Author: Josh Blake

Coalition Building in the Blackfoot Watershed – Salma Huque

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My research project this academic year, in collaboration with fellow Ucross researcher Owen Luo, is to estimate the economic benefits of the Blackfoot Challenge’s public-private partnerships on the local community. The Blackfoot Challenge is a Western Montana nonprofit working with private landowners to undertake collaborative conservation and stewardship solutions. In contrast to the physical conservation Read more about Coalition Building in the Blackfoot Watershed – Salma Huque[…]

Investigating Producer Responses to Grasshopper Outbreaks on Western Rangelands

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UHPSI research assistants, Alexia Zolenski and Jack Newman, are investigating producer (farm and ranch) responses to grasshopper and Mormon cricket outbreaks in central and eastern Montana and eastern Oregon. Every year, grasshopper and Mormon cricket outbreaks cause significant economic damage and defoliation to western rangelands. Simultaneously, the strategies employed in managing these outbreaks, from pesticide Read more about Investigating Producer Responses to Grasshopper Outbreaks on Western Rangelands[…]

Assessing Economic Benefits of Natural Resource Stewardship Investments in Western Montana

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UHPSI Research Assistants Owen Luo and Salma Huque are working with the Blackfoot Challenge to quantify the economic benefits of their conservation investments in the local community. The Blackfoot Challenge is a non-profit based in Ovando, Montana that brings together private landowners and public agencies to protect natural resources in the Blackfoot River Watershed. Their Read more about Assessing Economic Benefits of Natural Resource Stewardship Investments in Western Montana[…]

Ecosystems of Reform: Comparing Water Reallocation Strategies in the Western US and South Africa – Alaina Geibig

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At the edge of the Atlantic, the blackened sea gave way to sandstone remnants of an ancient river valley floor, now suspended impossibly in the sky. These were the same Table Mountain monuments I saw twelve hours before. With boarding pass in hand, passengers filed down the metal jet bridge fashioned with askew glossy photos of dream destinations, including (most appropriately) Cape Town.   South Africa greeted me with golden Read more about Ecosystems of Reform: Comparing Water Reallocation Strategies in the Western US and South Africa – Alaina Geibig[…]

Op-Ed Published in the SL Tribune: Making the Case to Rename Mormon Crickets – Li Murphy

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Yesterday, Yale School of the Environment student Li Murphy, a Western Resource Fellow with the Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative, published an op-ed in The Salt Lake Tribune calling for a rethinking of how we name and relate to “Mormon crickets” in the American West. The piece explores the ecological, cultural, and political stakes of Read more about Op-Ed Published in the SL Tribune: Making the Case to Rename Mormon Crickets – Li Murphy[…]

Some Favorites from a Summer in the Field – Isabella Goodman

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This past summer I drove from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to Marfa, Texas. This wasn’t your typical summer road trip. This was a field work campaign where we sampled herbaceous biomass (grasses and forbs) and collected soil samples to estimate aboveground net primary production and radiation use efficiency along a latitudinal temperature gradient.    During this field Read more about Some Favorites from a Summer in the Field – Isabella Goodman[…]

A Legal System for Everyone: My Summer at Cottonwood Environmental Law Center – Bella Amell

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As the first in my family to attend college, the legal system is admittedly very intimidating to me. Even considering going to law school feels like a massive undertaking. An undertaking that I, as someone born and raised in a small town, feel massively underprepared to take on. The pre-law students I know are mostly Read more about A Legal System for Everyone: My Summer at Cottonwood Environmental Law Center – Bella Amell[…]

Clipping My Way Through the Sagebrush Sea – Jianing Tian

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Fieldwork always sounds romantic and serene from the outside: wide open skies, fresh air and soft breezes, fragrant sagebrush, and a mischievous choir of tiny creatures. But when your main task is clipping grasses and forbs for biomass, the reality is often more like an endurance activity, especially when you’re up against certain “special” plants Read more about Clipping My Way Through the Sagebrush Sea – Jianing Tian[…]

From the Field to the Lab Furnace: Wrapping Up Soil Sampling in Wyoming – Myroslav Bur

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As summer winds down, so does the fieldwork portion of my research in Pinedale, Wyoming. The past weeks have been filled with long days in the sun, navigating sagebrush, and collecting soil samples from gas fracking sites—but the lab work is just beginning. With field sampling complete, I’m now turning to the lab phase at Read more about From the Field to the Lab Furnace: Wrapping Up Soil Sampling in Wyoming – Myroslav Bur[…]

Reciprocity & the Research Process – Carine Rofshus

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Pueblo pottery signifies a reciprocal relationship between humans and clay, which is considered a sacred gift from Mother Earth. Before gathering clay, permission is asked, a prayer, and an offering are given to the Earth. Nuch-ochu-quijo, Unripe-earth-old-lady, then joins the potter in the creation process to form a new being, who takes its form as Read more about Reciprocity & the Research Process – Carine Rofshus[…]

First Month in the Field and Yellowstone Trip – Myroslav Bur

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My first time stepping onto the soil of sagebrush-dominated steppe was a breathtaking experience for me, someone who grew up among the limitless forests of northern Ukraine. The contrast between this arid, open, mountainous landscape and the dense woods commonly observed during my entire lifetime still leaves me with admiration. Seeing the Wind River Range Read more about First Month in the Field and Yellowstone Trip – Myroslav Bur[…]

Mormon Cricket Virtual Reality and My Fieldwork Roadside Reality Show (with an Audience of Usually No One) – Li Murphy

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They Call Me the Cricket Drifter This summer, I’m investigating the behavioral ecology of Anabrus simplex, also known, perhaps regrettably, as the Mormon cricket*. Locally, I’ve become known as “The Cricket Lady” and, more dubiously, “The Bug Gut Drifter,” thanks to an experiment involving a slick of hemolymph and my truck during a rainstorm. (A Read more about Mormon Cricket Virtual Reality and My Fieldwork Roadside Reality Show (with an Audience of Usually No One) – Li Murphy[…]

Estimating Herbaceous ANPP with the Monteith Model: Filtering Shrubs Using STL—Jianing Tian

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Over the past few months, I have been working on the estimation of aboveground net primary production (ANPP) of herbaceous plants in the Jonah Field, Wyoming. To achieve this, I applied the Monteith model, which relates plant productivity to absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR), incident solar radiation (PAR) and radiation use efficiency (RUE). Specifically, I Read more about Estimating Herbaceous ANPP with the Monteith Model: Filtering Shrubs Using STL—Jianing Tian[…]

Environmental Law as a Catalyst for Justice: Bridging Legal Frameworks and Grassroots Advocacy in Bozeman, Montana – Bella Amell

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This summer, Bella is working with Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit organization based in Bozeman, Montana. Cottonwood aims to protect the people, forests, water, and wildlife of the American West primarily through conversation lawsuits and educational campaigns. Her work is focused on prosecuting the Yellowstone Club for dumping treated sewage into the Gallatin River, Read more about Environmental Law as a Catalyst for Justice: Bridging Legal Frameworks and Grassroots Advocacy in Bozeman, Montana – Bella Amell[…]

Ceramics is to Clay: Pueblo Connections to the Environment and Cultural Continuity – Carine Rofshus

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Pueblo pottery is a tangible element of ancestral ties to place and cultural continuity that is used to protect cultural landscapes. These landscapes face ongoing threats due to environmental contamination, energy development, and water management initiatives. Carine’s research aims to understand the reciprocal relationship between ceramics and the environment through understanding the process-of-making pottery as Read more about Ceramics is to Clay: Pueblo Connections to the Environment and Cultural Continuity – Carine Rofshus[…]