InsideESFFall 2008

The Magazine of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Lights, Camera, Science!ESF delves into the science in the movies.

2 Campus Update

6 Life’s Detours Don’t Deter HerAn ESF graduate learns lessons from life’s challenges while helping the poor.

8 As They Grow,Pollution ShrinksWillow might be the Army’s secret weaponto clean up contaminated soil.

12 Celluloid ScienceESF faculty members take on Hollywood byseparating fact from fiction.

18 A New HouseA new educational institute finds a home in the Masten House.

20 CoyotesHigh-tech tools are being usedto gauge the effect of coyoteson the environment.

Contents

InsideESFSUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr., President

Robert C. French, Vice President forEnrollment Management and Marketing

Office of Communications122 Bray Hall315-470-6644www.esf.edu/communications

EditorClaire B. Dunn

Art DirectorWendy P. Osborne

Staff WriterKaren B. Moore

ProductionVance M. Blackburn

Office StaffPeggy Olrich

Inside ESF is produced by the Office of Communications ofthe State University of New York College of EnvironmentalScience and Forestry.

www.esf.edu

New bike racks were installed on the east end of Illick Hall aspart of the campus master plan. The new hanging racks arelocated under an overhang so they keep students’ bikes dryduring inclement weather.

Led by class marshals Daniele Baker,environmental and forest biologymajor, and Christopher Schalk,environmental science major, ESFgraduates process onto the floorof the Carrier Dome during May 11commencement exercises. For morecommencement photos, see page 8.

Photo opposite page by John Faranact, photo top by Wendy P. Osborne

Printed on recycled paper.

On the cover: Photo illustration by Wendy P. Osborne

Fall 2008 1

ESF has, for the eighth year in a row, earned a placeamong the top universities in America, as ranked byU.S.News & World Report.

In the “Great Schools, Great Prices” category of the 2009edition of America’s Best Colleges, ESF is ranked 15th. Theformula used in that category relates a school’s academicquality to the net cost of attendance for a student whoreceives the average level of need-based financial aid. ESFis the only SUNY institution listed in this category.

ESF is listed at 37 among the top 50 public nationaluniversities, and at 83 in the list of best national universi-ties, which includes both public and private institutions.

“ESF is very pleased with our recognition in the U.S.News& World Report rankings of national universities,” PresidentCornelius B. Murphy, Jr., said. “We are most proud of ourlisting of 15th in the category of ‘Great Schools, Great Prices.’To be in the company of the University of Virginia, Brown,Emory and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hillvalidates the work of our faculty and staff and supports thecontributions of our outstanding students.” n

Fall 2008 32 InsideESF

Campus Update

Letters to the Editor

‘Most complete and comprehensive’I just received and read, cover to cover, the

Spring 2008 edition of Inside ESF. It is the mostcomplete and comprehensive coverage, that Ihave seen, concerning definitions, observations andinterpretations of being “green,” in particular, andenvironmental concerns in general.

Robert W. Carpenter, ’54Monson, Mass.

‘We expect your support’It seems that daily, we as representatives of

the “greater forest industry,” have to debunk wildaccusations regarding the use of the most sustain-able natural resource on earth — trees. I have justfinished reviewing Inside ESF and imagine mychagrin when I saw on Page 4 that the College ofEnvironmental Science and Forestry recommends“Baby steps to shrink your carbon footprint,”limiting the use of paper bags, paper cups, paperpackaging and paper products.

Please consider the “tree-mendous” impactyour words carry when ESF suggests that “27 mil-lion trees a year are cut down for paper towels,”and in the same breath endorses wood use forpower generation. Is there a difference here that Iam missing? Do you honestly believe that thesewords won’t in some small way hurt our effortsto make common sense prevail during the current“Green Revolution”?

We expect your support on these issues. Thepublic looks to you as leaders in the field of “wiseuse” of natural resources. Please, there are enoughvoices crying out to change things (make them“greener”), who have limited science education intheir backgrounds.

David W. NortonSmurfit-Stone Container Corp.Madison, Fla.

We invite letters to the editor.* You can email yourcomments to InsideESF@esf.edu or mail them tous at:Inside ESFSUNY-ESF122 Bray Hall1 Forestry DriveSyracuse, N.Y., 13210-2778

*Inside ESF reserves the right to edit letters for contentor length.

Once a Butter Sculpture;Now Fuel in the Tank

Nine hundred pounds of butter, sculpted intoa cow jumping over the moon and positioned asa centerpiece attraction at the New York StateFair, ended up fueling ESF’s vehicle fleet.

The College, in collaboration with the Ameri-can Dairy Association and Dairy Council, Inc.,and the Onondaga County Resource RecoveryAgency, made the butter into biodiesel at theon-campus production facility, which routinelymakes biodiesel from used cooking oil obtainedfrom Syracuse University.

Graduate student Dan Nicholson said theconversion process took about a week. He saidnine pounds of butter make about a gallon ofbiodiesel, so this year’s 900-pound sculptureyielded some 90 gallons of biodiesel. n

ESF students are walking to class thisfall via new walkways around the quad,new outdoor stairways, and new —and more environmentally friendly —entrances at Illick and Marshall hallsand Moon Library.

The bridge entrance to F. FranklinMoon Library is now surfaced withFlexi-Pave, a 50-percent ratio ofstone and recycled tires mixed witha urethane binder. Underneath theFlexi-Pave is a Warm Zone heatingsystem to eliminate snow and ice inthe winter. Flexi-Pave is porous, so rainand melting snow flow through to theground instead of producing puddlesor runoff. Installation of this systemmeans salt and sand won’t be neededand that will help protect the newlyrefurbished library.

“We’re thrilled to think that the snowwill magically melt before our studentsreach the library front door! This shouldhelp keep our newly renovated spacelooking fresh and clean for years tocome,” said Elizabeth Elkins, directorof College libraries.

Flexi-Pave and new bicycle storageracks were also installed at Illick andMarshall halls.

The southeast corner of Illick Hall isthe location for a new bioretentionbasin made up of soil and plants, wherea third of the rainwater from the roofwill be diverted. The idea, suggested bya class project, is to demonstrate howrunoff can be controlled so stormdrainage systems are not overwhelmedduring heavy rains.

“What we’re doing is diverting rain-water from the roof of Illick Hall to thebioretention basin instead of the stormsewers. Plants will use the water, evap-oration will return water to the atmos-phere, and excess water will be filteredthrough the soil before entering thenatural environment,” explained ESFecological engineer Douglas Daley.

The plants include spice bush, choke-berry, Virginia sweetspire, witchhazel,and sweet bay magnolia, which are allvery tolerant of wet soil.

Another rainwater diversion projectis being installed as part of the renova-tion work on Baker Laboratory. Four1,000-gallon storage tanks have beeninstalled in the basement of Baker Labto collect rainwater from the roof. Thewater will be used in the building’scooling towers. n

Walking the Walk

A Word fromthe NWF

The National WildlifeFederation (NWF) laudedESF in its Campus Environ-ment 2008 Report Card.

The report recognized240 campuses for makingprogress on sustainability.ESF was cited for settingenvironmental goals andfor students taking coursesabout sustainability.

The NWF surveyed morethan 1,000 colleges anduniversities about an arrayof topics related to theenvironment.

Greener pathways and a rain garden greet students

Great Schools, Great Prices —ESF Ranked 15th Nationally

Photos by Wendy P. OsbornePhoto top by Karen B. Moore, photos at bottom courtesy of Karin Limburg

A study of Stone Age fish unearthed onan island in the Baltic Sea suggests overfish-ing by humans is causing fish populationsto evolve and driving commercially valuablespecies like cod to the brink of economicextinction.

In a report published this summer in theBritish scientific journal, Proceedings of theRoyal Society B, ESF’s Dr. Karin Limburg andher colleagues reported that 4,500-year-oldearstones, known scientifically as otoliths,and vertebrae from Baltic cod found in apre-Viking settlement on the Swedish islandof Gotland indicate the fish harvested byNeolithic fishers were older and larger thanthose hauled in by 21st century trawlers.

