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News from the Media

  • 4-H Group Readies for Fall Events

    August 1, 2013

    The 4-H Pepperell Trailblazers is a horse project club with members ranging in age from 5-18. The club is part of the UMass Extension Animal Science Program.

  • Cape Cod Camp Pairs Military Kids and Horses

    July 23, 2013

    The Cape Cod chapter of the nonprofit Operation Military Kids (OMK), a UMass 4-H project, coordinated by Kerry Bickford of Marstons Mills, discusses benefits of their summer camp that matches up children of military personnel with horses.

  • Reducing Pollution using Horses

    June 2, 2013

    The Stockbridge School of Agriculture has partnered with Blue Star Equiculture, a non-profit horse farm in Palmer that rescues homeless horses, in an effort to help farmers reduce pollution. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection recently awarded the farm a nearly $200,000 dollar grant to install fences, walking trails and storm water management systems that will help prevent untreated, dirty water from entering the water system.

  • Gardening locally

    April 15, 2013

    John Gerber, Stockbridge School, writes a column where he outlines what he believes are some of the key arguments for growing a large garden and relying on local agriculture.

  • Woolly Adelgid in PA

    April 11, 2013

    Joseph Elkinton, environmental conservation, comments in several news stories about the discovery of the woolly adelgid in Pennsylvania’s historic old growth hemlock forests. The adelgid is an invasive insect that kills the trees. Elkinton says severe cold snaps kill the insect, but as overall temperatures rise, the adelgids will likely expand their territory.

  • Soil Saving Root Ball

    April 10, 2013

    Daniel Lass, resource economics, talks about a new system being used by a local nursery that helps save soil by wrapping tree root balls in a mixture of compost and bark contained in a knit fabric bag. John Kinchla of Amherst Nurseries, a UMass Amherst alumnus, says this system also prevents some problems created by the standard methods used to move and replant trees.

  • Food Waste Ban

    March 17, 2013

    John T. Spargo, UMass Extension, says a proposed ban on food waste in Massachusetts landfills from commercial sources, including hospitals, is unlikely to pose any health threats since potentially harmful microorganisms would be reduced by composting.

  • Raw Milk

    March 12, 2013

    Carrie Sears, UMass Extension, comments in a story about raw milk. She says some people have a negative reaction to consuming it because it isn’t pasteurized and may contain some bacteria.

  • Same Look - New Name

    March 11, 2013

    For hundreds of years, naturalists and scientists have identified new species based on an organism’s visible differences. But now, new genetic techniques are revealing that different species can show little to no visible differences. In a just-published study, evolutionary biologists at UMass Amherst and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) combine traditional morphological tests plus genetic techniques to describe new species. Groups of morphologically similar organisms that show very divergent genetics are generally termed “cryptic species.” Lead authors of an article describing their work with scale insects in the current issue of the journal ZooKeys are AMNH’s Isabelle Vea, Ben Normark of UMass Amherst and Rodger Gwiazdowski, once Normark’s doctoral student and now a postdoctoral research fellow at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, Guelph.

  • Omega - 3s

    March 10, 2013

    Eric Decker, food science, says Omega-3 fats decrease mortality and the odds of sudden cardiac arrest in people who have already suffered a heart attack. He says Omega-3s may lower triglyceride levels by as much as 35 percent and studies show that fish oil consumption can reduce risk of depression and dementia.

  • Caffeine Buzz

    March 7, 2013

    Lynn Adler, biology, says the discovery that some plants use caffeine to boost the memory of bees when they drink nectar is exciting news. She also says there are many unknown compounds in nectar that serve some purpose for plants.

  • A Sugary Tradition

    March 6, 2013

    Paul Catanzaro, environmental conservation, says maple sugaring is part of the regional tradition and has become popular not just as a way to make money, but also as a way to connect to nature.

  • Out of Season Tomato Flavor

    March 5, 2013

    Ruth Hazzard, UMass Extension, comments in a story about the many types of small tomatoes that are available at this time of year. She says there are many factors that affect the flavor of the tomatoes, including when they were picked, whether they were vine-ripened and how far they have traveled.

  • Medicinal Marijuana

    February 21, 2013

    Lyle Craker, Stockbridge School of Agriculture, is interviewed about his more than a decade-long battle with federal authorities to secure permission to grow marijuana so he can study its medicinal effects.

  • Reduced-Fat Food Emulsions

    February 20, 2013

    New research conducted by Julian McClements, food science, and Cheryl Chung, a postdoctoral associate, looks into major factors that influence the formulation of high quality reduced-fat food emulsions.

  • New Malaria Treatment

    February 10, 2013

    Stephen M. Rich, microbiology and director of the Laboratory of Medical Zoology, has led a research team who report a promising new low-cost combined therapy with a much higher chance of outwitting P. falciparum, the mosquito-borne parasite which causes the deadliest form of malaria than current modes. He and plant biochemist Pamela Weathers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), with research physician Doug Golenbock at the UMass Medical School, also in Worcester, have designed an approach for treating malaria based on a new use of Artemisia annua, a plant employed for thousands of years in Asia to treat fever.

  • Tick-Borne Illness Discovered

    January 17, 2013

    Stephen Rich, microbiology and director of the Laboratory of Medical Zoology, comments in a story about a new and as-yet unnamed tick-borne illness that has been discovered on Nantucket. He says ticks contain more than 250 bacteria, any one of which could cause disease.

  • Winter Moth Control

    December 13, 2012

    Joseph Elkinton of UMass Extension, talks about how scientists are trying to control the winter moth by using another insect that feeds on the moths. Winter moths are considered a menace because in areas where they exist in large numbers they defoliate trees.

  • Winter Moth Emergence

    December 9, 2012

    Joseph Elkinton of UMass Extension, discusses the emergence of winter moths in part of Massachusetts. He says scientists think the weather prompts the emergence of the insects.

  • Cigarettes Line Bird nests

    December 5, 2012

    Paige Warren of the Department of Environmental Conservation, says new findings that birds that line their nests with cigarette butts prevent pests such as mites.

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