Improve Your World

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF 40: Experiential Learning has been part of the college since its inception in 1911. The hands-on learning experience is folded into nearly every program offering.

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF #41 - In a lecture at SUNY-ESF, Dr. Daniel Wildcat, Haskell Indian Nations University, explained the convergence of cultural and physical climate change as the key to adaptation.

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF 38: ESF used the latest in environmental building techniques to make the Gateway Center as energy-efficient as possible so the combined heat and power plant could supply five campus buildings.

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF 39: While demolition rips down old buildings, deconstruction takes them apart in a way that allows their materials to be re-used for other purposes.

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF 35: The building of ESF's first student residence, Centennial Hall, the reconstruction of a parking lot designed to reduce or eliminate stormwater runoff and a look at the ongoing construction of the new Gateway Center.

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF 37 - Two different harvesting operations are explored in this program. One harvest is forced by an invasive pest killing off a stand of trees in Central New York. The other harvest is part of long-term research designed to help bring back the white pine, a once dominant tree in the United States. The program also contains some advice for people planting trees in their yards and landscapes.

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF 33: This episode covers using plants and trees to clean up pollution, including purifying waste sites and controlling brownfields, as well as creating wildlife habitats and recreation areas by planting alternative landfill covers. Featuring Dr. Lee Newman, Douglas Daley and Dr. Timothy Volk.

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF 34: Dr. Gary Scott, Chair of Paper Science and Bioprocess Engineering, explains science and engineering using magic to reveal "The Secrets of Money."

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF 36: Two ESF researchers are very close to the development of a blight-resistant American chestnut tree.

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF 48: The Newcomb Campus hosted a pollinators bioblitz in June 2014. Experts and the general public were invited to comb the grounds of the Adirondack Interpretive Center and other venues to discover and identify as many pollinators as they could in a 24 hour period. The event was organized by the Adirondack All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory.

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF 45: Trees and shrubs from many different locations have been planted outside the Syracuse University Life Sciences Complex to track the impact of climate change on native and non-native species.

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF 47: SUNY-ESF paper science students make a special paper for use by a group of Syracuse University art students in their annual block art project.

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF: Educators and environmentalists meet to discuss the Hudson River Watershed, the restoration of Huntington Lodge, mountain trail maintenance, and building an urban space that promotes community.

Improve Your World with SUNY-ESF: Building more environmentally friendly golf courses as well as using them to restore brownfields; engineering students send a balloon up, up and away; researchers look for the connection between vegetation and temperature.

A student film on the preservation of wildlife in eastern Long Island, Silviculture, and ESF students travel to New Orleans but the fun is in serving others.

An introduction to a plant called the “supermarket of the swamp,” using fewer lights and less powerful lights to save money and energy, and a truck that runs on wood gas.

A labor-intensive effort to eradicate an invasive plant from Skaneateles Lake is successful and students in chemistry class learn how to convert sunshine into energy by building their own solar cells.

The urban forest often goes unnoticed but it has a big impact on quality of life. Also often overlooked is the use of wood as a source of home heating and power production. The show features David Nowak of the U.S. Forest Service and Dr. Timothy Volk.

Using cellulosic nanocrystals to make plastic, tracking New York’s coyote population, making biodiesel from cooking oil, and exploring tropical ecology in Dominica and Australia.

Collaborative Governance and Global Warming: Can we change more than the climate? Dr. Kirk Emerson makes how public and private sectors are going to have to work together to make change happen.

New research into car/deer collisions offers several ways to reduce the number of accidents and GPS collars are showing how far coyotes travel and growing population in New York. The show includes Dr. Brian Underwood, Dr. Jacqueline Frair and graduate students.

Biodiesel is a clean burning alternative fuel that can be produced from vegetable oils or animal fats. SUNY-ESF makes biodiesel with used cooking oil from nearby college dining halls.

Using examples in rural and urban settings to explain how watersheds work and how best management practices can be used to protect our water resources.

Art and it’s impact on our discussions about the environment. Artist Jennifer Marsh used a long-closed gas station as a focal point in the debate over the use of oil. She and a host of volunteers wrapped the gas station in fabric panels like a giant quilt...

Scott Shannon, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, on his contribution to the book Outside The Not So Big House. Graduate student George Westby on his research trip to Antarctica. Dr. Robert Warner, author of Freshwater Fishes of the Northeast.

Featuring Dr. Charlie Hall and students Robert Powers and William Schoenberg.

“Wildlife: deer, turkeys and songbirds” researching Chronic Wasting Disease, documenting a successful wildlife restoration project, and the climate change effect on bird populations with Dr. William Porter and students Amy Dechen, David Williams, and Ben

Professors Susan Anagnost, Robert Meyer, Robert Hanna, William Smith and students Otis Deluca, Dan Levea, Gary Baron, and Nick Savas on wood versus steel, sustainable construction practices and what wood to use for what.

Professors Bob Werner, Peter Black, Jim Hassett and John Farrell and Graduate Research Assistant Geofrey Eckerlin on protecting surface and ground water supplies and the dangers of invasive species.

“Development of shrub willow” as an agricultural crop, a renewable energy resource and brownfield remediation with Dr. Timothy Volk, Dr. Kim Cameron and student Jaconette Mirck.

Features professors Don Leopold and Douglas Daley and students Anthony Eallonardo and Danielle Benati on site near Onondage Lake in Syracuse

“Franciscan-Vietnamese Freedom Garden: Landscape Architecture students turn a vacant lot into an urban park” with Cheryl Doble, Director of the Center for Community Design Research/Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, and students Nicole Formoso

Featuring Dr. Tom Amidon, Dr. Gary Scott and student Christopher Wood.