Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program



Old trees on the brinkThe Inquirier, , 12/12/2018Sea-level rise threatens 500-year-old black gums in a primeval New Jersey forest... a?Rutgers?map of a sea-level rise of 1 foot, the lowest estimate using 2000 as a base level, shows much of Glades Wildlife Refuge, which spans from the Delaware Bay to the old-growth forest, would become mostly water. Already, trees that once were upland are dying along the marshes as salinity pushes in. Pockets of Atlantic White Cedar have already died giving rise to ghost forests.Don't Let Holiday Baking Make You SickConsumer Reports, 12/14/2018It's not the cheeriest holiday message, but this month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning to consumers: It can be dangerous to eat raw cookie dough. But it's not necessarily the uncooked eggs that you need to worry about-the CDC's advice came on the heels of a salmonella outbreak that sickened five people, some of whom had consumed uncooked cake mix, which contained flour... "The common wisdom used to be that we shouldn't eat cake batter and cookie dough because they contain uncooked eggs," which can transmit foodborne pathogens, says?Donald Schaffner, Ph.D., distinguished professor of food science at Rutgers University. "As it turns out, raw flour may be equally concerning-if not more so."The Investment Risk Tolerance Assessment: A Resource for Extension EducatorsJournal of Extension, 12/15/2018Investment risk tolerance affects financial decisions made by Extension clientele, including farmers deciding between securities and farm machinery purchases (O'Neill, Komar, Brumfield, & Mickel, 2010;?O'Neill, Porter, Pankow, Schuchardt, & Johnson, 2010), consumers selecting personal investments (O'Neill, 2003), and 4-H club youths learning about compound interest and investing.Rutgers Cooperative Ext. Hosts IFISSH CourseThe Fisherman, 12/18/2018From January 29 through April 2,?Rutgers Cooperative Extension?(RCE) will once again be hosting their annual Introductory Fisheries Science for Stakeholders (IFISSH) course again for 2019. The objective of this course is to educate stakeholders of New Jersey's fishing industries so that they will better understand and make progress on issues impacting their industries, including the science, management, and responsible stewardship of fishery resources.Once nearly extinct, Jersey oysters join the jet , 12/20/2018Over the last four centuries this craggy little mollusk morphed from one of the most sedentary animals on the planet to one of the best traveled. Oysters raised by Steve Fleetwood move greater distances with greater frequency and speed than many commercially produced pigs, cows or chickens ever will... Rather than resent all this hullabaloo, the oysters thrive. An oyster in the upper bay might take 12 years to reach marketable size, said?Michael De Luca, director of the Rutgers University Aquaculture Innovation Center?in Cape May. Transplanted closer to the sea, oysters reach maturity in just three years, aided by warmer water and the abundance of phytoplankton.Scientists want to build a doomsday vault of germs that could one day help save humanityBusiness Insider, 12/21/2018Human microbiota - most of which are beneficial bacteria in the gut - can strengthen immune systems, fight off invading germs, and help people digest food. These microbiota have evolved for millions of years, but the diversity of most people's gut bacteria has decreased dramatically in the past few generations... A group of researchers led by?Rutgers University professor Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello?believes that changes in our microbiota could be the main factor underlying the rise of these diseases. The prevalence of antibiotics and processed foods in Westernized countries, they say, is contributing to the loss of microbial diversity and could be causing health problems.There's a huge and hidden migration in North America -- of dragonfliesThe Washington Post, 12/21/2018Each spring and fall, large dragonflies called green darners fly across North America. A green darner can travel as far as 900 miles on its two-inch wings, fluttering from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. They are some of the most abundant dragonflies on the continent - but few people notice this mass migration. Research published this week in Biology Letters is the first to describe dragonfly migration in detail... The new research "is a really good bit," said?Michael May, a dragonfly expert at Rutgers University?who was not a member of this research team. "We had a general idea of what was going on," he said, but until now there was no way to follow the course of the whole migration. (The Cessna approach, flown by one of May's collaborators, can't cover enough territory.) Today, 12/21/2018The Food and Drug Administration is shocking guac lovers by recommending the public to thoroughly wash the peel, even though no one's going to eat it. It's a way to prevent bacteria and dirt from hitching a ride on your knife from the dark green avocado skin to the light green fleshy part that you eat...?William Hallman, a human ecology professor at Rutgers University, pointed out that likely very little listeria would even be transferred from the skin to the flesh of the avocado but called the FDA suggestion "good advice." "Even though the risk is relatively small, you can reduce it to virtually nonexistent," he said. "There are many more dangerous things you can do than not wash an avocado, but having said that, the rate at which the FDA found listeria on avocados was a fair amount."Mission: Impossible BurgerSNJ Today, 12/25/2018In 2018, Impossible Foods achieved several major milestones in connection with the Impossible Burger. First, in May, the burger earned kosher certification; in July, the Food and Drug Administration approved the heme molecule. Then, in early December, the burger was halal certified. But it's quite possible that none of this would be possible if the folks at Impossible Foods hadn't stumbled upon representatives of the Bridgeton-based Food Innovation Center-in Illinois of all places... "A team of top engineering and marketing people from Impossible Foods had come upon our table at a food show a couple years ago, maybe three years ago in Chicago," says?Julie Elmer, associate director of food technology at the Rutgers' New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Food Innovation Center?