Limburg, a fisheries ecologist who is thepaper’s lead author, described the status ofthe cod fishery in the Baltic as “dire.”

“It’s such an overfished system,” Limburgsaid. “The big concern is that overexploita-tion is causing the fish to evolve. The findingthat humans can actually cause evolution offish populations, which in turn can drivetheir degradation, is relatively new and isdrawing a lot of attention.

“Some fisheries, including that for cod,are now known to cause ‘juvenescence,’ orthe evolution of younger, smaller adult fish.The ecological and economic consequencesboth appear to be negative,” she said.

The findings were reported in one of twoscientific journals published by the RoyalSociety, the United Kingdom’s national acad-

emy of science. Proceedings B publishes arti-cles about the biological sciences.

For the full story, go to:www.esf.edu/communications/news/2008/08.27.balticcod.htm. n

Overfishing Causes ‘Dire’ Conditions for Baltic Cod

Graduate students Ryan Tappel and Jessica Hatchhelp disassemble the butter sculpture.

Fall 2008 54 InsideESF

CampusUpdate

ESF Professor Honoredfor Excellence inTeaching

Dr. Alexander Weir, ESFassociate professor in theDepartment of Environ-mental and Forest Biology,has been honored by aprofessional organizationfor excellence in teaching.

Weir received theMycological Society ofAmerica’s (MSA) WilliamH. Weston Jr. Award forExcellence in Teaching. The award is given annually to an out-standing teacher of mycology at the undergraduate and/or grad-uate levels.

In one of the many supporting nomination letters, a formerstudent wrote, “(Weir) is not only passionate about mycology, he is dedicated to his students, he genuinely loves to teach, andhe creates a positively infectious atmosphere toward the studyof fungi and their relationships to ecosystem functioning.”

The William H. Weston Jr. Award for Excellence in Teachingis named for the first president of the MSA, who was an inspira-tional teacher at Harvard University.

Another ESF faculty member, Dr. Chun Wang, won the awardin 1990, making ESF one of only two colleges to have had morethan one faculty member so recognized in the past 20 years.

Weir teaches mycology and diversity of plants. He is alsodirector of ESF’s Cranberry Lake Biological Station in theAdirondacks. n

Student ReceivesAcademic Honor

Daniele Baker of Hollidays-burg, Pa., was honored with theSUNY Chancellor’s Award forStudent Excellence during anApril ceremony in Albany, N.Y.

Baker received a Bachelor ofScience degree in environmentalbiology from ESF at its com-mencement ceremony in May.

Baker was presented with heraward during a ceremony at the Empire State Convention Center,where she received a framed certificate and a medallion, which wasworn at commencement.

Chancellor Award honorees excel both in academic achievementand in at least one of the following areas: leadership, athletics, com-munity service, creative and performing arts, or career achievement.

Baker was the student representative to the ESF Board ofTrustees, an orientation leader and mentor, and a member of theBaobob Society. She also worked on multiple research projects. n

ESF Names New Deanof Student Life andExperiential Learning

Dr. Cynthia Sedgwick has beenappointed dean of student life andexperiential learning at ESF.

Sedgwick holds a Ph.D. in highereducation administration from theUniversity of Virginia as well as amaster of arts degree in human resources management fromGeorge Mason University and a bachelor of arts degree in psy-chology from Hampton University.

Sedgwick comes to ESF from SUNY Binghamton, where shewas associate dean for assessment and special programs in theDivision of Student Affairs. Previously, she served as associatedean for academic affairs and administration in the WatsonSchool of Engineering and Applied Science at Binghamton andas director of Career Services at the University of Connecticut.

Sedgwick began her new position July 1.

ESF Names New Directorof Information Technology

Yuming Tung was appointedESF’s new director of informationtechnology.

Tung comes to ESF from Syra-cuse University, where he washead of Library Information Tech-nology Services. Prior to joiningSU in 1999, he held positions as

manager of network and systems at LeMoyne College and as sen-ior programmer/analyst at SUNY Upstate Medical University.

Tung holds a master of science degree in computer systemsand information science and a master of library science in libraryand information science, both from Syracuse University, as wellas a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from ShanghaiCollege of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.

Tung began his new position June 2.

Governor Appoints New Trustees to ESF BoardGov. David Paterson appointed three new members to ESF’s

board of trustees.Matthew J. Marko, Vita DeMarchi, and Thomas C. Buckel Jr.

have joined the volunteer 15-member board which providesdevelopment, support and oversight of the College.

Marko, of Syracuse, is senior project manager with Denver-based CH2M Hill. DeMarchi, of Manlius, is president and chiefexecutive officer of Synapse Risk Management, LLC. Buckel, ofSyracuse, is a partner with Hancock & Estabrook, LLP.

Jorge Barbosa, a senior environmental and forest biologymajor, will serve as the student representative to the board.

Three ESF employees were honored by InterimChancellor John B. Clark for their service to the StateUniversity of New York.

Associate Professor Cheryl S. Doble received theChancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service. Theaward recognizes the consistently superior service con-tributions of teaching faculty. Doble, a faculty memberin the Department of Landscape Architecture since 1993,specializes in community planning and design, citizenparticipation, and site planning and design graphics.

She established the Center for Community DesignResearch (CCDR) within ESF’s Department of LandscapeArchitecture. The CCDR is an outreach program thatworks in partnership with communities and other

academic programs, to provide technical assistance,educational programs, and research projects that buildcommunity capacity to manage sustainable futures.

Dr. Christopher Nowak, associate professor in theDepartment of Forest and Natural Resources Manage-ment, was honored with the Chancellor’s Award forExcellence in Teaching. This award honors those whoconsistently have demonstrated superb teaching at theundergraduate, graduate or professional level.

Since joining the ESF community in 1998, Nowakhas provided a rigorous professional approach in theclassroom and field, facilitating a positive learningexperience for students and promoting intellectualdialogue. He regularly teaches both undergraduate andgraduate courses in forest science including forestecology and silviculture, Adirondack forest ecologyand dendrology, and forest vegetation management,as well as focused seminars in forest ecology.

John Turbeville received the Chancellor’s Award forExcellence in Professional Service. The award recognizesconsistently superior professional achievement withinand beyond the position and those who serve as profes-sional role models for a university system in the pursuitof excellence.

Turbeville is coordinator of experiential learning andthe Academic Success Center and has been at ESF since2002. He was a driving force behind the establishmentof ESF’s new Academic Success Center that focuses ontutoring, academic guidance, and mentoring for under-graduate students. n

ESF Faculty, Staff Honored by Chancellor

CampusUpdate

Christopher Nowak, Cheryl S. Doble and John Turbeville

Photo top by Christopher McCarthy, LA ’11, photos bottom by Claire B. Dunn.

New Faces at ESF312 Freshmen Join Ranksof ESF Students

ESF welcomed a record freshman class of312 and 173 new transfer students for the2008-09 academic year.

The freshman class includes studentsfrom 19 states and sets a record for ESFenrollment from out of state, with 21 per-cent of the class coming from outside NewYork. The class marks one of the highestpercentages of out-of-state students in the64-campus SUNY system.

ESF received a record 1,545 applicationsfor the freshman class and accepted a recordlow 49 percent of those applicants. The Col-lege also received 643 applications fortransfer admission and accepted only 41percent of those applicants.

The academic quality of the enteringclass has also approached record levels thisfall. Sixty-five percent of ESF’s enteringfreshmen were ranked in the top quartile oftheir high school class, and 25 percent wereranked in the top tenth. The average highschool GPA was just over 90. n

Photos by Wendy P. Osborne

Alex Weir receives his award from Mary Berbee, chair ofthe Mycological Society of America Distinctions Committee.Photo courtesy of the Mycological Society of America©

Fall 2008 7

As Ana Maria Menezes envisioned the life she was workingtoward, it included some specific scenes: Be a lawyer. Get aPh.D. from Duke or Berkeley. Work for the World Bank.

