News from the Center

The University of Massachusetts Amherst has named Clem Clay as director of the UMass Extension Agriculture Program.

On August 2, members of the state’s Food Policy Council visited the UMass Farm in South Deerfield and toured five project sites at the farm and heard from faculty, extension staff and graduate students on their work.

This June, nine new brightly-painted murals have begun creating a dynamic outdoor art gallery in downtown Springfield. UMass Extension Assistant Professor Michael DiPasquale was involved with this mural project for a year.

Lynn S. Adler, professor of biology, in collaboration with other American scientists, has been researching factors driving pollinator decline, including pathogens and pesticides, for several years.

Explore our new Pollinator resources section! Learn about upcoming bee events at UMass, information about keeping bees, creating pollinator-friendly landscapes, and supporting native pollinators in New England.

Governor Baker visited on December 11 to hear about plans for the busy downtown makerspace supported by CAFE and MassDevelopment.  

The American elm saplings at the UMass Agricultural Learning Center have already survived severe drought, abnormally wet conditions, deer munching, gypsy moth and Japanese beetle.

The thirty-plus undergraduates spoke with guests in front of the thirty-plus academic project posters that were pinned to boards throughout the airy room near the top of the UMass Amherst Campus Center late one September afternoon. The academic posters sported images, charts and graphs designed to impart the months of hard work put in by this enthusiastic cohort of “Summer Scholars.”   

Climate change, over-fishing, biodiversity, deforestation and declining bee populations. Serious stuff. Perhaps these topics are not what you imagine 12-16 year olds spending their summer time thinking about… but you would be wrong. To mark a decade of their “Summer of Science” program, Massachusetts 4-H Youth Development Program leaders explored ways in which to make an already-successful program even better.  This June, the result of good planning brought together eager young students from across the state to discuss real issues and make real recommendations for how to address them.