HDRU News
The 2012 Annual Report has now been posted!
Hold your mouse over the Publications Tab above and click on "Annual Report"
HDRU Presence at the 77th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference
The 2012 North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference was held March 12-17, 2012 in Atlanta, GA. Cynthia Jacobson (MS ‘96, PhD ‘06) and Professor Dan Decker (BS ‘74, MS ‘76, PhD ‘86) were co-organizers (with John Organ and Chris Smith) of an Agency Transformation workshop. This was the third day-long workshop the group has offered agency and NGO leaders (2010, 2011, 2012) at this conference. The agency transformation topic is informed and motivated by Cindi’s doctoral dissertation research, conducted when she was a graduate student in Natural Resources. Ashley Dayer (PhD candidate) participated in the workshop.
Department staff and graduates also contributed to a conference special session titled “Integrating Human Dimensions Knowledge and Wildlife Disease Management.” The session was organized by Professor Shawn Riley (PhD ’98 and former postdoc in the Human Dimensions Research Unit) and Shauna Hannisch. Two of the four featured paper presentations were either given by or included DNR staff as coauthors. Dr. Bill Siemer (PhD ‘09), research associate in the Human Dimensions Research Unit, reported on a study he, Sr. Research Associate Bruce Lauber (PhD ‘96), Dan Decker and Shawn Riley are working to identify fish and wildlife health management capacity needs for state agencies. Dr. Margaret Wild, chief of the wildlife health program for National Park Service gave a paper on the communication considerations associated with a “one health” approach to wildlife health management, co-authored with Dan Decker and others. Dan Decker wrapped up the special session with summary comments that emphasized the need for integrating research-based human dimensions knowledge into policy, planning and practice for wildlife disease management, and also reinforced the need to be deliberate in communicating about wildlife disease so as to avoid unwarranted magnification of public risk perceptions.
Additionally, Phd candidate Ashley Dayer contributed to bird conservation meetings at the conference. She serves on the Council for Partners in Flight (www.partnersinflight.org). This invitation-only body makes decisions to guide the activities of the international land bird conservation initiative. Ashley also presented in the Partners in Flight/Waterbird/Shorebird Working Group on the results of a webinar series she led to aid state agency employees in learning about bird conservation tools and resources. With tight budgets, agency staff are increasingly limited in their ability to travel, making such innovative approaches to connect and share resources essential.
The 2011 Annual Report has now been posted!
Hold your mouse over the Publications Tab above and click on "Annual Report"
Fall 2011
Professor Dan Decker, director of HDRU, is currently co-chair for an international human dimensions conference, organizing a plenary session for that conference, and is serving with HDRU Senior Research Associate Bruce Lauber as co-editor of an associated special issue of the Human Dimensions of Wildlife journal. The conference will take place in Breckenridge, Colorado, September 24-27, 2012 and is a cooperative effort between Cornell University and Colorado State University. The conference theme is “Contributions of Human Dimensions to Adaptive Capacity for Fish and Wildlife Conservation.”
Dan Decker is also currently involved in multiple outreach workshops for fish and wildlfie professionals. He has worked with Cindi Jacobson (MS and PhD from Natural Resources) John Organ (both with US Fish and Wildlife Service), as well as Chris Smith (Wildlife Management Institute) to develop a third workshop in their series at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference on “Transforming State Fish and Wildlife Agencies.”
The 2012 workshop is focused on Perspectives from Outside the Tent Looking In: Enhancing State Wildlife Agencies’ Impact on the Future of Wildlife Conservation.” The objective of this workshop is to identify challenges and opportunities for collaboration in wildlife conservation and strategies leading to effective wildlife resource governance. The workshop focus is on how potential conservation partners (NGOs, federal and local governments, etc.) for State Wildlife Agencies see the direction of needed state agency transformation. Dan is also planning a series of workshops for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on “Thinking Like a Manager,” “Implications of the Public Trust Doctrine for State Fish and Wildlife Agencies” and “Human Dimensions integration in Fish and Wildlife management through Impact Management.”
Associate Professor Richard C. Stedman, associate director of HDRU, was recently awarded (as part of the Cornell Cooperative Extension team) the David J. Allee and Paul R. Eberts Community and Economic Vitality Award for work related to Marcellus shale.
Rich Stedman is also the Cornell University representative on a National Science Foundation proposal: People, water, and climate: Predicting change, response, and adaptation in socio-ecological systems (Water Sustainability & Climate). If successful, HDRU would be involved in a basin wide study of linkages between ecological and social change, which fits nicely with current Army Corps and Great Lakes Fisheries projects.
Associate Professor Shorna B. Allred, associate director of HDRU, is involved in multiple workshops and webinars including a Cornell Cooperative Extension Workshop that held October 14 titled “Fostering Community Engagement in Urban Forestry: A Practical Toolkit for Educators.” Others include “Ties to the Land Workshops” and webinars and Climate Atlas Webinars with Cooperative Extension Associates Kristi Sullivan and Gary Goff.
Other ongoing HDRU projects (a sample) include:
- Increasing the Effectiveness of Fish Consumption Advisories in the Great Lakes States
- Building Local Capacity for Environmental Resources Conservation in the Face of Change
- Assessing Agency Capacities to Manage Fish and Wildlife Health
- Developing knowledge to manage economic, health, and safety risks of wildlife for individuals and communities in New York
- Human dimensions knowledge to manage wildlife habituation in national parks
- New York State Woodland Owners and Their Interest in Woody Biofuels