Reality, however, did not play out that way. The educationalauthorities in her native Mozambique said, “No!” to a legalcareer and shunted her into science. The Fulbright scholarshipprogram said, “No!” to Duke and the University of California atBerkeley and directed her to a small school in Central NewYork, previously unheard-of by her. And days before she headedto Washington, D.C., to begin a consultancy with the WorldBank, her prospective employer said, “No!” and explained thatnepotism rules meant she could not be hired because she had arelative who worked there.

But Menezes remained undeterred. She had learned to see abumpy journey in life as a way to search for a dream.

In May, she crossed the stage at the Landmark Theatrein downtown Syracuse, Ph.D. in hand, on the next step of aprofessional journey that began in a poor country in south-eastern Africa. Her desire to be a lawyer started there, whenshe was a 12-year-old student in a re-education camp whereshe and some schoolmates were sent because they were con-sidered troublemakers.

Her current stop is Washington, D.C.,and a position with the United Nations’Food and Agricultural Organization,where she is searching for solutions to apotential global fish crisis.

“I learned how to look at the past in apositive way and learned what couldhave been done better,” she said a fewdays after receiving her doctorate inenvironmental and natural resources policy from ESF. “Life is full of upsand downs, and I challenge myself every day to accept the good of lifeand preserve and cherish it, but also the not-so-good, as a way to learn alesson and move on in the right direction.”

At the request of the FAO, Menezes is doing work that grew out ofher doctoral dissertation: studying the connection between naturalresource policies and poverty-reduction strategies in developing coun-tries. She will focus on artisanal fisheries.

“People’s lives depend on artisanal fisheries. They have very littlechance to develop and to look for opportunities beyond their communi-ties. All this is related to poverty,” she said. “In our country, less than 0.5percent of the artisanal fishers have a motorboat to go fishing. They goin a sailboat, or a small boat they power themselves. Some of them liveon less than 50 cents a day.”

The questions, she said, are these: At what point are the national andlocal policies converging to reduce poverty? And are the policies beingimplemented properly?

Menezes will also contribute to the FAO database, providing informa-tion about small-scale and commercial fisheries in Mozambique and otherAfrican nations, looking at factors that include employment, food fishproduction, fuel consumption and fish caught per ton of fuel. She willwork in collaboration with the World Bank’s PROFISH program, which aimsto promote effective fisheries strategies and policies both locally andglobally, and the WorldFish Center, which works internationally toresearch and improve small-scale fisheries and aquaculture.

Menezes laughs now when she thinks about her initial reaction to theFulbright program’s interest in having her enroll at ESF. Fulbright officialscaught her off guard, contacting her after previously rejecting her appli-cation. Menezes wasn’t sure she wanted to do it. She was past her 40thbirthday and was reluctant to undertake the rigors of a Ph.D. program.

“I said, ‘I’m not going to apply. I don’t want to do it.’ Then: ‘Well,when is the interview?’ They said, ‘Tomorrow.’”

She went to the interview and insists it was the worst such meetingof her life.

“I mixed English, Spanish, French, somePortuguese, you name it,” she said, leavingout only Italian, her fifth language.

This time, the Fulbright program offeredher a scholarship. Menezes immediately sether sights on Duke or Berkeley. But the Ful-bright program wanted her to come to ESF.

A conversation with Dr. Richard Smardon,professor in ESF’s Department of Environ-mental Studies, convinced her ESF wasthe right choice. She intermingled herenvironmental policy studies with classesat the Maxwell School of Citizenshipand Public Affairs at neighboringSyracuse University.

“Ana is unique, and I don’t think wehave seen many Ph.D. students like her,” Smardon said.

“Ana has an inner sense of what is fair and what is not and will standup to anybody if she thinks someone has crossed the line. Some facultyand students alike have experienced this firsthand,” Smardon added.“She has a great sense of community and works tirelessly for the sake ofcommunity-building, whether it be cooking and arranging a social eventor mediating/initiating dialogue or developing new qualitative researchdesigns to access her research subjects back in Africa.”

Growing up in Mozambique, emerging from childhood in the mid-1970s, just as her country gained independence, Menezes dreamed ofbeing a lawyer. She had seen injustice firsthand at the re-educationcamp and she wanted to pursue a profession in which she could speakout for those whose voices are not heard.

Her country had other ideas.“Unfortunately, when time to go to college came, the administrators

of educational services decided that I did not have the political fiber andpolitical vision they thought necessary to study law,” said Menezes. “Fortheir political prejudice, I was forced to enroll in the School of Agricul-tural Engineering.”

Menezes found a niche helping communities by promoting ruraldevelopment and social justice.

“It was not really my passion when I began my career. But I found Icould help represent these people by teaching them the best way to usetheir natural resources,” she said.

Menezes researched the application of shrimp culture in Mozambiqueand led the nation’s Aquaculture Department. She pursued a master’sdegree at Auburn University, focusing on the effects of agricultural pes-ticides on marine life and intensive production systems for African tilapiaand catfish.

She decided that teaching about resource management policy can bejust as beneficial to the underprivileged as a legal career.

“I came to understand I could promote equity and economic andsocial justice by giving the power of what knowledge I have to rural

communities by teaching them their rights,the best practices of natural resource man-agement and the power of collectiveaction,” she said. “I ended up in a fieldwhere I can have it all, where I still canpromote justice, continuously learn andteach such values. And not just be — butbecome something more.”

Commencement 2008

Life’s DetoursDon’t Deter Her

by Claire B. Dunn

“Life is full of ups and downs, and Ichallenge myself every day to accept

the good of life and preserve andcherish it, but also the not-so-good,

as a way to learn a lesson andmove on in the right direction.”

Ana Maria Menezes

After Ana Maria Menezes’ country overruledher plans for a law career, ESF helped her

find another way to help the poor.

aCommencement photos by John Faranact, photo top by Wendy P. Osborne6 InsideESF Photo by John Faranact

Ana Maria Menezes participates in thecommencement weekend activities withESF faculty member Jack Manno andCollege President Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr.

Fall 2008 9

AS THEY

GROW,POLLUTION

SHRINKS

Nowak makes the statement as he weaves his way througha stand of graceful willows at the Army installation at Fort Drum,80 miles north of the ESF campus. It’s a blue-skied early summermorning, and the willows’ delicate leaves are backlit by a brilliantsun. The plants are healthy and growing fast, as willows areinclined to do.

As they soak up the sun’s energy, they are also busy suckingcontaminants out of the ground, helping to clean up a 164,000-gallon plume of fuel that has been spreading underneath theexpansive North Country military base since World War II.

Nowak believes it’s the largest phytoremediation effort —the process of using plants to remediate contaminated soils andgroundwater — in North America.

“The phytoremediation is actually the last step, the polishingof the system,” said Nowak, a professor in ESF’s Department ofForest and Natural Resources Management. “We’ve worked outhere for seven years.”

The willows are part of an aggressive cleanup strategy toremediate groundwater contamination caused by fuel that leakedfrom the tank farm along Fort Drum’s “Gasoline Alley.” The mil-itary installation, home to the Army’s 10th Mountain Division —

Light Infantry, covers more than 107,000 acres. This year, thebase is marking its 100th year as a military training site.

No one knows exactly when the leaks began — perhaps asearly as World War II — but they were discovered in 1988, whenthe petroleum, which had been spreading in an undergroundplume for many years, began to foul small creeks on the base.The plume has been flowing downhill under the Old SanitaryLandfill, which closed in the mid-1970s. It moved through thesandy soil left behind by the ancient Lake Iroquois, the fore-runner of Lake Ontario, and showed up in groundwater thatsurfaced as creeks in low-lying areas. The creeks were turningrusty brown with precipitated iron and bacteria as the petroleumsurfaced in “seeps” that brought groundwater to the surface.

Donald J. Beevers, the installation restoration project manager,who is employed with contractor Applied Services & InformationSystems at Fort Drum, said roughly $1 million has been spenton the remediation project. He estimated that constructing atreatment plant would have cost more than $8 million.

The goal is to develop a phytoremediation model that can betailored for use at similar sites across the United States.

“We want to transfer the technology,” Beevers said. “Thisisn’t the only Department of Defense landfill.”

