RNR Calendar
- -- 22 Apr 2021 - Thursday: Annual General Meeting of the SRNR/FWF Alumni Association
- -- 23 April 2021 - Friday: Final date for dropping courses, 4:30 p.m., deadline. [Note change of date]. Click the link for more information rgarding 'W' grades for Spring 2021 semester.
- -- 26 Apr through 1 May - [Monday - Saturday] Final Exams
Link to ACADEMIC CALENDAR
- -- SCIENCE THURSDAY (via Zoom). Thank you to Dr. Megan LaPeyre, Adjunct Professor of Fisheries at RNR, for her presentation on February 4th. "Love'em or hate'em, oysters are shucking amazing" If you missed the live Zoom event, you can view the presentation by clicking the link: Presentation Video
LSU SRNR/FWF Alumni Association
Annual General Meeting
- Join us for LSU SRNR/FWF Alumni Association Annual General Meeting
- Thursday, 4/22/2021 6:00 PM - 7:15 PM
- https://lsu.zoom.us/j/9473948966
Please mark your calendar for the Annual General Meeting of the LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources/Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Alumni Association to be held predominantly via Zoom on Thursday, April 22nd at 6 p.m.
- Highlights of the meeting will include –
- --Report of Director Allen Rutherford, including update on the upcoming replacement of the roof, HVAC, and hooding systems at the RNR Building, necessitating a 6 month relocation of classes, labs, and offices
- --Induction of Dr. Fred Bryan and Dr. Bill Herke into the SRNR/FWF Alumni Association Hall of Fame
- --Election of Officers
We will also feature an on-line silent auction of selected School of Renewable Natural Resources (SRNR) and LSU memorabilia.
Don't forget to renew your memebership and pay your dues! 2021 Membership Renewal form for download.
Governor's Comission on Greenhouse Gas Emissions includes RNR Faculty
[5 April 2021, The Daily Reveille] Nine LSU researchers joined committees and advisory groups for Gov. John Bel Edwards’s Climate Initiatives Task Force, an executive order signed in August of last year to reduce Louisiana’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
By February 2022, the Task Force will submit a detailed plan to reduce Louisiana greenhouse gas emissions 26-28% by 2025, 40-50% by 2030 and net zero emissions by mid-century.
“Just as we have done with coastal protection and restoration, we are building an inclusive, science-driven process to lead us to solutions to an incredibly complex and difficult problem,” Edwards said in a press release.
The task force is supported by six committees pertaining to sectors of the economy, and four advisory groups focused on science, equity, law and policy and financial and economic concerns.
LSU chemical engineering professor Kalliat Valsaraj is part of the Science Advisory Committee, tasked with assessing the feasibility of scientific recommendations to attain carbon neutrality by 2050.
“It may be challenging to the Louisiana situation because of its reliance on the oil and gas industry, but the prospect of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is certainly possible,” Valsaraj said.
The transition to renewable energy and carbon neutrality is crucial in mitigating the effects of global climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions increase temperatures in the atmosphere and the ocean, leading to sea-level rise, more extreme weather and a host of other devastating effects outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Almost every country joined the United Nations’ Paris Agreement, which aims to limit greenhouse emissions by transitioning economies away from nonrenewable energy, like oil and natural gas, to renewable energy, like solar and wind. President Joe Biden rejoined the United States into the Paris Agreement on his first day in office, undoing the country’s November 2020 withdrawal from the agreement.
Louisiana is fifth among states in total carbon emissions and emissions per-capita, according to 2015-16 U.S. Department of Energy statistics. Much of Louisiana’s emissions come from the production of oil and gas at wells, the use of oil and gas as fuel in refineries and petrochemical manufacturing and from transportation emissions.
>Edwards described Louisiana as the “poster child for climate risk,” during a meeting of the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. Louisiana’s incidences of extreme weather and already-sinking coastline make the state especially vulnerable to climate-related impacts.
“Coastal erosion and the relocation of vulnerable communities will tax our state resources in the future,” Valsaraj said. “When you superimpose our already costly efforts at coastal restoration, even slight increases in sea level due to global climate changes (and arctic snow melts) will make our efforts even more difficult.”
Other LSU researchers in the science advisory group are petroleum engineering professor Mehdi Zeidouni, agriculture professor Chang Jeong and Richard Keim, a professor in the School of Renewable Natural Resources. Keim’s research at LSU focuses on the interaction of forests and wetlands with the water cycle, specifically as it pertains to greenhouse gases and climate change.
“The task force needs this expertise because any proposed actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change need to include the role of ecosystems,” Keim said. “Forests and wetlands are major stores of carbon in Louisiana, and we can affect their carbon balances substantially by the way we manage them directly and by the way we manage the water they depend on.”
Ten percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions comes from agriculture, according to the EPA. Finding better practices and incentives for farmers to implement could result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions, according to agriculture professor Naveen Adusumilli, who works on the Agricultural Conservation Waste Management Subcommittee.
Another way agriculture will have impacts on the climate is through carbon sequestration, the ability of forests and grasslands to store carbon that would otherwise go into the atmosphere.
Forests and grasslands are referred to as carbon sinks because they store large amounts of carbon in their vegetation and root systems for long periods of time.
