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The deal that CUPE 3903, the union of teaching assistants and contract faculty (who are paid by the course) at York University, is asking for -- increased wages, benefits, and job security for contract faculty -- won't overthrow all of the unfairness in the University or between the University and society. But it would make […]

On October 28, I will make a presentation to the Faculty of Environmental Studies' (FES) incoming Master's of Environmental Studies (MES) class. The idea of the coordinator of the seminar series, Roger Keil, is to present the diversity of what goes on at our Faculty and what all we do. He asked me to present […]

Thanks to Arlene Gould of York University, I was invited to do a presentation at the IIDEX/NEOCON Design conference, on September 25/08 at Exhibition Place in Toronto. I met several fascinating architects working on green design, and presented some points on landscape ecology and green design. This is the talk I gave. These are the […]

At the suggestion of a friend I wrote this letter to the NYT in response to an interview in their science section two weeks ago. It didn't run, but the same friend (Stephen Shalom at William Patterson University) suggested I post it somewhere. So here it is. Misrepresenting agricultural science In her interview with Claudia […]

From June 16-20, I was in Northwestern Ontario with several other scientists, courtesy of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Fire organization, that organized the tour to familiarize us with some of their current problems. One such problem, to which I'll be returning here, is storm-damaged and windthrown ("blowdown") forests - millions of hectares of […]

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources’ fire management program is home to many skilled and knowledgeable personnel, some of whom may be interested in, but unaware of, opportunities for advanced study in fire at Ontario universities. We therefore decided to prepare the following brief descriptions of graduate programs offered by Ontario university researchers who work […]

In any given year a professor reads a lot of student writing. This year I have found myself referring students to two pieces that, if followed, would help my students improve their writing immensely. They are classics. I have read a lot of things about writing, some useful, some very mediocre. These two, while a […]

Here are some basics on the California wildfires from my perspective as a forest fire researcher. This won't be the blow-by-blow I would do under different circumstances, but just some basics that folks seem to be asking me that I can provide. The fires themselves seem to be winding down. According to the report I […]

The Faculty of Environmental Studies has an MES (Master's in Environmental Studies) program in which students spend about 2 years developing their own plan of study, taking a series of courses, acquiring some experience in the field (usually), and writing a Major Research Paper (usually). These MRP's are defended in an oral exam at the […]