Clean and safe water is one of the most precious resources anywhere in the world, but this is especially true for arid regions with growing populations. Southwestern US, known for being hot and dry, is getting even hotter and drier due to climate change. The Colorado River is the single most important source of water Read more about Water in the Southwest and the New-Old Threat of Uranium Mining — Humna Sharif[…]
Please find our 2019 annual report below. We are incredibly grateful for all the partnerships and collaborations that have allowed UHPSI to provide over 65 students with experiential learning opportunities during 2019. Thank you to our students, partners, and supporters! Full PDF 2019 Annual Report here.
The Western Speaker Series connects conservation professionals and Yale students to explore and discuss a range of issues facing land stewardship in the American West. The Symposium Coordinators worked with UHPSI staff to plan presentations, career chats, and technical training by western conservation professionals that provide our students with valuable knowledge and insight. The 2019-2020 Read more about Western Speaker Series[…]
The Colorado River runs almost 1,500 miles, from the cold Rocky Mountains down to the dry Sonoran desert. Throughout this journey, the river passes through 2 countries and 7 states, providing food and water for some 40 million people. This summer I got to know the river intimately, through the work of The Nature Conservancy’s Read more about Governance successes and challenges along the Colorado River – Lucas Isakowitz[…]
A century ago, the Colorado River ran uninterrupted from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California. It fanned its delta across 3,000 square miles of winding river and green lagoons, with mesquite and willow trees providing habitat for hundreds of species of birds. “The river was everywhere and nowhere,” wrote the conservationist Aldo Leopold Read more about The Death and Rebirth of the Colorado River Delta[…]
Joshua’s research surveyed benthic macroinvertebrate communities of Canyon Creek at The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Tensleep Preserve in order to (1) assess the current communities of this river section, (2) analyze the impacts of two subterranean limestone sink systems and a human diversion on these communities, and (3) provide data and voucher specimens for future studies. Read more about Benthic Macroinvertebrate Survey of Canyon Creek[…]
Lucas is working for The Nature Conservancy’s Colorado River Program (CRP). His focus for the CRP is two-fold: first, Lucas is researching environmental governance and finance models to facilitate the creation of a water fund for the Colorado River delta. This work entails outreach to stakeholders and coordination with existing environmental funds to glean best Read more about Governance and Storytelling Along the Colorado River[…]
Shea is working with LegacyWorks Group in Jackson, Wyoming to accelerate community-driven impact to advance large-scale conservation efforts in the Teton region. She is assisting the team in executing projects that advance four major goals: 1) increase the ability of local conservation partners to work collaboratively on community- and regional-scale projects, 2) enhance water availability Read more about Increasing the Pace and Scale of Conservation in the Tetons through Collaboration[…]
The Southwest is a dry place. This statement should not surprise anyone; when you think of Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico, you think of Prickly Pear and Saguaro, desert sunsets and dusty streets. What may not so quickly come to mind are the rapidly growing cities of Los Angeles, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Denver, and Las Vegas. Read more about Pulse of the River —Reid Lewis[…]
Black bear at a bird feeder Carnivores have become social media sensations when they enter into urban areas. Hundreds of videos of bears breaking into houses and raiding the refrigerators or mountain lions lying under an unsuspecting resident’s back porch can be found with one quick online search. After a predator shows up in a Read more about Urbanization & Human-Wildlife Conflict in the West —Amy Zuckerwise[…]
The Symposium Student Coordinators organize the Western Speaker Series, which connects knowledgeable conservation professionals with Yale students to learn about and discuss issues facing the American West. The coordinators work with the UHPSI staff to plan presentations and panel discussions on campus with speakers who bring valuable insight and perspectives on the past and future Read more about Organizing and Implementing the Western Speaker Series[…]
The reintroduction of native trout in the Mountain West is a valuable conservation tool for fisheries managers with an interest in maintaining healthy populations of threatened trout species. At the same time, the choice to reintroduce native trout involves a complex decision-making process with numerous biological, ecological, and social considerations. This process is complex, namely, Read more about Methods for Non-Native Trout Removal in Rocky Mountain Streams — Brendan Boepple, Franklin Eccher, Laurel Low[…]
The last time I posted, I was a busy forensic ecologist/detective discovering the culprit behind dips in trumpeter swan productivity in western Wyoming. Now, I’m a slick computer programmer using remote sensing data to spatially examine the habitat characteristics selected for by nesting swan pairs. To be transparent, I am neither slick nor a computer Read more about The Swan Lives On — Sam Maher[…]
Trey Davis, the Preserve Manager at The Nature Conservancy’s Tensleep Preserve, described Tensleep as “a place of superlatives.” Everything at Tensleep is the oldest, the most diverse, the most valuable to researchers, and yet in order for those superlatives to remain true the place must also remain relatively unknown and untouched. My explorations of the Read more about A Girl Scout’s Walden (Part Two) — Franklin Eccher[…]
During my summer with the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust (RiGHT) I was tasked with developing and implementing a stakeholder input process that would guide the development of the organization’s new conservation plan. To better understand the perspective of the community and the concerns of natural resource managers in the San Luis Valley, we conducted Read more about Thinking Beyond Acres – Brendan Boepple[…]