritable revolution had occurred that redefined the goal as a policy of fire by prescription, which intended to restore good fires. Equally, it removed the Forest Service as a hegemon in favor of interagency institutions. That project stalled under the Reagan and Bush the Elder administrations, then revived after the 1994 season. By then the window for reform had narrowed. Now, after 50 years of attempted restoration, the federal agencies are moving toward a hybrid practice of managed wildfire. Today, each era continues to promote updated versions of its goals. Suppression is moving toward an all-hazard, urban fire-service model. Restoration has expanded from simple prescribed fire to interactive techniques involving fire and fuel management, all embedded in complex collaborations. The managed wildfire is still a work in progress, but it seems implicitly to reject the idea that we can get ahead of the problem or that fire is something largely under our control in favor of administrative mashups. Interesting times.”
For a quick introduction, feel free to explore Steve’s website here; you can also watch Steve’s TED Talk from 2015 on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPC7UQyQQhQ
“Steve Pyne is a former North Rim Longshot, now an emeritus professor at Arizona State University. He has written fire histories for the U.S., Australia, Canada, Europe (including Russia), and the Earth. Most recently he has revisited the American fire scene with a general narrative from 1960-2013, Between Two Fires: A Fire History of Contemporary America, and a suite of nine regional fire surveys under the general title, To the Last Smoke.”