“There are several practices the farmers will be able to adopt,” Adusumilli said. “The goal is how to convince them and create a set of mechanisms so that they can adopt these practices on a long-term basis.”
Geography and anthropology professor Craig Colten has worked on environmental justice issues since he arrived at LSU in 2000. He’s currently researching how marginalized communities in the coastal region of the state are neglected by the state’s ambitious coastal master plan.
Colten will serve the Task Force’s Equity Advisory Group, which will consider how vulnerable, minority and marginalized residents of Louisiana will be impacted by either actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or by the continuation of the status quo.
“We often see inequitable impacts from environmental policies,” Colten said, “and our duty is to foreground the equity issues in the early stages of discussion, debate and policy formulation.”
Economics professor and director of the Public Administration Institute in the E. J. Ourso College of Business Administration James Richardson will serve on the Economics and Finance Advisory Group.
Richardson has worked with the Louisiana economy for over 50 years, helping create economic outlooks for the state and working with the legislature on tax policy since 1970.
“My focus has to be on the economic and financial impact perspective,” Richardson said. “But, obviously, any economic and financial impacts will be closely related to the science issues.”
Other LSU researchers working with the task force include petroleum engineering professor Richard Hughes on the Mining, Oil and Gas Production Advisory Group, and energy law professor Nick Bryner.
Edwards became the 25th governor to commit to carbon reduction goals in line with the Paris Agreement’s goals, but Louisiana’s efforts will need to be matched by other states and countries to limit global climate change.
“Whatever actions Louisiana may take has to be accompanied by similar or stronger actions from our neighboring states since CO2 does not recognize state boundaries,” Valsaraj said.
permalink | Joshua Archote | Daily RevielleRichard P. Sivicek makes multiple donations to RNR
RNR Alumnus Richard P. Sivicek (BSF ’69) made several gifts to the School over the last year. Rich has an interesting story: he was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, but as a young man, he had a keen interest in forestry and decided to go south, ending up at LSU. Sivicek graduated from RNR (then Forestry) in 1969 with a degree in forestry. While his career went in a different direction, he still considers forestry his passion and has generously decided to give back to the School.
Sivicek has endowed the Richard P. Sivicek Undergraduate Scholarship, the Richard P. Sivicek Graduate Scholarship, and has made a generous contribution to completely refurbishing the RNR computer laboratory. The undergraduate scholarship will be awarded primarily based on the degree of financial need, with preferential consideration to students concentrating in fisheries and aquaculture or wetland science.
Recipients of the graduate scholarship must be full-time graduate students studying fisheries and aquaculture in the School and have a minimum grade point average of 3.0. Consideration will be given to students pursuing a master’s degree, with financial need as a consideration for selection.
Sivicek’s donation to the computer laboratory will allow for an extensive update of our current infrastructure and will be named in his honor. With this donation, we will be able to reconfigure the laboratory and purchase new state-of-the-art computer equipment.
Sivicek always wanted a master’s degree in fisheries, but between family obligation and the military draft, he never realized his dream but has since focused on helping students achieve their goals. During his career, he worked for Georgia Pacific in Mississippi, worked construction in Chicago, and spent 22 years with the police department in a Chicago suburb. Donations like these greatly enhance our ability to train the next generation of natural resource professionals.
Diane Sustendal Labouisse endows graduate scholarship at SRNR
Ducks Unlimited, Inc. has received a gift from Diane Sustendal Labouisse to for the purpose of endowing an annual graduate-level scholarship at the LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources, to be known as the John Peter Labouisse, III/Ducks Unlimited, Inc. Scholarship.
John Peter Labouisse, III was the longest serving volunteer of the New Orleans Ducks Unlimited Committee. Mr. Labouisse served as a valued member of the DU General Membership, Sponsor and Major Donor committees, and at the time of his death, was recognized as a Life Sponsor of DU with over 40 years of service and contributions to wetlands and waterfowl conservation efforts.
The amount of the scholarship shall be a minimum of $2,000 per semester, or $4,000 per year. The recipient(s) of this award shall be at least one full-time graduate student in good standing in the LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources. Preference shall be given to students who have volunteered for DU through a collegiate, general membership, or sponsor chapter, and who are pursuing a course of study focused on waterfowl, wetland management, or wetland ecology. Recipients of the scholarship shall be selected by the School of Renewable Natural Resources Scholarship Committee, with approval of the VP of Agriculture.
Tiger Chapter DU Does it Again!
Tiger Chapter Ducks Unlimited honored as National Collegiate Champion!
For the 3rd year in a row, Tiger Chapter Ducks Unlimited, sponsored by the LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources, was named National Champion out of over 115 U. S. collegiate Ducks Unlimited chapters.
Tiger Chapter was the 1st collegiate chapter in the U.S. to host a collegiate fundraising event in 1986, and has hosted 1 or more events annually since that time.
Pictured (left) are Tiger Chapter Co-Chair Tucker Ryan, Chair Sophia Abbott, and Co-Chair Brody Lukens. The chapter has over 20 active members, down somewhat do to COVID-19 restrictions. Drs. Luke Laborde and Kevin Ringelman serve as chapter advisors.
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