MEM Director, Dr. Micah Russell, Speaks of Student Success!

Over the summer, Dr. Micah Russell, director of the Master of Environmental Management program, had the opportunity to speak at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) Summer Speaker Series. With his extensive background in watershed management and restoration, it was only natural that his topic of choice reflected his expertise. This chance to present provided him with a perfect opportunity to highlight himself and his work. Going against the status quo, Dr. Russell chose to highlight many MEM and MSE students and their projects. He spoke on the many water-related challenges that students and residents of the Gunnison Valley face. Not only drought, but impacts of upstream activities on those downstream, and impacts of past activities that continue to influence our water resources today. The MEM and MSE are programs that encourage an interdisciplinary approach to these kinds of complex issues. This approach is reflected in many of the graduate students’ work. Dr. Russell utilized his presentation time to highlight projects that had connections to water and wetlands but were not defined by this sole topic.

A project done by student Jace Cussins on wet meadow resilience that analyzed soil moisture was furthered by student Heather Reynolds who was determined to see if the Gunnison Sage Grouse were benefiting from wet meadow restoration. By extending the reach of student projects through interdisciplinary collaboration, we are able to see the broader implications of this important work. In his presentation, Dr. Russell noted, “Our students are stepping in and really taking on these questions on behalf of those entities [Western and their partners].” However, students are not only focused on the hard sciences with their projects. 

Communicating results and relevancy is always important when findings are reached. One project that Dr. Russell highlighted focused on the importance of outreach and the influence of technology on that outreach. With a focus on beavers and those interested in beavers, student Heather Reineking created a website to act as a resource for connecting like-minded individuals, and educating those who wanted to learn more. Micah complimented the project noting that, “While this wasn’t an on-the-ground project, it’s still a really essential piece of doing good work for our community.”  

He closed his presentation by saying, “Students are playing a central role in conservation and climate resilience initiatives -- translating science into policy and action.”

Interested in watching Dr. Russell’s presentation or other presentations in the RMBL speaker series? Click here!