News and Highlights

April 23-25, 2013 in Logan, Utah - Registration is open for the the 11^th Annual CPASW this years theme is “Climate Information for Natural Resource Management.” This theme will integrate broad aspects of climate information applications in water, land, forest, wildlife, habitat, energy, and other natural resources management. Climate is a cross-cutting concern for all of these areas and provides a link for critical decisions of planning, allocating resources, sustaining development and management as well as preserving natural habitats, and building resilient communities. Assessing the current state of climate information applications and sharing perspectives among a wide range of natural resource stakeholders and workshop participants is a principal motivation for this year’s CPASW.

The goals of 2013 CPASW are to build a community of climate practitioners, discover user needs, assess impacts of climate forecasts on environmental-societal interactions, identify the science potential for meeting these needs, and provide feedback to producers on the usability of existing climate products.

The meeting format will include presentations and interactive sessions addressing the meeting goals. The workshop focus will include examples of applications of hydro-climate predictions ranging from short-term (e.g., two-week to seasonal/annual) to long term (e.g., decadal and multi-decadal projections). Targeted users include natural resource managers from multiple sectors; for example, land, water, agriculture, forests, fish & wildlife. The workshop will highlight climate information use in special-purpose programs such as fire risk reduction, species recovery, ecosystem restoration, and flood and drought responses.

Who should attend the 11th annual CPAS Workshop:

• Decision-makers who utilize climate predictions, products, and services
• Researchers  working on applications of climate information in various fields of National Security
• Developers and providers of climate applications and tools
• Applied climatologists and scientists who use climate information
• Social scientists who work with climate-sensitive stakeholders

Utah has just exceeded the NSF funding level that made us EPSCoR eligible (0.75% of NSF's budget), so we are not NSF EPSCoR eligible for Fiscal Year 2013. Please see the EPSCoR Eligibility Memo and EPSCoR Eligibility Table for information about Utah's EPSCoR eligibility status. Please circulate to colleagues at your institution. If you have questions contact Rita Teutonico, State EPSCoR Director. 

Read the latest iUTAH newsletter.

The Natural History Museum of Utah sponsored a series of outdoor learning activities for K-12 students to provide them with the opportunity to conduct their own hands-on water research at the Bear River Watershed in Northern, Utah.

Activities included a series of water workshops, water tests and scientific discussions focusing on the topic of water sustainability."The outdoors is a great place to integrate the curriculum!" said Jessica Wright, a participant from Viewmont Elementary. "There are so many subject areas that can be integrated through learning outdoors. Students can use research skills as they research to find out more and they can use math skills as they analyze data they find."

Aaron Daniels, a participating teacher from Murray High School,  commented on the impact of the outdoor learning activities had on his students."Learning outdoors allows for an authentic experience where  students are involved in their own learning. They are observing, questioning, making inferences and writing it down so they can learn from it. They are thinking about themselves and how they are a part of their surroundings. They can learn that they can make a difference."

Additional iUTAH outdoor learning activities will strive to promote these same educational learning values within educational institutions throughout the state.

April 9, 2013 iUTAH will be screening "WATERSHED, Explore a New Water Ethic for the New West" at 7:00 pm at the Eccles Conference Center Auditorium at USU.

April 9-10, 2013 is the Ninth Annual Utah State University Water Initiative Spring Runoff Conference at the USU Eccles Conference Center. The theme this year is: "Water, People and Sustainability:   Integrating Physical, Social and Ecological Dimensions."  The Spring Runoff Conference provides a forum for interdisciplinary sharing and exchange of ideas on water-related issues in Utah and the Intermountain Region extending to all aspects of water science, ecology, policy, engineering and management.  Students are particularly encouraged to attend and present papers. The conference typically has about 150 participants from regional universities, state and federal agencies, as well as some invited National and International speakers.

If you are interested in submitting an abstract for a presentation (poster or talk) abstracts are due March 8, 2013.