Land Use & Open Space Conservation

Fellow Story

Shi launches Adaptive Land Lab at Cornell

The Adaptive Land Lab aims to reveal how current institutions contribute to unjust and unsustainable adaptation to enable policy reforms that redress underlying causes of societal vulnerability to climate change.
May 5, 2022
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Lerman receives ESA Sustainability Science Award

The award from the Ecological Society of America recognizes the authors of the scholarly work that makes the greatest contribution to the emerging science of ecosystem and regional sustainability through the integration of ecological and social sciences.
May 3, 2022
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Hamilton's maps of at-risk biodiversity in America featured in New York Times

“There are hundreds of species known to be globally critically imperiled or imperiled in this country that have no protection under federal law and often no protection under state law,” said Healy Hamilton. These maps show the places in the U.S. most likely to have plants and animals at high risk of global extinction.
March 16, 2022
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Jensen publishes op-ed on rooftop solar supporting land conservation

Nick Jensen and colleague Laura Deehan write in the Sacramento Bee that California has the power to meet a large portion of its renewable energy goals without disturbing important habitats and open space.
March 5, 2022
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McElwee paper assesses cultural ecosystem services in Vietnam

Cultural ecosystem services provide multiple benefits to people through material and non-material means. There have been few studies of CES in Vietnam, despite a number of traditions that have long influenced landscape values and management.
February 9, 2022
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Jensen quoted in the Guardian and LAist on lawsuit against Tejon Ranch development

“We know that under the right conditions, houses will burn, and people will be faced with the tragedy of losing their houses, their livelihoods and potentially their lives,” said Nick Jensen. “Are these projects really worth it?”
February 7, 2022
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2021 Switzer Fellows Book List

Check out the books authored, edited or co-authored by Switzer Fellows in 2021 and dive into topics such as Indigenous teachings, the biology of climate change and sustainable urban planning.
January 27, 2022
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Patterson quoted in Grist about Detroit highway removal and reparations

“Throughout the country, urban freeways were routed through Black neighborhoods, resulting in the malicious division and forced displacement of Black neighborhoods, as well as local Black economies,” said Regan Patterson.
January 6, 2022
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‘We scientists engage in soft diplomacy’: Mongabay Q&A with Christine Wilkinson

Christine shares why hyenas get such a bad rap, her dream of a solar-powered camera-trap grid, and her work bringing together other African American scientists in mammalogy.
January 6, 2022
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Wheeler authors Reimagining Sustainable Cities: Strategies for Designing Greener, Healthier, More Equitable Communities

The book argues that structural change in institutions and socioeconomic systems and a creative process of design—including design of institutions and social structures as well as physical places—is necessary to move towards urban sustainability.
December 14, 2021