Gregg's channel: Recent Episodes
Gregg Hutchison
This Storm Spotter Training Workshop is the official training session for our Lancaster County Storm Spotters. However, even if you are not one of the county storm spotters, we highly encourage you, your family and your friends to attend and to become better prepared for the severe weather that visits our area. There will be many interesting videos and photos shown by the speaker.
Mike Olbinski is a photographer and filmmaker specializing in the raw power of nature. He chases storms across the United States, capturing incredible supercells, tornadoes, dust storms and lightning. His work has won an Emmy and has been featured in work by Marvel (Thor: The Dark World), Discovery, ESPN, Nat Geo, and dozens of others in the industry.
His work has been viewed by millions of people around the world (over 5 million alone on Vimeo) and he has received several honors/ rewards at internationally-acclaimed film festivals. He has perfected the art of storm timelapse in a way no other storm chaser or photographer has done, and is leading the way in high-speed weather animation and film-making. See link: https://vimeo.com/174312494
Zach Sharpe, one of the rising stars in weather social media, has been storm chasing for over 10 years and works year-round as a Storm Chaser for KCCI Television Des Moines. He has covered several tornadoes, historic blizzards with thundersnow and a hurricane live on KCCI. He also serves as the President of the Iowa Storm Chasing Network. He has appeared on The Discovery Channel, Fox News, and featured in the Red Bull Television Series "Heart and Hands: Beyond the Job." Zach is passionate about the dissemination of real time and accurate weather information without allowing shares, likes, or hype to influence a forecast. Please join Zach and special guests as he takes you into the world of social media/ online marketing, and explains how positive and accurate commutation of weather hazards can truly make a difference in your community.
Streams and rivers provide many ecosystem services to humans, including water filtration, flood protection, and recreation among other benefits. In the agricultural Midwest, the impact of human land-use can degrade these freshwater ecosystems and limit their ability to deliver the same degree of services as streams flowing through watersheds with more natural land-use, such as prairies or forests. The Raccoon River is a socially and economically important river in Central Iowa. However, the high nitrate loads led the Des Moines Water Works to bring a lawsuit against upstream drainage districts over the river's water quality. My recent research has explored the variation in nitrate export and loss within the Raccoon River across space and through time. In addition, we have investigated the ecological value of land conservation as reflected by stream ecosystem function. Together, these studies seek to inform the management of river and streams in human-dominated landscapes.
Marra’s book tells the story of the threats free-ranging cats pose to biodiversity and public health throughout the world. His lecture will trace the historical and cultural ties between humans and cats from early domestication to the current boom in pet ownership, along the way accessibly explaining the science of extinction, population modeling and feline diseases.
Ecological and evolutionary processes are often assumed to operate at different temporal scales. Most ecological research assumes that species characteristics are static over scales of ecological interest (e.g. days, years, or even decades). However, a considerable amount of research now suggests that ecological and evolutionary processes operate on similar scales and often interact with implications for the role organisms play in an ecosystem. In this presentation, Dr. Thomas will highlight research results that illustrate how local adaptation (a) influences the phenotypic traits and ecological roles of fish in Trinidadian streams and (b) leads to higher species turnover of aquatic insects along tropical elevation gradients relative to temperate latitudes.
The selective pressures on all species change as species are gained and loss and both invading and resident species can face intense selective pressures following community changes. As time since invasion progresses and phenotypes adjust to new selective regimes, trait-mediated interactions between organisms and their environment also change. We have been examining this process using Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) and their native ecosystems on the island of Trinidad. This work builds upon extensive prior research demonstrating rapid phenotypic change in guppies in response to the presence or absence of predators. In this presentation, we summarize the results of a large collaborative effort to examine ecological consequences of these changes using a suite of approaches that vary in their complexity.
The second portion of this presentation will examine whether aquatic insect taxa have great species turnover along elevation gradients in Ecuador versus Colorado and whether differences are predicted by the thermal biology of resident species. In essence, this works tests Janzen's classic hypothesis regarding "Why mountain passes are higher in the tropics" and whether it holds for aquatic insect populations. Briefly, our results indicate that tropical species have reduced thermal tolerance, narrower altitudinal ranges and greater species turnover with altitude than their temperate counterparts.
There is an increasing level of interest in using unmanned aircraf to help with understanding and managing agricultural production operations and natural resource systems. Tis seminar will include a review of unmanned aircraf research and development toward early detection of moisture stress in cropping systems, as well as other current research projects that are underway in the Nebraska Unmanned Aircraf Innovation, Research and Education (NU-AIRE) laboratory. Specifc areas of presentation emphasis will include: deployment and fight operations of unmanned aircraf systems (UAS), sensor system development, sensor integration, information management, review of fight rules, and fight safety
The Role of Climate on Hydrological Extremes in the Northern Great Plains Region: Updates from the National Climate Assessment
Marker is founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund. She has pioneered research, established conservation models and created cooperative alliances on behalf of the cheetah.
An important feature of any strong program is the ability to periodically evaluate whether the program, as designed, is meeting the goals sought. The closing session will provide a template for critiquing the program and what ongoing information should be maintained to best gauge the status of the program.
Risk reduction policies at the system level can only be identified and implemented after a careful analysis of the risk exposures. This session will discuss three areas of analysis: the tree resource being managed, the operational program and the historic record of past tree-failure events.
The final session for the risk assessment component of the day will synthesize the information collected in the field into an overall risk categorization for the subject trees.
A tree risk assessment is the technical process of identifying the risk potential of a tree and formulating the mitigation options to address the risks identified. A thorough and valid assessment must include four components: the likelihood of a tree part to fail, the time frame in which the failure may occur, the likelihood of striking a target, and the consequences if such an event occurs. This classroom session will provide the details of these key elements.
Risk is managed over time, yet the typical approach of to tree risk is a short-term reaction to the rare, tree-related, incidences. A reaction that more than likely does not reduce risk. The foundation for managing risk at a system level is a concept known as As Low As Reasonably Practical, or ALARP. The ALARP model provides guidance on tree risk by incorporating both the assessment and management elements.
This opening session will provide a framework for the day by describing the differences between tree risk assessments and tree risk management. This unique fields play an important, but different, role in addressing tree risk and managing uncertainty for public agencies and private sector. A healthy, proactive program integrates concepts from both fields of expertise.
Trees provide a number of important ecosystem services including the sequestration of CO2, a greenhouse gas.
When communities decide to turn their urban wood waste into wood products, it affects all levels of community forest management, beginning with the harvest of urban trees. Traditional harvest of urban trees is costly and very timeintensive. This session will review innovative harvest strategies for urban forests using new technologies and equipment, and reducing both costs and time.
“Waste is the result of a lack of creativity.” While EAB infestations create significant issues for all communities, some communities have developed innovative solutions to remedy their wood waste problem, benefitting both communities and businesses. This session will provide an overview of innovative urban wood utilization initiatives in Nebraska and beyond.
EAB was confirmed in Milwaukee, WI in 2012. Since that time, the City has utilized technology and innovation to address the management needs of EAB on both public and private property. This session will highlight the various management strategies utilized by the city of Milwaukee to address the ongoing EAB infestation in their city.