MSU recognized nationally for conservation work
Contact: Meg Henderson
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥斞侵奚墒悠 is accepting a national award for its partnership in a large-scale sustainability project.
Kristine Evans, assistant professor in MSU鈥檚 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 鈥淪trategic Conservation Assessment of Gulf Coast Landscapes.鈥 The work is this year鈥檚 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.
鈥淭he Gulf Coast is one of the most critically important ecosystems in the U.S.,鈥 Evans said. 鈥淚ts waters service a large fishing industry, its marshes help clean the waters, and its shores and interior host a large industrial pine landscape.鈥
The project team includes 30 individuals from the Restore Council, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and MSU faculty, staff and students from the university鈥檚 Forest and Wildlife Research Center, Mississippi 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.
鈥淭o me, success is not just about creating the tools. It鈥檚 about the science we鈥檝e provided that leads to decisions that protect and restore our ecosystems, and it鈥檚 also about the relationships we鈥檝e built with almost 700 stakeholders across the Gulf Coast,鈥 Evans said.
鈥淚 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,鈥 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 network鈥檚 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 .听
The Strategic Conservation Assessment of Gulf Coast Landscapes tools are available at .
MSU is Mississippi鈥s leading university, available online at .