(FIC) in Bridgeton.Cutting-edge startups can get NJ rent grants for these 9 locationsNJ101.5, 1/2/2019New Jersey has a half million dollars it plans on dividing up among start-up companies looking to move into one of the state's nine collaborative workspaces... The following workspaces have been approved to participate in NJ Ignite:?The Rutgers EcoComplex?is a clean energy innovation center and business incubator in Bordentown designed to serve as a hub of education and outreach for the clean/alternative energy and environmental communities. Food-related startups looking to take their businesses from concept to commercialization can participate in the?Rutgers Food Innovation Center's?(FIC's) business incubator and economic development accelerator. Two of Rutgers FIC's locations, Bridgeton and Piscataway, were approved to participate in NJ Ignite.Ghost Fishing Off Long Island's CoastUndark, 1/2/2019It was "a perfect storm," of adverse environmental conditions driven by climate change. This combination caused the Lobsters to surrender to a parasitic amoeba. . now rusty pots - abandoned years ago on the floor of the Sound - continue to catch and kill marine life, including lobsters. They call it "ghost fishing."... "The ocean is where the effects of climate change are in many ways appearing first," says?Malin Pinsky, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at Rutgers University. For years, he has been tracking the speed of climate variations by following the movements of marine species in U.S. waters. "This affects economies, this affects people's livelihoods," he says. "And this eventually affects our dinner plate."NJ sets record for rain, sleet, snow in 2018. More precipitation on the way for , 1/2/2019If you spent last year griping about how much rain, sleet and snow New Jersey was getting, your complaints have been justified... "It wasn't one big month, one big event that jacked up totals," said?David Robinson, the state climatologist at Rutgers University. "One of the big stories out of this is that the rainfall was spread out over the entire year."Research Team Seeks to Boost Berry QualityGrowing Produce, 1/3/2019A recent survey of U.S. blueberry growers show they believe the berries are going to need firmer texture and better flavor, and those should be priorities for breeders, even more so than making them easier to grow.. While the survey focused on blueberries, the project would include cranberries, another of the very few fruit crops native to North America. Another project Co-director is?Nicholi Vorsa, a Rutgers University?Biology Professor who heads the?Philip E. Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension. Vorsa, who has trials across the country and Canada, says they have identified five excellent cranberry candidates with resistance to fruit rot, which is a complicated disease complex that is caused by at least 15 fungi, each of which can be more difficult depending on the year.Beto O'Rourke Is 'Supportive Of The Concept' Of A Green New DealHuffPost, 1/5/2019Beto O'Rourke is the latest potential 2020 presidential candidate to get behind a Green New Deal. However in December the investigative news site Sludge found that he accepted $430,000 from individuals working in the oil and gas industry... Still, to some, a lawmaker from a top oil-producing state like Texas nodding to a Green New Deal signals "a major shift" in the national debate, said?Robert Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University?who is tracking how the policy is being discussed. "If we're going to make this transition, it has to be a transition that engages the whole country, so it is important that it's not just a dialogue led by people in New York and Massachusetts," he said by phone. "It has to encompass all parts of the country."As seas continue to rise, New Jersey buys residents out of flood zonesPBS, 1/5/2019Hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents live in flood zones that can become inundated with storm water. But the state is trying to move some of them out of harm’s way in one of the biggest home buyout programs in the nation...?Dr. Brooke Maslo is a Rutgers ecologist?and is heading up the restoration efforts in Woodbridge. We've removed about three acres of roads in this neighborhood. We've-planted about 1,000 native trees and shrubs-which we've also protected from deer. We have installed about three acres of warm season meadow. And we've done quite a bit of invasive species management.2018 was state's second wettest yearNew Jersey Herald, 1/7/2019The year 2018 was the second wettest year according to statewide records that date to 1895, according to?New Jersey Climatologist David Robinson... Robinson said the northern New Jersey climate division, which includes that area of New Jersey from Hunterdon, Somerset and Union counties northward, had an average of 65.15 inches of rain, which is 16.52 inches above normal. The highest total for the northern division came in 2011 -- the year of tropical storms Irene and Lee -- with 72.49 inches of rain.Deadline near for Rutgers stewards programMorning Ag Clips, 1/8/2019The?Environmental Steward program?is designed to explain and analyze the environmental issues affecting New Jersey. Using science, teamwork and natural resources, the stewards will create plans to face the problems head-on. You don't have to be a scientist to be a steward - all you need is passion for the environment, learning and volunteering... Classes will be offered by the?Rutgers Cooperative Extension?of Middlesex County at the EARTH Center, in Davidson’s Mill Pond Park at 42 Riva Ave, South Brunswick. The 2019 course begins on Jan. 23 and meets every Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. through June 2019.We invite you to send an email to?InTheNews@aesop.rutgers.edu?alerting us when you are quoted in a story or if your program is mentioned in the news. Please send links of news,?as it happens, as some media outlets do not retain online links beyond a week.Visit the newly redesigned SEBS and NJAES Newsroom at?sebsnjaesnews.rutgers.edu. ................
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