The Ecology Center at Utah State University hosts Dr. Lisa Schulte-Moore this Wednesday and Thursday as part of its 2015-2016 Seminar Series. Schulte-Moore, an associate professor of Natural Resource Ecology and Management at Iowa State University, studies the ecology of sustainable land management through the lens of coupled human and natural systems.
She describes it this way,
"It’s about the global footprint of agriculture and what we can do to make it a better, more resilient, more efficient agriculture that works for all people on the planet today and then into the future."
To help conceptualize what she means, imagine inserting little patches of native prairie between rows of corn on an Iowa farm. Even converting just a small proportion of farmland back to prairie can provide much needed habitat for songbirds. It can benefit soil and water quality. It could even provide economic benefit to farmers. That is the focus of much of Schulte-Moore's work.
“We know that the prairie provides all these benefits. Can we integrate it into commercial farm fields such that we’re actually producing these environmental benefits, while at the same time raising the overall profitability of that field for the farmer?”
Dr. Schulte-Moore will be giving two talks this week on the campus of Utah State University. On Wednesday evening she will give a research presentation entitled “Tweak, adapt, transform: growing a resilient agriculture in Iowa and beyond.” Thursday afternoon she will discuss using the prairie strips mentioned above as a farmland conservation practice. Both talks will be open to the public.
Asked what she was most excited to share with the people of Cache Valley, Schulte-Moore had this to say,
"I think we’re in the process of revolutionizing agriculture here, and I’m excited to get the word out that we can do agriculture a lot more sustainable than we are doing it today. We’re building that research basis to have vibrant agriculture for the future."
The Ecology Center at Utah State University hosts visiting researchers throughout the year. A complete list of upcoming talks, as well as videos of past talks, can be found at their website.
Event Details:
Lisa Schulte-Moore, Iowa State University
- Tweak, adapt, transform: growing a resilient agriculture in Iowa and beyond
February 10, 2016 at 6:00 PM in ENGR 103 - Prairie STRIPS: from research to action
February 11, 2016 at 4:00 PM in ENGR 108