Said Nowak: “This is just one military base of many, and itwas clear that what we are doing here could be applied else-where. It’s tailored phytoremediation.”

Nowak and his colleagues began with a small pilot plot,which expanded over the years to 2 acres. He has experimentedwith some 30 varieties of willow trees and shrubs to see whichones grow best.

Fifty years of fuel leaks.

Twenty-three thousand willows.

Eight million dollars saved.

“It doesn’t get any better than this,”says ESF’s Dr. Christopher Nowak.

8 InsideESF

Story and photos by Claire B. Dunn

Donald J. Beevers, left, and ESF’s Dr. Christopher Nowak survey thewillows that are helping to clean up the groundwater at Fort Drum.

Todd Wills, EFB ‘90

You never knowwhen you’llstumble acrossa stumpie

As a silviculturist, Nowak’s specialty is the care and tending of treecommunities. Part of the challenge in this case was finding a way forthe willows to grow in the contaminated soil. He settled on plantingboxes, bottomless wooden frames filled with soil that containedenough nutrients for the young plants to establish themselves beforethe roots reached soil that was soggy with petroleum-laced water.

It was a laborious task. His students lugged in enough soil to fillthe original 60 planting boxes. The expanded system has nearly 900planting boxes that were filled by contractors using a speciallydesigned machine to pump soil across the site.

Now the landscape is dotted with monitoring wells and piezometersthat track the level of the water table.

ESF is one of many partners in the project, which also involvesinstalling a new cap on the old landfill.

Nowak said the willows are a cost-effective, environmentallyfriendly way to treat the contamination.

“Photosynthesis drives the system. It’s a sun-driven system withtranspiration of water as the key,” he said. “Ecological engineeringprojects like this relinquish control to nature. Look, we’re gettingsedges and cattail in here. They came for free and are contributingto the phytoremediation.”

There are also asters, goldenrod and several grasses thriving amongthe willows. Protected by fencing from foraging deer, the willows areleafy and densely planted. The biggest ones absorb five gallons ofwater per day. At the quarter-acre site of the pilot project 5,000 to10,000 gallons of water per day are pumped from the site by the wil-lows. Without the willows, that water would flow into the creek.

The willows do their work naturally. Uptake of water lowers thewater table and allows roots to grow. Root systems create a habitatthat invites the presence of bacteria and fungi that break downcontaminants; the plant uses some of these molecules for its owngrowth; and willows recycle a lot of water back into the atmospherethrough transpiration, releasing some contaminants in greatlyreduced concentrations.

The goal is to reduce the volatile organic compounds, particularlythe concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes,the compounds of concern in petroleum-based fuel.

“The reason the contaminant stream is there is the training,”Nowak said. “It’s the cost of doing business for the Army.”

He said monitoring efforts indicate that the contaminant concen-trations are lower than they were before the willows were planted.

ESF’s many partners in the project include the Army Corpsof Engineers; the Army Environmental Command; consultants Mal-colm Pirnie Inc., Engineering and Environment Inc. and EA Engi-neering, Science and Technology Inc; and the New York stateDepartment of Environmental Conservation.

“For us, it’s fairly unique to have a university involved, but ESFhas the expertise,” Beevers said.

Nowak is on the verge of turning the willow plantations over to acontractor for long-term maintenance. But he will continue monitor-ing the site and using it as a learning opportunity for his students.

“It’s very attractive for students for work, research and learning.They can see that they’re really doing something to improve theirworld,” he said.

a rainy morning in May 2007,Todd Wills, EFB ‘90, was walking toward theEnvironmental Division offices at Fort Drum,N.Y., for an all-day meeting when someoneyelled, “Toad!” Wills stopped short. “Toad”was a nickname bestowed upon him byclassmates during his years at ESF.

He turned around and saw John Connell,EFB ’91, whom he hadn’t seen since gradua-tion. Connell, now a regulatory project man-ager for the New York District Army Corps ofEngineers, was in Northern New York dealingwith wetland mitigation issues at Fort Drum.The two men spent a few minutes catching upbefore heading to their respective meetings.

The chance meeting turned out to be asign of things to come.

Wills is a natural resources specialistwith Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firmin McLean, Va. He supports the Army Envi-ronmental Command. As part of a project todevelop a model integrated natural resourcesmanagement plan for the Department ofDefense, Wills brought a team to Fort Drumfrom Maryland. One of the team memberswas Jay Rubinoff, EFB ’86, a specialist inthreatened and endangered species for BoozAllen Hamilton.

At the conference table were representa-tives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,the New York state Department of Environ-mental Conservation and the Fort Drum Nat-ural Resources Branch. During the course of

presentations and discussions, someone atthe table made a reference to ESF. Within afew minutes, Wills discovered he was at anESF alumni reunion of sorts.

Representing the Fish and Wildlife Servicewere endangered species biologist RobynNiver, EFB ’97, and endangered species/fed-eral activities biologist Sandie Doran, EFB’94, M.S. ’99. Dick McDonald, EFB ’91, M.S.’93, an aquatic stewardship biologist, wasthere from the DEC. Representing Fort Drumwere Environmental Division Chief JamesMiller, M.S. ’90; National Environmental Pol-icy Act biologist Walker Heap, MPS ’02; fishand wildlife biologist Chris Dobony, EFB ’97;natural resources specialistDon Mahan, FNRM ’82;forestry program managerJason Wagner, EFB ’99, M.S.’00; and forester Travis Gan-ter, FNRM ’04.

Eleven of the 14 people atthe table were ESF alumni.

When the meeting andreminiscing ended, Wills metup with Tom Lent, DUAL ’91,manager of the Fort DrumIntegrated Training AreaManagement program. Thetwo were classmates at ESF.

“I told him about the highnumber of alums that werejust involved in the daylong

meeting and we talked for a while about howstumpies are scattered all over the countryand you never know when you’re going torun into one,” Wills said.

“So, whether you’re in a meeting, at aconference, at the mall, whatever, keep aneye out for your fellow stumpies. They’re outthere. All you have to do is look.”

Editor’s note: When Wills compiled theinformation for this story, he ran it past oneof his Booz Allen Hamilton colleagues, AaronSprouse, an environmental compliance spe-cialist and policy analyst. It should come asno surprise that among Sprouse’s credentialsis a bachelor’s degree from ESF: ES ’01.

Tell us about your ESF encountersDid you ever bump into a former ESF classmate in

an airport on a distant coast? Move in upstairs frompeople you recognize from a class in Marshall Hall? Orstart a new job and hear a co-worker talking aboutdoing fieldwork at Cranberry Lake Biological Station?If you’ve encountered another ESF graduate, or formerfaculty member or staff member in an unlikely place,or if you’re surrounded by former ESF people at work,Inside ESF wants to hear from you. The best storieswill be selected for publication in a future issue.Please send stories by e-mail to InsideESF@esf.eduor regular mail to: Inside ESF, SUNY-ESF, Office ofCommunications, 122 Bray Hall, Syracuse, NY 13210

Letters should be a maximum of 300 wordsand may be edited for length and clarity. Pleaseinclude an address and daytime phone number.

Fall 2008 11

On

Photo courtesy of Todd WillsNowak checks the progress of willows in planting boxes on wet ground.

“Look, we’re getting sedges and cattail in here.They came for free and are contributing to thephytoremediation,” said Chris Nowak.

10 InsideESF

Fall 2008 1312 InsideESF

You walk into the movie theatre. The smell of popcorn and butter waftsthrough. You find the perfect seat. The lights dim and you prepare to loseyourself in the magic of a Hollywood movie. There’s only one problem …Hollywood got the science wrong. We asked our ESF experts to review a slateof movies for us and tell us what the movies got wrong and, what they gotright. Think of it as Siskel and Ebert meets Stephen Hawking and Archimedes.

Assisted suicide and corporate-drivencannibalism aside, the thing that disturbsDr. Mark Meisner about the dystopian futureportrayed in the 1973 movie “Soylent Green”is the absence of nature in the lives of ordi-nary people.

