Environmental Science and Policy

Professor Reflects on Role at the Council of Economic Advisers in D.C.

After memorable encounters with the president and collaborating with some of the world’s top economic experts, Frances C. Moore, an associate professor with the Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP), is shedding light on the relationship between research and real-world decision-making.

Reforms Needed to Expand Prescribed Burns

Prescribed fire, which mimics natural fire regimes, can help improve forest health and reduce the likelihood of catastrophic wildfire. But this management tool is underused in the fire-prone U.S. West and Baja California, Mexico, due to several barriers. 

A paper from the University of California, Davis, pinpoints those obstacles and suggests four key strategies that policymakers and land managers can take to get more “good fire” on the ground in North America’s fire-adapted ecosystems. The paper also provides examples of how people are surmounting some of these obstacles.

Aquatic Ecologist Mary Jade Farruggia Wins Graduate Student Prize

Mary Jade Farruggia, a Ph.D. candidate with the Graduate Group in Ecology, is this year’s recipient of the Neal Van Alfen and James MacDonald Graduate Student Award for her outstanding academic performance and dedication to service and leadership.

This $7,500 award was established to honor the contributions of former dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Dean Van Alfen, and former executive associate, Dean MacDonald.

Unprecedented Levels of High-Severity Fire Burn in Sierra Nevada Forests

High-severity wildfire is increasing in Sierra Nevada and Southern Cascade forests and has been burning at unprecedented rates compared to the years before Euro-American settlement, according to a study from the Safford Lab at the University of California, Davis, and its collaborators. Those rates have especially shot up over the past decade. 

To Save California’s Whales, Put Overlooked Threats Into Policy

Whales are threatened by a variety of human activities off the West Coast of the United States, including fishing, ship traffic and pollution. Overlap between these stressors can compound effects on whale populations, but are rarely addressed by current whale-protection policies in California, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. 

UC Davis Researchers Collaborating on Project to Help Farmers Improve Fertilization and Irrigation Practices

UC Davis researchers are collaborating with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources on a project to help farmers in the state improve their fertilization and irrigation practices. CDFA received $2 million from the USDA for a three-year project that includes sending seven UC Cooperative Extension personnel to the San Joaquin Valley to perform education and demonstration projects, provide on-farm consultation and conduct outreach activities to promote locally appropriate best practices.

A Fixed-Effort Fishery More Sustainable for Economy and Environment

Study Considers Food Web, Extinction Cascades and Human Dynamics

For a truly sustainable fishery, more needs to be considered than just the abundance of the harvested species. Harvesting even abundant species can create indirect extinction cascades down the food web that can harm the long-term economic and ecological sustainability of a fishery. 

That is according to a study from the University of California, Davis, published today in the journal Science Advances.