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| News from the Rubenstein School | May 2013 |
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Dean's Message
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Features:Walt Poleman Receives Prestigious Thoreau Grant to Grow Environmental Innovators and Leaders in GreenHouse
Greening of Aiken Update: Landscaping and Lady Beetles
Curt Ventriss Named a 2013 University Scholar
UVM Alumni Come Back to the Classroom
Casella Waste Systems 2013 Scholarships Fund Students' Travel Courses
RSENR Big Part of New Breeding Bird Atlas of Vermont
RSENR Community Comes Together to Share Coffee and Learn about Green Walls
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Every graduating class hears how they are entering into a brave new world. A world unlike their parents, filled with new challenges and opportunities. This May's class is no different, with one major exception. On May 9th, the planet officially crossed the milestone of 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 
Senior Lecturer Walter Poleman (UVM-MS ’95, NR-PhD ’10) has received a prestigious $35,000 grant from the Henry David Thoreau Foundation which awards only one or two grants each year to support faculty and undergraduates in programs that promote creative action and collective study of environmental issues, with an understanding that local is global. The Foundation encourages cooperative efforts with community organizations and businesses to cultivate future environmental leaders.
A renewed Greening of Aiken group, calling themselves GoRSENR (Greening of RSENR) and led by Research Associate Gary Hawley (FOR ’78, MS-FOR ’82), is working to re-energize greening projects in Aiken such as educational features, art, and landscaping; push for installing 30 more solar panels at the Forest Service property on Spear Street to attain Net-Zero energy for Aiken; and promote energy efficiency renovations in other buildings affiliated with the Rubenstein School. 
Curtis Ventriss, professor of public policy and natural resources in the Rubenstein School, was recognized as one of four 2013 University Scholars. Curt has researched and published extensively in the areas of economic development, public policy, policy and administrative ethics, public management, and citizen engagement in the policy process. 
This spring semester, four UVM alumni and parents visited our Rubenstein School classrooms to regale our students with stories about careers in entrepreneurship and in environment and natural resources.
Rubenstein School students continue to benefit from the generosity of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. of Rutland, Vermont. Since 2006, Casella has provided annual scholarship funds to the Rubenstein School, and this is the second year that we have used Casella's gifts to support students in Winter and Spring Travel Courses.
The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds of Vermont was released in April with many contributions from our Rubenstein School community. Edited by Rosalind Renfrew (WFB ’89), biologist with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, the project leader, in partnership with the State of Vermont, University of Vermont, and other organizations, this comprehensive wildlife publication includes full color photographs, maps, graphs, and insightful interpretations for more than 200 species of birds.
The Aiken Center Solarium provided the ideal setting for the April 26th coffee hour sponsored by the RSENR Board of Advisers for staff and faculty. There was a constant buzz in the room as advisers, staff, and faculty met for the first time or renewed conversations from past meetings.