“The loss of nature is soul-destroying,”said Meisner, an assistant professor in theDepartment of Environmental Studies andcoordinator of the undergraduate option inenvironmental communication and culture.

“Soylent Green” depicts a bleak world in2022: The villains are overpopulation andpollution. The victim is the natural world,which most people have never seen. Meatand produce are available only to the wealth-iest people; everybody else survives onprocessed wafers produced by the giganticSoylent Corp.

Charlton Heston plays a police detectivewho investigates a homicide and discoversSoylent Green wafers are made from theflesh of dead humans.

“The movie is meant as a warning,”Meisnersaid. “It addresses food shortages, globalwarming and increasing gaps in income, alongwith that isolation from nature. And, of course,all of these are things that we see in our worldnow. They are not as extreme as portrayed inthe movie, but are present today nonetheless.”

One of the most poignant scenes, in Meis-ner’s eyes, is when the character played byEdward G. Robinson (in his last movie) dis-covers what really goes into Soylent Greenwafers. In his despair, he chooses euthanasiaat a government facility. As he is dying from afatal injection, he is shown images of an idyl-lic forest: trees, running streams and animals.

“For 20 minutes, he watches movies aboutnature,” Meisner said. “It evokes the completeabsence of nature from people’s lives. It’s onlyin death that they have some access to amediated vision of nature. How sad is that?”

“Soylent Green” exemplifies producers’attempts to use film to make a point aboutenvironmental issues, Meisner said. It’s a filmin which scientific accuracy and advocacy arein tension, much like Roland Emmerich’s “TheDay After Tomorrow,” which portrays theapocalyptic effects of sudden climate change.

“Did they get the science right? Maybenot,” Meisner said, referring to “The Day AfterTomorrow.” “Did they get it right from thepoint of view of making an exciting movie?Did they get it right from the point of viewof raising awareness of the issue? If it raisesthe issue in the minds of the people, theyadvanced their goals.”

(For more on the science behind Emmerich’smovie, see “The Day After Tomorrow” page 15).

Meisner, founder and director of the Envi-ronmental Communication Network, maintainsa filmography of nature and environmentalmovies on his ECN Web site. At last count,there were nearly 200 movies on it, rangingfrom “Babe,” featuring a talking pig on asheep farm, to “A Civil Action,” based on thetrue story of a Massachusetts town whosewater supply was contaminated by pollution.

The environment appears in movies in rolessuch as villain, savior, victim or obstacle. It canbe sentimentalized, as in “Free Willy,” featur-ing an orca rescued from a shady amusementpark owner by a disadvantaged teenager.

There is the nature-as-mutant approach. (See“Prophecy,” page 19) There is the man-vs.-wilderness approach, in movies like “My Sideof the Mountain,” based on the Jean Craig-head George novel in which a boy from NewYork City takes off to the Catskills and livesalone in the trunk of an old hemlock.

But, despite the producers’ efforts, do fea-ture films really affect what people think?

“We can’t easily say one way or the other,”Meisner said.

Despite the box-office appeal of block-busters like “The Day After Tomorrow,” whichgrossed more than $500 million worldwide,Meisner said studies show feature films donot usually have a significant measurableimpact on public opinion.

One exception is “The China Syndrome,”the 1979 film that featured a barely containedaccident at a nuclear power plant in Califor-nia. The movie opened just 12 days before areactor overheated at the Three Mile IslandNuclear Generating Station, outside Harris-burg, Pa. Compounding the coincidence wasa line in the movie that said a nuclear melt-down could “render an area the size of Penn-sylvania permanently uninhabitable.”

The movie’s timing amplified the public’sanxiety about nuclear power, Meisner said,and familiarized viewers with some of theterminology used at nuclear power plants.Although not 100 percent accurate regardingthe science of such facilities, the film helpedfuel the no-nukes protests of the early 1980s.

For a scientist’s look at some other featurefilms, read on. But beware: Spoilers lurk.

‘Soylent Green’Co-stars Naturein the Roleof Victim

Spliced together by Karen B. Moore and Claire B. Dunn. Photo illustrations by Wendy P. Osborne Much like a human drama queen, themansion that stars in “The Money Pit”overacted a bit.

But despite the old house’s histrionics,one of ESF’s resident construction expertssaid the basic premise of the 1986 comedywas realistic.

“The overall intention of the movie —to indicate you can walk in and thinkthe place is great and then once you startpulling things apart, heaven knows whatyou’ll find — is certainly good,” saidKenneth J. Tiss, a lecturer in the Depart-ment of Construction Management andWood Products Engineering.

However, the details that provide comicmoments as the characters, Walter andAnna, played by Tom Hanks and ShelleyLong, try to tame a series of nightmares intheir dream house had Tiss shaking his head.

“There’s that one scene where one appli-ance after another is blowing up, it goes ina line right around the kitchen: first thetoaster, then the microwave, then the oth-ers, right around the room. That’s not goingto happen,” Tiss said. “Electrical fires hap-pen deep within the wall and lots of times,nobody even notices them at first.”

It’s possible nobody will notice a hole inthe floor, either, if it is covered with a rug.In “The Money Pit,” Hanks’ character, Wal-ter Fielding Jr. gets wedged in a gapinghole hidden under an area rug.

The presence of a hole at a work site isrealistic, Tiss said, because a builder might

leave an open spot in the floor for laterconstruction of a stairway or, during arenovation, to make it easier to dispose ofdebris. In fact, it’s common enough thatthe U.S. Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration, with which Tiss serves asan outreach instructor, has rules governinghow such holes are treated on a construc-tion site. But those rules do not includehiding holes with area rugs, as happenedin the movie.

A spectacular collapsing-scaffold scenealso took some liberties, Tiss said. Scaffold-ing is typically made of metal, not wood.In the rare event of a collapse, a scaffolddoes not go down in an eye-catching, pro-gressive fashion as does Walter and Anna’s.A scaffold would have been secured to thehouse. And perhaps most significantly, if ascaffold did collapse, there is little chancethat all the people who tumble downwould walk away unscathed.

“Normally, when scaffolds collapse,people get hurt big time,” he said.

But the challenges of renovating an oldhouse, managing a budget and sticking toa schedule are realistic, as experienced byanyone who has ever tackled a home-improvement project. As the house con-tinues to fall apart, Walter and Anna con-tinually ask the contractors how long thenext repair will take. The answer becomesa running gag: “Two weeks.”

“That is so true,” said Tiss. “It’s the oldadage: Buyer beware.”

Moral of ‘The Money Pit’:Homebuyers, Beware

“The movie is meant as awarning,”Meisner said. “Itaddresses food shortages,

global warming and increasinggaps in income, along withthat isolation from nature.”

Construction Management’s Ken Tiss takescover as he explains the pitfalls of makinga movie about home renovation.

“The movie was dramatically exhilarating!” saidDr. Theodore Endreny about “The Day After Tomorrow.”And what it lacks in meteorological accuracy it makesup for in special effects as climatologists race to save asmuch of North America’s population as possible beforean abrupt climate shift ushers in a new ice age.

In a speech before the United Nations Conference onGlobal Warming, paleoclimatologist professor Jack Hallwarns that global warming is a serious problem and anew ice age could happen in 100 to 1,000 years if actionisn’t taken now.

But polar melt has disrupted the warm North AtlanticCurrent and is affecting weather systems worldwide. Themassive climate change and new ice age are now onlyweeks, if not days, away. Hall knows this because his teamof crack scientists ran weather forecast models that toldthem about weather systems and their exact locations forweeks into the future.

“(Weather) forecast models are pretty accurate threeor four days out, but beyond that because of chaos theydegrade and become worse,” said Endreny, who taughtmeteorology in ESF’s Department of Environmental Re-sources and Forest Engineering. “So being able to predictwhere and when the storms emerge 16 weeks ahead isn’tgoing to happen.”

That is, unless you have Professor Hall’s modelingprogram.

“The model he used was another treasure in themovie,” said Endreny.

Hall uses a paleoclimatological modelbased on variables such as past records ofpollen and ice core temperatures, andthen he asks one of his team to “incorpo-rate storm scenarios” into the model.

