Learning for Sustainability: Partnership for the Goals

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Collaborations and Moving Past COVID-19: The Human Ecology and Applied Ecology Sections

The Applied Ecology and Human Ecology sections of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) have collaborated for several years, given their overlapping and common interests in the human dimensions of ecology. Starting in 2008, the sections have worked together on combined activities at annual meetings, including field trips, BioBlitzes, collaborative workshops, and mixers (Fig. 1). While each section has its own mission and objectives concerning the integration of human dimensions into ecological scholarship, our combined efforts have led to greater participation among ESA members in selected cities. Going forward, our sections' visions will continue to elevate our collaborative relationship, which is grounded in integrating human dimensions into our activities and scholarship

Where are the women? Towards gender equality in the ranger workforce

The ranger workforce is currently characterized by an extreme gender skew. Exact data—or even reliable estimates—are scarce, but the general understanding is that only 3–11% of the global ranger workforce is female, with considerable local variation (Belecky et al. 2019). Although consideration of the gender context for a workforce often starts with numbers, achieving greater gender balance requires a much more comprehensive understanding of the problems and a wide-net approach to solutions. Bringing women into the ranger workforce is an important human rights and equality goal in itself. Further, there is evidence that women bring skill sets and strengths to the ranger workforce that are different from those of men. Bringing gender equality into the workforce can improve conservation, relationships with communities, park management, and wildlife management. The Chitwan Declaration (World Ranger Congress 2019) commits to broad gender-related goals: gender-equal opportunities in hiring, pay, and promotion in the ranger workforce, as well as appropriate measures to provide safety and support for female rangers. This paper, based in part on interviews with men and women in the current ranger workforce, analyzes the state of the gender imbalance in the ranger workforce, provides a contextual assessment, and advances recommendations for moving towards these Chitwan goals

Educating the Future of Sustainability

The future of global environmental sustainability is contingent upon educating the next generation of environmental stewards. Critical elements of training such an interdisciplinary workforce include mentoring and experiential learning in the areas of science, communication, and leadership. To keep pace with the ever changing and increasingly complex issues of global environmental sustainability, environmental educators must encourage and support the participation and training of a diverse body of students in the environmental sciences. The Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network (RMSSN) is a partnership of over two dozen universities, federal agencies and other organizations designed to help train the next diverse generation of interdisciplinary leaders who are prepared to address issues related to global climate change, environmental sustainability, and the management of public lands and resources using the Rocky Mountains as a laboratory and classroom. Herein, we present the RMSSN as a model for engaging students in the environmental sciences with an emphasis on understanding key elements of sustainability. Our model is based on a foundation of: (1) diversity; (2) tiered mentoring in cohorts; (3) engaging lectures coupled with field experiences on public lands; (4) long term networking; and (5) environmental internships

A Landscape-Level Survey of Feral Hog Impacts to Natural Resources of the Big Thicket National Preserve

We conducted a survey of the impact of feral hog (Sus scrofa) on the natural resources of the Big Thicket National Preserve (BTNP), a unit of the National Park Service. We worked in 3 management units: Lance Rosier, Big Sandy, and Turkey Creek. Random stratified sampling was conducted to assess impacts from hog damage on resources by vegetation type at a landscape scale. Landscape features such as topography, soil moisture, soil type, and dominant vegetative cover types were used to predict hog damage. The overall damage to vegetation from hog rooting or wallowing averaged 28% within the 3 units of the BTNP. In the Big Sandy unit, floodplains had the most damage (45%), whereas flatlands were mostly impacted in the Turkey Creek unit (46%), and uplands in the Lance Rosier unit (32%). These levels of damage were more severe and widespread than previously believed and support the premise that hog damage in the BTNP parallels the increase in hog abundance over the past 20 years

Creating global leaders with sustainability mindsets - insights from the RMSSN Summer Academy

Ensuring a more sustainable world requires leaders who are global citizens with sustainability mindsets. This is especially true in tourism as a global phenomenon with tremendous impacts on local communities and global society. This article presents the structure and preliminary outcomes of a pedagogical experiment aimed at creating global leaders with sustainability mindsets and aligns closely with approaches outlined for global citizenship education and sustainable tourism pedagogy. It describes the various components of the program and outlines the elaborate assessment framework developed and concludes with a discussion on how the model could be replicated in the tourism context

The power and potential of citizen science for park bonding, advocacy, and stewardship

Citizen science represents an opportunity to invite and encourage broad connections with the scientific community. Fundamentally, the research strategy urges public participation to answer important research questions. Citizen science offers tremendous possibilities to welcome a diverse audience to engage with science on public lands while addressing relevant management questions. The work described in this paper emphasizes the potential for using citizen science in the US national parks to not only advance pertinent scientific inquiry but also foster an appreciation for protected lands. It highlights the Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network (RMSSN) as an organization that has capitalized on citizen science to explore worthwhile social­–cultural and environmental studies. Furthermore, RMSSN has stressed the importance of leveraging a diverse cohort of graduate and undergraduate students to accomplish such work. This approach has resulted in participants expressing an enhanced, deeper appreciation for the parks, recognizing them as special places, with stronger motivations to steward and advocate for them. The diverse social components of the citizen science-based experience appeared to have a critical role in cultivating such a response

Engaging the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

The authors present a new approach to show how interdisciplinary collaborations among a group of institutions can provide a unique opportunity for students to engage across the science-policy nexus using the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Through collaboration across seven higher education institutions in the United States and Australia, virtual student research teams worked together across disciplines