12:00pm to 1:00pm Construction of Nature in New York City Lindsay Campbell, author Kroon Hall, Room 321, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT Speaker Information Lindsay K. Campbell is a research social scientist with the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station, based at the New York City Urban Field Station (www.nrs.fs.fed.us/nyc). Her current research explores the dynamics of urban environmental governance, natural resource stewardship, and sustainability policymaking. Dr. Campbell holds a BA in Public Policy from Princeton University, a Masters in City Planning from MIT, and a PhD in Geography from Rutgers University. She is the author of City of Forests City of Farms, Sustainability Planning for New York City's Nature, published by Cornell University Press. Abstract Construction of Nature in New York City City of Forests, City of Farms explores how and why nature is constructed in New York City using the case of PlaNYC2030—the municipal, long-term sustainability plan launched in 2007. From this entry point, it explores sustainability planning as a process that unfolds through the strategic interplay of actors, the deployment of different narrative frames, and the manipulation of the physical environment—including other living, non-human entities. In contrasting the top-down, centralized investment in the urban forest with the decentralized social movement around urban agriculture, the book traces two very different processes underpinning what sort of nature is produced in the city. PlaNYC launched the MillionTreesNYC campaign, investing over $400 million in city funds and leveraging a public-private partnership to plant one million trees citywide. Meanwhile, despite NYC having a long tradition of community gardening since the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, the plan contained no mention of community gardens or urban farms. Yet public interest in urban agriculture and local food systems has burgeoned, and civic groups and elected officials subsequently crafted a series of visions and plans for local food systems that informed the 2011 update to PlaNYC. Understanding how and why the sustainability agenda is set provides lessons to scholars, policymakers, and activists alike as they engage in the greening of cities.
12:00pm to 1:00pm Resistance in a Time of Official Ignorance: Tactics to Empower Conservation Scientists, Professionals and Institutions Dr. William Burch, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Emeritus Professor Dr. Gary Machlis, Clemson University Professor of Environmental Sustainability
4:00pm to 5:00pm The Future of Conservation in America Dr. Gary Machlis, Clemson University Speaker Information Dr. Gary E. Machlis is Professor of Environmental Sustainability at Clemson University and Former Science Advisor to the Director, U.S. National Park Service (NPS). He was the first scientist appointed to this position within the NPS, and advised the director on a range of science policy issues and programs. Dr. Machlis also served as co-Leader of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Strategic Sciences Group, which conducts scientific assessments during major environmental crises. Dr. Machlis previously served as Professor of Conservation and Interim Associate Vice President for Research at the University of Idaho, and been a visiting professor at Nanjing Technological College in China and at Yale University. Dr. Machlis received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Washington in Seattle, and his Ph.D. in human ecology from Yale. He has written numerous books and scientific papers on issues of conservation and sustainability, including The State of the World’s Parks (1985), the first systematic study of threats to protected areas around the world and Warfare Ecology: A New Synthesis for Peace and Security, was published by Springer in 2011. His research has been published in journals as varied as Bioscience, Climatic Change, Conservation Biology, Society and Natural Resources, and Science. Abstract The role of nature in urban America and its provision of vital ecosystem services has largely focused on populations of relative affluence and recognition. Sustainability practice and policy do not commonly reflect the needs and challenges of the oft-forgotten: the poorest of the poor, the chronic underclass, victims of natural hazards, refugees, and the politically oppressed. Yet practical and effective policies and practices can be implemented that help improve life quality, living conditions, and ultimately the health of these classes or persons, expanding both social justice and the sustainability of urban America.
12:00pm to 1:00pm Cities for Life: Global Environmental, Social and Health Justice Burke Auditorium, Kroon Hall, 195 Prospect St. Professor and Director of Global Healthy Cities, UC Berkeley Speaker Information Dr. Jason Corburn is a Professor jointly appointed in the Department of City and Regional Planning & the School of Public Health, at the University of California, Berkeley. Abstract Cities for Life: Global Environmental, Social and Health Justice On a planet of cities, global sustainability demands new, inclusive strategies for linking human health, ecologic systems and social justice. Far too many communities in cities of the global north and south are suffering the burdens of economic, environmental and social inequalities. In this talk, Professor Jason Corburn, Director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development and the Center for Global Healthy Cities at UC Berkeley, will highlight innovative, equity-focused practices from Richmond, California, Medellín, Colombia, and Nairobi, Kenya. Professor Corburn will discuss his own action-research that uses ‘citizen science’ to reshape environmental health evidence and addresses pressing urban policy challenges around the world. Professor Corburn will highlight that re-orienting urban science and governance is necessary to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and to ensure growing cities around the world promote well-being for all.