“Storm simulations are very difficult.If you had a million dollars in NationalScience Foundation funding and monthsto put it together you might get some-thing, but they’re able to do it in 48hours,” said Endreny.

“They probably had NOAA (NationalOceanic Atmospheric Administration) cli-matologists drooling for his (Hall’s)code,” he said. “I’d like to have that teamjoin us as post-docs at ESF.”

Naturally, the situation is worse thaneveryone thought. The world doesn’thave 16 weeks, it has seven to 10 days asthe super storms batter the globe beforethe big freeze arrives. Tornadoes are rip-ping apart Los Angeles, hail is falling inJapan, it’s pouring in New York City, andNorthern Europe is experiencing recordstorms and snowfall. And there are threesuper-cell hurricanes moving over majorpopulation areas.

“The special effects capture the forceof nature accurately,” Endreny said, “but there are a num-ber of flagrant inaccuracies that would only concern sci-entists or engineers.”

If one ignores the laws of conservation of mass, thenthe storms might all take place. But since these superstorms need equal amounts of air going up as comingdown, so many storms close together — like the multipletornadoes that destroy Los Angeles — would rip eachother apart and cancel each other out, Endreny said.

A disaster movie just isn’t a disaster movie if the Statueof Liberty doesn’t take one on the chin. Here, Lady Libertyis up to her waist in ice. But for the water to get thathigh in New York Harbor, Endreny said, all the ice in theArctic would have to melt, which would take 2.5 years ofall the sun’s energy, which means “you’d have to tip theearth to do that.”

In one tension-filled scene, Hall’s son and a friend areracing through the famed New York Public Library on FifthAvenue, where they have taken refuge from the storm.They’re running from a massive cold front. It’s so cold —and so fast — that it is freezing the marble floors behindtheir footfalls.

“If the cold air is chasing them, what would cold movequicker through? Marble or air?” asked Endreny. Peskyscience aside, in the movie, the cold moves through themarble faster, creeping along the floors, up the columnsand across the walls as our heroes rush to the safety of aroom with a fireplace.

“The weather in the movie is so powerful it just startedtearing logic apart,” Endreny said.

Maybe it was a depiction of the revenge of natureor a metaphor for the fear of abandonment. It couldhave been a comment on the inevitability of chaosor the fragile state of humans’ existence on Earth.

Dr. Guy Baldassarre, an ornithologist in ESF’sDepartment of Environmental and Forest Biology,has his own take on Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 mas-terpiece thriller, “The Birds.”

“It’s Al,” he said, putting himself on a first-namebasis with the iconic filmmaker. “Al’s great. It’s hisimagination.”

Baldassarre’s EFB colleague Dr. William M. Shieldsconsidered that Hitchcock might have been warninghis viewers to care for the environment, lest theanimals unite and strike back.

“Even back in the ’60s, Alfred might have beenthinking that,” Shields said. “Or maybe he justthought birds looked scary.”

The presence of actual science in “The Birds,” whichfeatures mobs of agitated avian creatures inexplicablyattacking the clueless residents of a Northern Califor-nia town, was quickly dismissed when Baldassarre,ESF’s current ornithology professor, and Shields,who teaches animal behavior, got together to talkabout the movie.

“Basically, it’s all hocus-pocus,” Baldassarre said.“They would never attack people.”

“Never, ever, ever,” Shields continued. “They aremore likely to defecate on people.”

But that doesn’t stop the two educators fromadmiring Hitchcock’s 119 minutes of menacing gullsand evil-eyed crows: “Great movie, though,”Baldas-sarre said.

“Hitchcock picked the smartest and dumbest ofbirds,” Shields said. “Crows are exceptionally

intelligent, and sea gulls are extremelystupid. So it’s very interesting thathe picked one of each. Or maybehe planned it that way. I don’t know.”

“What species of gulls?” Baldassarre wondered.Shields: “California.”Baldassarre: “Probably.”Shields: “Not many people distinguish between

species of gulls, you know.”Baldassarre: “I’ve never looked to see if he has

different species mixed in there. I don’t think so.”There is a bit of truth in the movie, they said, but

it stretches reality. Both crows and gulls will fly at ahuman interloper and peck at the person’s head, butonly to protect a nest occupied by live young. Andone crow might be seen on a beach near a flock ofgulls, scavenging for the leftovers from a vaca-tioner’s lunch, but you won’t see flocks of bothspecies lined up on power lines together, look-ing sinister.

Hitchcock’s winged stars went fromsinister to downright terrifying, peckingtheir way into houses so they couldaim their beaks at the occupants.But the only bird that could survivesuch an attempt is the aptly namedwoodpecker. The built-in shockabsorbers in its head would prevent itfrom literally beating its brains out ona wooden shingle.

“Take that little bird that doesn’t weigh verymuch and have it try to peck its way into a house,”Shields said, pointing at a mounted crow he andBaldassarre had brought along for a photo shoot.“Its brain is going to go bang!, bang!, bang!, bang!,bang! inside its head. That’s called subduralhematoma and death for a crow.”

He gave the film another moment’sthought and concluded: “It’s not incon-ceivable that a suicidal bird and itscompatriots could peck its way intoa house and attack people. It’snot inconceivable at all, inimagination. Just in reality.”

Standing in for the California gull of Hitchcock’sNorthern California town is a herring gull, borrowedfrom the Roosevelt Wildlife Collection at ESF. Thebirds join Guy Baldassarre, left, and Bill Shields.

Drama Trumps Accuracy in ‘The Day After Tomorrow’

‘The Birds’: A ‘Great Movie’ Flies in the Face of Science Dr. Theodore Endreny explains thelaws of conservation of mass inrelation to “The Day After Tomorrow.”

Fall 2008 15

If you’d like to screen moreCelluloid Science visit us online atwww.esf.edu/communications/moviesfor additional movies dissected byour panel of experts.

disappeared as major highways allow peopleto travel around towns rather than throughthem. Doble said this has been particularlytrue in Northern New York, where cars zoompast towns on the highway, and while theresidential core of the community often main-tains its integrity, its commercial centers havedisappeared with the advent of the highway.

“It (the movie) was interesting because itillustrates a common phenomena; a lot ofcommunities have been bypassed as a result

of new highway construction,” said Doble. “It’scomplicated when a community goes throughchange.” In the case of Radiator Springs, it isa once-prosperous tourist town that hasn’tfound a way to recapture its past glory.

“Clearly at one time it (Radiator Springs)was a happening place,” said Doble. “Andnow in spite of its economic decline, it hasan interesting collection of residents thathave no intention of leaving.”

Doble said a group of die-hard residents iscommon in such situations.

“People who have lived there all their livesstay. Some — like Sally, the Porsche — come toget out of the rat race and are able to find thebeauty of the place and try to stimulate some-thing to happen. Others, like Mater the towtruck or Flo the show car, stay out of loyalty.

“This is something we see a lot of with theCCDR,” said Doble.

Doble said a former student once did astudy of a rural community, like RadiatorSprings, and often found “people who hadlived there for years and feel a real sense ofloss. The empty storefronts and boarded-uphomes were hard for them to accept. Thestudy looked at how that sense of loss affectsthe ability to plan for the future.”

Doble added, “It’s hard to plan for a newfuture when you want the past to return.”

The fact that the movie was produced byDisney also interested Doble.

“At Disney World and Disneylandthey’ve frozen and celebrated the idea ofMain Street, and to see Disney present amovie that portrays the loss of the vital-ity, and then revival, of a main street isinteresting.”

Doble notes that “Cars” doesaccurately portray aspects

of life in such towns.

Fall 2008 17

“Prophecy,” a nature’s revenge talefrom 1979, hits all the high points: bigbusiness polluting the waterways, a clashbetween cultures, commentary on repro-ductive rights, the plight of the poor and,of course, a mutant she-bear terrorizing asmall Maine town.

The big business is the local papermill,which, it is discovered, is dischargingmercury into the water. On the plus side,boy, the fish sure are biting and are theyever big! On the bad side, it’s making peo-ple crazy and mutating bears into froth-mouthed killers.

