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GEP Forum (GEP 211)

 

An invitation to SSU Faculty, Staff, Students, & Community Members

Our Geography, Environment, and Planning (GEP) Department here at Sonoma State invites you to join our Community Research and Career Speaker Forum. We meet via Zoom from 12-12:50 on Monday this Fall 22. All are welcome, please contact Professor Wendy St. John (stjohnw@sonoma.edu) for the zoom link.

  • August 22 - Prof Wendy St. John
    • GEP Department
    • Introduction to the Environmental Forum
  • August 29 - Suzanne DeCoursey
    • Education program director, Fairfield Osborn Preserve
    • Research and internship opportunities with SSU‘s preserves, land management, and more broadly with the Center for Environmental Inquiry
  • September 12 - Prof Jeff Baldwin
    • GEP Department
    • The importance of systemic thinking in resource management and research: Too often environmental scientists and resource managers are funneled into very specific perspectives. This often results in policies and practices that are insufficient to sustainable resource management. Through the lens of beaver recolonization, my talk shares my research into this issue in Oregon and demonstrates the value of the more holistic perspectives that our Society and Environment focus cultivates.
  • September 19 - Prof Nathan Rank
    • Biology Department
    • Declines in insect populations
  • September 26 - Tom Wheeler
    • Environmental Protection Information Center
    • Many of our students have expressed an interest in environmental law and policy. Our guest today provides an early and a mid-career perspective and help us understand how to build a career in environmental law and policy.
  • October 3 - Prof Matt Clark and Rose Snyder
    • GEP Department in collaboration with Point Blue Foundation
    • The Merging of Acoustics and Citizen Science for Monitoring Ecosystem Diversity and Health. This presentation will discuss the field of soundscape ecology and how animal vocalizations and environmental sounds can be used to understand and monitor biodiversity and ecosystem health. First, we will discuss our findings from Soundscapes to Landscapes (S2L), a citizen science project that uses sounds from low-cost automated recording units and deep learning technology to monitor bird diversity and broad soundscape components across Sonoma County. Next, we will discuss a new project called BioSoundSCape, which is focused in the Cape Region of South Africa. This project will build on S2L methods and techniques, including citizen scientists, but will assess broad levels of biodiversity using soundscape metrics and relate these data to measures of habitat quality from novel remote sensing technology developed by NASA.
  • October 10 - Prof José Javier Hernández Ayala
    • GEP Department
    • A national expert on hurricanes and climate change, Dr. Hernandez will tell us about his research into extreme weather and opportunities for student research in his lab. 
  • October 17 -  Prof Kevin Fang
    • GEP Department 
    • Today we learn about planning for more sustainable cities and rural land use, GEP’s planning focus and Dr. Fang’s research into alternative transportation. 
  • October 24 - Frankie Malamud-Roam
    • Army Corps of Engineers
    • Regulatory project evaluation and management involving navigable waters and more.
  • October 31 - Prof Jackie Guilford
    • GEP Department
    • Researching water quality and invasive species control in the Laguna de Santa Rosa
  • November 7 - Sarah Phillips
    • Marin Resource Conservation District 
    • Goldi-Lorax's Pursuit of Here, There, and Everywhere. The journey of a restoration ecologist from graduating during the 2008-2009 recession to fast forwarding 13 years later. From humble beginnings to making a difference in local politics and rebuilding habitat with private property owners.
  • November 14 - Prof Daniel Soto
    • GEP Department 
    • Research and other efforts to move us towards more sustainable and resilient energy systems
  • November 21 -Christine Kuehn
    • Sonoma Resource Conservation District
    • Sustainable food production projects
  • November 28 - Derek Eysenbach
    • Bureau of Land Management
    • TBD
  • December 5 - Shari Meads
    • City of Santa Rosa Planning & Economic Development
    • City planning in Sonoma County