Oregon’s marine reserves are protected areas of the ocean that conserve key coastal areas and function as refuges for marine life. Canary rockfish, aggregating anemones, ochre sea stars, and bull kelp are just some of the species thriving in these protected environments. However, a key question arises: how do marine conservation efforts impact human well-being? This question is central to our Environmental Policy and Management Policy Clinic project, conducted in collaboration with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and UC Davis partners.
In early June, the UC Davis Graduate Program of Environmental Policy and Management hosted the third annual UC Davis Environmental Policy Symposium, marking another successful year of bringing together students, professionals, and community members to address pressing environmental issues.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, renowned for its rich soil and biodiversity, faces unique challenges as climate change and development threaten its agricultural landscape through increasing saltwater intrusion, sea levels, and temperatures. Our group collaborated with the Delta Stewardship Council to dig deeper into these pressing issues and explore strategies that help farmers adapt to these changes.
There are over 400,000 farmworkers employed in the agricultural industry in California (California Employment Development Department, 2022). Despite only making up a small proportion of the total 40 million people in the state, their work is fundamental to everyone’s daily life. The significance of their work is a contrast to the difficult working conditions they face on a daily basis– strenuous tasks, poor living conditions, exposure to extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and toxic pesticides.
Consider this: the coffee you drink in the morning, and the chocolate you eat at night, were both grown by a farmer somewhere in the world. You feel good knowing that the coffee was produced sustainably through the farmer's partnership with Fair Trade USA™. However, growing concerns regarding climate change and deforestation have increased pressure on farmers to mitigate harm to the environment, which begs the question, how? And what role can a nonprofit certifying agency, like Fair Trade USA (FTUSA), play?
For the Policy Clinic, our team worked alongside NOAA Fisheries to analyze the impacts of salmon extirpation on communities in the San Joaquin River Basin.
This team of students partnered with the California Ocean Science Trust to research existing data on blue carbon ecosystems and frontline communities in California, along with conducting informational interviews to provide research and policy recommendations.
A hallmark of the Graduate Program of Environmental Policy and Management is the annual Policy Clinic, a capstone class where student teams partner with environmental organizations to address an environmental policy or natural resources management issue.
Our Policy Clinic team partnered with the non-profit organization Friends of the River to better understand the potential impacts of the proposed Del Puerto Canyon Reservoir.