“Mercury is used in the production ofcaustic soda,” said Linda Fagan, project staffassociate in the Department of Paper andBioprocess Engineering, but “most millsclaim the water going out is cleaner thanthe water going in.”

Fagan said there was a time when peopleliving near a paper mill would claim theycould tell what kind of paper was beingmade by the color of the water coming fromthe mill. “It sounds heinous now, but every-one lived that way,” she said. “It really is somuch better now. In 1970 we had Earth Dayand the EPA (U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency) soon after, and things changed.”

These days, paper mills go to greatlengths to improve the processes. Mills haveenvironmental engineers on staff, and themills must have permits for discharge.

“Today mercury is so tightly regulatedthat all suppliers go through stringenttesting before their product is allowed inthe mills,” said Fagan.

The movie isn’t completely off base,though. In one scene the mill managersays, “People think that the paper industryis using up all of the forests. We plant aseedling for every tree harvested.”

Said Fagan, “We’re doing even betterthan that in 2008.”

According to the Abundant ForestAlliance, “The wood and paper industry morethan makes up for what it harvests by man-aging forests and planting more than 1.7million tree seedlings every day — more than600 million tree seedlings a year. Since 1952,when national statistics were first reported,forest growth in the United States hasexceeded the rate of harvest. On commer-cial forestland, net annual growth surpassesthe rate of harvest by almost 50 percent.”

“As Tom Amidon (PBE faculty member)would say, ‘Growing trees is a solar-powered enterprise. Renewable and sus-tainable,’” Fagan said.

There was one more thing “Prophecy”got right, according to Fagan. The costumedesigner nailed the look of the mill manager.“I know that guy,” she said, “right down tothe hair and the contrasting plaid outfit.”

Fagan’s one-sentence review: “It wasn’tas bad as I thought it was going to be, but Ican’t imagine that I would recommend it.”

Playing the part of the she-bear is thebrown bear, ursus arctos, from ESF’sRoosevelt Wildlife Collection. The bear,minus the foam, is on display in the lobbyof Illick Hall.

Disney/Pixar’s animated feature movie“Cars” is about a rookie race car who, throughan encounter with the residents of a forgot-ten town along Route 66, learns there’s moreto life than winning races. From an ESFstandpoint, it’s also about the revival of aonce-prosperous community.

The arrival of Lightening McQueen, theaforementioned race car, to the town ofRadiator Springs ultimately results in thetown’s rebirth. In reality, it takes more than“a hotshot race car” to revive a town.

In “Cars,” McQueen returns to RadiatorSprings and makes it his racing headquarters.With the race car comes money, resourcesand tourists.

“‘Cars’ ends with a silver bullet, but theCCDR often doesn’t get that,” said CherylDoble, director of the Center for CommunityDesign Research. “We have to look at theresources available and build upon that.”

The CCDR, an outreach program withinthe Department of Landscape Architecture,

works in partnership with communities andother academic programs to provide techni-cal assistance, educational programs andresearch projects that build a community’scapacity to manage sustainable futures.

“Radiator Springs’ new life comes as aresult of the individual hero coming back,”said Doble.

In reality, revitalizing a town takes manypeople and much thought. “The residents haveto understand what they value, describe thevision that they hold for their communityand identify the actions that they can taketo achieve their vision.”

Doble notes that “Cars” does accuratelyportray aspects of life in such towns. Radia-tor Springs was once a thriving town on themuch-traveled Route 66. When the interstatebypassed Route 66 and the towns along theway, those towns began to wither.

Rural villages throughout New York haveexperienced a similar fate, she said. Once-thriving downtowns and Main Streets have

‘Cars’Speedsthroughthe Issuesto Arriveat a HappyEnding

Raging Sow Bear Delivers aNature Lesson in ‘Prophecy’

The troubles of one town along Route 66 run parallel to problemsfaced by many rural towns located on once-busy roadways.

Photo from Photospin

Fall 2008 19

The northern forest region extends from Lake Ontario at Tug Hill,across the Adirondacks to northern Vermont, New Hampshire andMaine. The institute’s location is adjacent to the Adirondack HighPeaks region and includes the historic town of Adirondac, which hasa rich industrial and cultural heritage.

The project is a cooperative effort that will enhance forestpreserve and wildlands management research and contribute to thelocal economy. ESF will run the Northern Forest Institute (NFI) on a46-acre portion of a property owned by OSI’ s Open Space Conser-vancy and leased on a long-term basis to the College for $1 a year.Establishment of the institute is being aided by a $1 million grantfrom Empire State Development to OSI and $125,000 from DEC toESF. In addition, DEC has committed $1.6 million over the next fouryears to ESF scientists who will conduct three research projects onvisitor demand, experiences, and impacts, as well as a training pro-gram for DEC employees responsible for managing recreational visitsto New York State forest preserve lands.

The NFI will operate in a section of the Adirondacks that has a richindustrial and cultural history and that is adjacent to the popularHigh Peaks area.

The eight-bedroom Masten House was built in 1905 near secludedHenderson Lake. The house was used as a corporate retreat by NLIndustries, which operated a nearby mining site. Masten House iswithin the state historic district that encompasses the former townof Adirondac at the southern entrance to the High Peaks Wildernessarea. The town was settled in 1826 and was home to one of theregion’s first iron mines and early blast furnaces. The remains of oneblast furnace still stand near the Masten House.

The village was resettled in the late 19th century as the TahawusClub. Then-Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was staying at Tahawusin 1901 when he learned that President William McKinley had taken aturn for the worse after being shot by an assassin.

NL Industries refurbished the Masten House in the 1990s and in2003, the Open Space Conservancy acquired the 10,050-acre Tahawustract from the company. DEC acquired 6,813 acres outright earlier thisyear with funds from the state’s Environmental Protection Fund and isworking to purchase a conservation easement on an additional 3,237acres. The easement will enable public access while also contributingto the economy by continuing sustainable timber harvesting.

The institute will also incorporate the Arbutus Great Camp and theStone Carriage House at the AEC. Both buildings, which were donatedto ESF by Archer and Anna Huntington in the 1930s, will providehousing and conference facilities. These buildings are several milesto the southwest of the Masten House, which will be renovatedto also provide housing, conference space and facilities for educa-tional programming. Complete development of the institute isexpected to cost up to $13.5 million.

Porter credited state Senators Betty Little and Joseph Griffo andAssemblywoman Teresa Sayward with helping the College secure $2.5million to renovate the Stone Carriage House.

In addition to the Open Space institute and DEC, partners in theproject include the Adirondack Park Agency, the Town of Newcomb,the Adirondack Museum, the Natural History Museum of the Adiron-dacks, and the Association for Protection of the Adirondacks.

A partnership with the DEC andthe Open Space Institute puts thehistoric Masten House at the centerof ESF’s broad-ranging educational

institute in the Adirondacks.

A rambling, historic mansion called Masten House, deepin the Adirondacks, will be the site of a new leadership andtraining institute that focuses on the research and man-agement of northern forests.

The Northern Forest Institute for Conservation Educa-tion and Leadership Training, which will be administeredby ESF’s Adirondack Ecological Center in Newcomb, willeducate and train policy makers, business leaders andeducators to guide future decisions and learn more aboutthe 25 million acres of forested land that blanket portionsof four northeastern states.

“It’s about making connections between those who arein need of the information and those who do the sciencethat generates the information,” said Dr. William F. Porter,AEC director. “In the northern forest, it’s all about how youcan simultaneously promote wilderness, and at the sametime, grow the economy to provide the quality of life forthe people who live there.”

Establishment of the institute was announced thissummer, with Department of Environmental Conservation(DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis, ESF President CorneliusB. Murphy, Jr., and Open Space Institute (OSI) PresidentJoe Martens gathering at the AEC with other state andlocal officials.

