random samplings of a restless mind scanning life's canopy
Have you, fellow residents of Fresno, noticed a billboard in your neighborhood recently asking you to take the 20 Gallon Challenge at fresnowater.org? It is good to see the City of Fresno make a push towards water conservation - and about time too in an arid zone city that has resisted even metering residential water use! I know my friends in Tucson, or back in India, will be astonished that a city campaign challenging residents to reduce water consumption by 20 gallons/day is only now happening - how can it be, in the arid American west, that the people of a major city refuse to meter their water use and need to be challenged to save water in such quantities per day as are inconceivable even over weeks in other arid parts of the world??!! Yet, such has been the case here - with the residents of Fresno having rejected water metering several times in the past! No more - for now the city is, under a federal govt mandate, installing water meters in homes and preparing to start charging for water based on consumption starting in 2013. As you may know, my lab has begun to address the ecological and biodiversity consequences of how much (and how) we use water in this sprawling sub/urban area. As part of a broad collaborative multidisciplinary project focusing on understanding the linkages between human water and land use decisions and urban biodiversity, my graduate student Brad Schleder has just finished his masters thesis - the first one to leverage data from the Fresno Bird Count which he helped set up and coordinate in its first two years. He will be presenting his work in a thesis exit seminar on campus in a couple of weeks - on May 3rd. Watch out for an announcement with further details here shortly, and join us if you can on the 3rd. Meanwhile, go take the 20 Gallon Challenge this Earth Week!
I'm a reconciliation ecologist studying the responses of wildlife to human influences through an evolutionary lens. I seek ways to apply evolutionary ecology towards reconciling biodiversity conservation with human development. Also a father of two girls; photographer; birdwatcher; bookworm; cinephile; and explorer of the internets.
I'm a reconciliation ecologist studying the responses of wildlife to human influences through an evolutionary lens. I seek ways to apply evolutionary ecology towards reconciling biodiversity conservation with human development. Also a father of two girls; photographer; birdwatcher; bookworm; cinephile; and explorer of the internets.
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