Clean Energy Extension's research focused on agrivoltaics, or dual-use solar panels, was highlighted in a recent Christian Science Monitor article.
News from the Media
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Crops, cows, and solar panels? Why farmers are harvesting sunlight.
November 6, 2024 -
‘A beautiful time of the year’: New state foliage map helps residents, tourists make autumn plans
October 11, 2024Rich Harper, Extension Professor of urban forestry, was quoted in an article discussing a new state foliage map that helps residents and tourists plan their autumn trips.
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New Analysis Tools from UMass Amherst Can Help Farmers Make Informed Choice on ‘Agrivoltaics’
October 10, 2024 -
For UMass researcher, fall apple season is about more than picking
October 7, 2024UMass Amherst Extension Fruit Team Leader Jon Clements, explaining the history of the EverCrisp apple variety, seen growing at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard. It's a product, in-part, of the Midwest Apple Improvement Association (MAIA) - one of several varieties tested at Cold Spring and available for Massachusetts orchards to grow.
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How apple farmers are thinking about climate change this fall
October 2, 2024Massachusetts has more than 80 pick-your-own apple farms. But warming weather is hurting apple and fruit crops across New England.
Al Rose, co-owner of Red Apple Farm, and Jon Clements, an educator with the Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment at UMass, talk about this year's apple season and how they're thinking about climate change's impact on future crops.
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Fall coincides with increase in yellowjacket interactions, experts advise
September 25, 2024Tawny Simisky, CAFE's Extension Entomologist specializing in woody plant entomology, was quoted in the Greenfield Recorder article 'Fall coincides with increase in yellowjacket interactions, experts advise.'
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New Pest Alert for Cape Cod
June 8, 2024 -
Earth Matters: Conserving Nature's Perfect "Villain"
June 6, 2024Earth Matters column by Christine Hatch, Swamps, stewardship and conservation.
What does it mean to care for a forest in the Anthropocene era- especially a swamp, the perfect story villain?
"I used to think that in order to conserve nature, we had to wall it off and protect it from all outside influences, especially our meddling human selves. I thought that left to its own devices, the natural world would restore itself to balance. Unfortunately, not only was I mistaken in that notion, but also..."
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What to Make of this Summer’s Dual Cicada Brood Emergence
May 31, 2024Tawny Simisky, entomologist, UMass Extension's Landscape, Nursery and Urban Forestry Program, provides an update on the emergence of cicada broods XIII and XIX, and the messaging that pest management professionals and landscape professionals can share about these periodical visitors.
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Good & bad local bugs
May 9, 2024GCC prof Brian Adams w/ UMass Entomologist Tawny Simisky: good & bad local bugs
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Chasing Color: Cranberry station research bears fruit for industry
December 23, 2023Around this time of year, cranberries are a traditional and cherished addition to the holiday table—andUMass researchers are working to ensure that these beloved burgundy gems will thrive for generations to come.
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The Forest And The Trees: Western Mass’ Solar Siting Problem
December 13, 2023Dwayne Breger, extension professor of Environmental Conservation and director of the UMass Clean Energy Extension, is quoted in an article on locating solar farms in forests. He says the field of solar energy has evolved from grassroots installations to installations backed by corporations. “As the market has now unveiled itself in fury, in the 2000s and 2020s and so forth, not just in Massachusetts but around the country, once again capitalism has taken over and we’ve got the big players that are just crowding out everyone else,” Breger said.
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Researchers Develop Grassroots Framework for Managing Environmental Commons
December 10, 2023A team of sustainability scientists, led by senior author Ana Quiñónez Camarillo and co-author, Timothy Randhir, have developed a community-based framework to help assess and respond to ecological threats. The framework is based on the local perception of threats, consequences, and solutions (TCS) which are easier to understand than "extremely theoretical scientific frameworks," Randhir says. “One of the biggest issues facing international sustainability efforts is that smaller, less economically developed countries often don’t have the resources to conduct nuanced, in-depth surveys of local people and the local environment in the threatened area,” says Quiñónez Camarillo.
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'False Springs' Force Massachusetts Growers to Adapt
December 6, 2023Susan Scheufele, production agriculture leader at UMass Extension, says warmer and wetter weather is creating a false spring. Farmers “might start to see more bacterial diseases or diseases that we think of as more southern or mid-Atlantic diseases,” she says.
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Plant Nurseries Aid Climate-Driven Spread of Invasive Species
December 6, 2023New UMass Amherst research is the first to precisely map how plant nurseries exacerbate the climate-driven spread of 80% of plant species. Bethany Bradley, professor of environmental conservation and senior author of two recently published papers, says one of the major hurdles in addressing the threat of invasive species is determining when and where a species crosses the line from being non-native to invasive.
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Maine Apple Growers Hurt by 50% Loss, Insurance Inequities
November 26, 2023Jon Clements, Extension Fruit Educator, is quoted in a story on Maine’s worst apple harvest in over a decade. “Crop insurance is a safety net. It’ll never make up for having a good crop,” Clements says. “And like any other type of insurance, it’s not mandatory. Some growers just don’t buy crop insurance.”
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Cranberries Remain Massachusetts Top Food Crop; The UMass Cranberry Station is One Reason Why
November 23, 2023The UMass Cranberry Station is essential in supporting the commonwealth's top food crop. Despite challenges, like fruit rot, early frost, and record rainfall, Massachusetts farmers grew 200 million pounds of cranberries last year. The research facility in Wareham provides invaluable research to growers, helping them overcome such challenges. The station is critically important to the cranberry industry,” says John Mason, president of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association.
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Why Does Paxlovid, COVID-19 Anti-Viral Drug, Make Things Taste Bitter?
November 20, 2023Alissa Nolden, food science, is quoted on research related to “Paxlovid mouth,” a metallic aftertaste that can be caused by the COVID-19 antiviral drug. The research finds that the drug activates one of the tongue’s bitter taste receptors. Nolden calls the study “a good first step,” but hopes to see further research supporting the findings.
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Elon Musk Was Once a Climate Hero. But Research Suggests He Still is a "Super-Emitter"
November 19, 2023An article examining billionaire Elon Musk’s environmental record cites research by Jared Starr, environmental conservation, which found that Americans who are in the top 10% of earners are responsible for 40% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. “Musk is a complicated figure. On one hand, he’s played a critical role in popularising EV and battery storage with Tesla. On the other, he’s flying space tourists on missions that create a huge amount of pollution. Private jets also use a lot of fossil fuel, so he would himself be in the super-emitter category," Starr explains.
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Microplastic-Eating Plankton May Be Worsening Crisis in Oceans, Say Scientists
November 15, 2023A collaborative research team led by UMass Amherst revealed that rotifers, a kind of microscopic zooplankton common in both fresh and ocean water, can chew apart microplastics, breaking them down into even smaller--and potentially more dangerous--nanoplastics. “Humans produce enormous amounts of plastics, and yet we don’t have an effective way of recycling them,” says Baoshan Xing, Distinguished Professor of environmental and soil chemistry.