“This world-class educational facility will help DEC learnmore about the forestry resources and challenges uniqueto our region, while also contributing significantly to localeconomies,” Grannis said. “By supporting the growth ofpublic and private higher education with this and otherinitiatives in the Adirondacks, Governor David A. Paterson,DEC, and our partners are supporting the economic andenvironmental future of northern New York.”

ANEW HOUSE

Photos by Claire B. Dunn

How to support the Northern Forest InstituteYou can make a gift to support the Northern Forest Institute

by mailing a check made out to the ESF College Foundation(note “Northern Forest Institute – General Fund" on the memoline), 214 Bray Hall, 1 Forestry Drive, Syracuse, NY 13210-9974.Or make your gift online at www.esf.edu. Click on “Make aGift to ESF.” In the “Scholarships & Other Funds” section, clickon “N” in the alphabetical list and then click on “Northern For-est Institute — General Fund.” For assistance call 315-470-6683or e-mail gifts@esf.edu.

Open Space Institute President Joe Martens, above, talks about thehistory of a blast furnace during a tour in Newcomb. At top, visitorsget a close-up look at the exterior of the Masten House.

h

h

18 InsideESF

Across forests and farmlands, leafy suburbs and sparselypopulated mountain ranges, coyotes throughout the East spentthe spring and summer doing what they do well: adaptingand thriving.

And right behind some of them, with global posi-tioning system units and motion-activatedcameras, were ESF researchers.

“They are about the most plastic andcosmopolitan species out there,” saidDr. Jacqueline Frair, an ESF wildlifeecologist. “They are the ultimateopportunistic omnivore. They willeat anything: crickets, corn, smallmammals or deer.”

Frair is a principal investigator ina five-year, $670,000 study, fundedby the New York state Department ofEnvironmental Conservation (DEC), thataims at getting a better idea of how manycoyotes live in the state, where that population isdistributed, and what effect, if any, their eating habits couldhave on New York’s white-tailed deer herd.

Frair and graduate students Robin Holevinksi and ChristinaBoser, along with volunteers both in the field and in ESF labo-ratories, are taking a high-tech approach to those questions.They have been trapping coyotes, collaring them with globalpositioning system (GPS) units or VHS radios, and then pain-stakingly tracking them in search of feeding sites and scat piles.

This past spring, Frair’s team used remote cameras at densites to record the coyotes’ behavior.

The $4,500 GPS collars record the animals’ location at speci-fied intervals and transmit the information to the researchers’handheld units. The scientists download the information into a

computer, map the coyotes’ whereabouts, and return to thefield to backtrack where the animals have been.

They find feeding sites and assess what the coyotes havebeen eating. They also find scat deposits along trails and bringthem back to the lab, where ESF students develop a DNA

fingerprint that identifies each individual animal. Thestudents also do microscopic inspections of thescat to determine in great detail what typesof prey have been consumed. Their researchcan indicate, for example, not only that acertain coyote ate deer, but whether itwas an adult or fawn.

“It involves a lot of people walkingaround looking at trails,” said Boser, amaster’s student. “It can be interesting.People have seen bobcats and bears outthere. It’s a lot of work. Eight-hour hikes

can be tiring.”The scat is washed and dried, which removes

the fecal matter, leaving behind undigested hair,teeth and bones that are clues to the coyotes’ diet.“The hair is the most valuable tool we have,” Boser said. She

can sort it by size, shape and color, then use a microscope tolook at the scale patterns for more detailed information aboutits source. She has found evidence of adult deer; fawns; smallmammals such as mice, chipmunks and squirrels; and turkey.

The current research sites are in Steuben County, in NewYork’s Southern Tier; and in Otsego County, southeast of Coop-erstown. The locations were chosen because neither is denselypopulated by humans and both are highly agricultural, but theyhave different numbers of deer. The deer population is muchdenser in Steuben County.

This is the second year of the five-year study, and Frair saidearly results show coyotes in Otsego County appear to be eating

20 InsideESF

Coyotes Leave A High-Tech Trail

Honors and AwardsGeneral Chemistry students, first place, American Chem-

ical Society’s “Adopt-a-Stream” College Student Club ContestCurry, George and Capella-Peters, Christine, 2008 Levi

L. Smith Civic Education Award, Onondaga Citizens LeagueBoard of Directors

Lai, Yuan-Zong, elected as a Fellow of the InternationalAcademy of Wood Science

Townsend, Jason, Mewaldt-King Award for 2008 from theCooper Ornithological Society

Wickham, Jake, selected by National Science Foundation forits East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) Program

On the Calendar To see the full ESF calendar, go to http://web.esf.edu/calendar.asp

October 20 - 22Sustainability and Forest Biorefinery II Conference, Renaissance

Syracuse Hotel, Syracuse. For additional information: www.esf.edu/outreach/pd/2008/biorefinery; ESF Outreach, 315-470-6888/x6817;mwakefield@esf.edu

November 7 - 8Conversations on the Land: Indigenous and Scientific Principles

for Sustainable Communities, ESF campus. For additional information:www.esf.edu/outreach/pd/2008/conversations;ESF Outreach 315-470-6888/x6817; mwakefield@esf.edu

more deer than their Southern Tier counterparts. The reasonfor this is unclear.

The researchers have determined that most of the deer thatwere eaten had not been killed by the coyotes.

Coyotes are the most common large carnivores in New Yorkstate. They are particularly interesting, Frair said, because theyare not native to the eastern United States. They spread fromtheir native Western range only after humans extirpated wolvesand cougars in the East. The first recorded sighting of a coyotein New York state occurred in 1925. The DEC now estimatesthere could be 20,000 coyotes in the state. They have beenseen in every county outside New York City and Long Island.

Scientists are not sure how the coyotes affect the ecosys-tem. Frair said coyotes often kill red foxes, which are theirclosest predatory competition. Reducing red fox numbers canalter the abundance of their rodent prey. That change can, inturn, affect the plants that the rodents eat. And coyotes seekout the same food as lynxes and bobcats, which can leave thefelines short on meals. Coyotes do kill adult deer and fawns.Frair’s research will identify how often coyotes kill deer thatare already weak or injured, which will help the researchersassess the effect of coyotes on deer populations.

Coyotes in New York weigh an average of 35 to 40 pounds.They live in family groups, typically a mated pair and their off-spring, until the parents drive away the young before the nextlitter arrives. Their home range is about seven square miles.

The animals are often erroneously referred to as “coy-dogs,”but Frair said they rarely breed with domestic dogs. When coy-otes first appeared in New York, they sometimes bred with dogs,but their own species is now plentiful enough that interbreed-ing is not required, Frair said.

“The idea of the coy-dog persists,” she said.To see a video on coyotes go to http://www.esf.edu/commu-

nications/news/2008/03.13.coyotes.htm

by Claire B. Dunn

Coyotes are

the most common

large carnivores in

New York state.

They are particularly

interesting, Frair said,

because they are not

native to the eastern

United States.

Gary Golja of the New York Department of Environmental Conser-vation, prepares to release a coyote wearing a GPS collar. Goljawas working in Otsego County.

ESF freshman Steven Tyrell aids in the men’s soccer team’s match againstElmira. The match was a great showing for ESF as after giving up a goal inthe first half, ESF rallied with strong offense to win 3-1. Tyrell is a studentin ESF’s Department of Paper and Bioprocess Engineering. The team iscoached by Daniel Ramin, coodinator of college athletics. He also coachesthe women’s soccer team. Photo by Christina Chan, ES ’10

Photos courtesy of Jacqueline Frair

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Sustainable Yield –a Gift of Land

Wondering what to do with a woodlot orother land you have sustained for years?

Donating that land to the State University ofNew York College of Environmental Scienceand Forestry (SUNY-ESF) can yield tax benefits

to you, yield sustainable management foryour land, and yield support for scholarships

and education of future generations offoresters and other environmental scientists

studying at ESF — FOREVER.

To keep your land sustainably benefiting you and yourworld, forever, contact us at ESF College Foundation, Inc.

315-470-6683, gifts@esf.edu, or visit

www.esf.edu/development/property

Future generations will benefitfrom your gift of land.

Office of Communications1 Forestry DriveSyracuse, New York 13210-2778