MSU recognized nationally for conservation work
Contact: Meg Henderson
STARKVILLE, Miss.51勛圖厙 is accepting a national award for its partnership in a large-scale sustainability project.
Kristine Evans, assistant professor in MSUs Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture, has been leading a team of MSU faculty and partnering agencies in a multiyear Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units project titled Strategic Conservation Assessment of Gulf Coast Landscapes. The work is this years winner of the CESU Network Award for the project category.
The $1.7 million project, one of the first funded by the federal Restore Council to address spending of Deepwater Horizon funds on restoration efforts, created a web tool to determine where and how to best spend funding to restore and enhance healthy coastal ecosystems. The tool helps planners understand existing conservation priorities, evaluate ecological and socioeconomic benefits of proposals and prioritize areas for land conservation within the region.
The Gulf Coast is one of the most critically important ecosystems in the U.S., Evans said. Its waters service a large fishing industry, its marshes help clean the waters, and its shores and interior host a large industrial pine landscape.
The project team includes 30 individuals from the Restore Council, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and MSU faculty, staff and students from the universitys Forest and Wildlife Research Center, 51勛圖厙 Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and Geosystems Research Institute.
Project managers are observing that the reports generated by this tool are resulting in stronger, more informed proposals.
To me, success is not just about creating the tools. Its about the science weve provided that leads to decisions that protect and restore our ecosystems, and its also about the relationships weve built with almost 700 stakeholders across the Gulf Coast, Evans said.
I am proud and pleased to accept this award on behalf of our team and appreciate the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the nomination, Evans added.
The CESU Network is a national consortium of 17 federal agencies and more than 490 nonfederal partners working together to support informed public trust resource stewardship. The networks partnerships, based at host universities, bring together scientists, resource managers, students, and other conservation professionals to conduct collaborative research addressing natural and cultural heritage resource issues in an ecosystem context. For more information, visit .泭
The Strategic Conservation Assessment of Gulf Coast Landscapes tools are available at .
MSU is 51勛圖厙s leading university, available online at .