Robert Hach茅

鈥淚 am delighted that Professor Foster has accepted the opportunity to chair the Task Force on Sustainability Research. At 91亚色, we are eager to support the development of initiatives that will help continue to build the recognition of the University as a Canadian leader in sustainability research," said Hach茅.

Jennifer Foster

Foster is a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners-Ontario Professional Planners' Institute and the coordinator of 91亚色's Urban Ecologies Program. Her research focuses on urban planning, urban environmental justice, habitat creation and novel ecologies, and environmental aesthetics. Recent major research projects include From Rubble to Refuge (2008-2012, with Professor Anders Sandberg) and (2010-2013, with Professors Janine Marchessault and Chlo毛 Brushwood Rose).

鈥淭he goal of the Task Force on Sustainability Research is to engage the broader 91亚色 sustainability research community to leverage collegial expertise in soliciting advice and ideas to be used in the development of recommendations. These recommendations will guide the development of strategic initiatives to enhance the success and recognition of 91亚色鈥檚 researchers in this important area of research leadership for 91亚色,鈥� said Hach茅. 鈥淭his initiative is particularly timely with the recent launch of the Canada First Research Excellence Fund,鈥� a new federal program to promote international research leadership for Canadian universities.

The mandate of the Taskforce on Sustainability Research is to:

• provide feedback and recommendations to help strengthen and advance the concentration of sustainability research at 91亚色;
• provide strategic advice that represents broader community interests and becomes a conduit for action within the community; and
• provide feedback and recommendations through a final report that will be released to the 91亚色 community to stimulate engagement and action.

The Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI) invites expressions of interest from those considering volunteering to join the task force. on Sustainability Research.

View the Task Force terms of reference聽or for more information, contact Barbara Edwards, senior policy adviser, Office of the VPRI.

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, director of 91亚色鈥檚 (IRIS), also dismissed as 鈥渞ubbish鈥� assertions by the Animal Alliance of Canada that non-lethal interventions like discouraging feeding and erecting better fences have successfully cut problem deer numbers at the Sifton Bog in London, Ont.

A biology professor in 91亚色鈥檚 , Bazely said London politicians backed down from a deer hunt favoured by neighbouring residents last year after a councillor and opponents denounced shooting deer as barbaric and 鈥渨orse than abortion.鈥�

She accused Animal Alliance of exploiting the 鈥淏ambi鈥� emotional factor and ignoring the damage deer are doing at Iroquois Heights, where an aerial survey in January of last year counted 102 in a 66-hectare section, 90 more than considered healthy.

鈥淲hy aren鈥檛 they campaigning for cockroaches?鈥� said Bazely, who outlined the impact deer have on forest ecology and biodiversity to a Hamilton Conservation Authority committee that is considering how to deal with the deer population. 鈥淲e exterminate other single species. Where鈥檚 the campaign for rats? Where鈥檚 the campaign for raccoons?鈥�

During her presentation, Bazely said it鈥檚 鈥渘ot debatable鈥� that deer populations of more than 10 per square kilometre kill future trees because they eat any new growth up to two metres above ground. They also devour native plants like trillium, allowing invasive plants to take over, she said. 鈥淭he entire middle layer of the forest, it鈥檚 not there any more,鈥� she said.

Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Much of what informs environmental thinking springs from a view that equates nature with sexually straight and queer with unnatural. The editors of a new book , turn those notions upside down.

Co-editors Bruce Erickson (PhD 09鈥�) and 91亚色 environmental studies Professor Catriona Sandilands, Canada Research Chair in Sustainability & Culture, wanted to challenge the current thinking about what is considered sexually 鈥渘ormal鈥� in nature and how nature is used to create normative sexualities. To do so, they gathered a group of mainly senior scholars who鈥檇 done work close to the intersection of sexuality studies and environmental studies in research areas such as queer geography, eco-feminism, environmental justice and gender and sexuality studies.

The result is a book that looks at three broad topics 鈥� 鈥淎gainst Nature? Queer Sex, Queer Animality鈥�, 鈥淕reen, Pink, and Public: Queering Environmental Politics鈥� and 鈥淒esiring Nature? Queer Attachments鈥� 鈥� with contributors from literary studies, landscape ecology, geography, science studies, history, philosophy, sociology and women鈥檚 studies, including leading researchers from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.

Erickson, who studied with Sandilands and is now a post-doctoral fellow in environmental history at Nipissing University, says part of the reason for Queer Ecologies was to explore the connection between environmentalism and discourses of homosexuality. 鈥淭he birth of modern environmentalism and the birth of modern understandings of homosexuality and queerness came about at the same time through very similar actors and so we wanted to think about that a little bit more and see how those connections are actually a lot more deeply ingrained than simply being a kind of accidental event,鈥� says Erickson.

Queer Ecologies asks contemporary environmental thinkers and activists to consider how their practices and assumptions about nature are located in homophobic and heterosexist perspectives, and to ask the queer communities to engage in more ecological discourse and action, says Mortimer-Sandilands. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important to make nature and environmental issues part of a more robust queer platform. It鈥檚 not just about achieving equality in an ecologically disastrous world. It鈥檚 also about thinking about the interrelationship between sexual聽resistances and environmental justice, for example.鈥�

Left: Catriona Sandilands and Bruce Erickson

There are several historical connections between sexual and environmental politics, says Sandilands, author of .

鈥淔irst, species, race and population were all hotly contested concepts in the late-19th and early-20th centuries; these debates influenced emerging understandings of both ecology and sexuality, which also influenced each other. Second, large-scale industrialization and urbanization both created new spaces in which new sexual cultures could thrive, and also contributed to larger social anxieties about hygiene, degeneracy and what was considered an 'effeminization' of white national virility. Out of these processes arose both modern understandings of sexuality and gender and modern institutions of nature conservation, most notably national parks.鈥�

With these historical connections, it is important to understand that the modern environmental movement has sexual origins, and also that sexual politics have embedded understandings of nature and environment, she says. 鈥淚n addition, political resistances to dominant sex/nature categories also have a history: from Radclyffe Hall鈥檚 literary defence of gender inversion to Oscar Wilde鈥檚 refusal of 鈥榥atural authenticity鈥� to the Radical Faeries to the Lesbian National Parks & Services. It's a fascinating history.鈥�

As a result, Queer Ecologies includes essays on both the 鈥渉istorical links between sex and nature and on more contemporary issues, such as the current popular fascination with the sexuality of animals, conflicts about public sex in designated nature areas, heterosexual panic in anti-toxics activism, population and development politics, and resistances by the queer communities to all of the above in art, literature and politics,鈥� says Sandilands.

Erickson鈥檚 essay takes issue with the iconic nature of the canoe. 鈥淢y starting point for the essay is Pierre Berton鈥檚 comment that a Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe. I try to trace back this national feeling through these very normative ideas of heterosexuality and how the assumption by those that take up Berton鈥檚 statement as being such an interesting and witty way of understanding Canada reify a kind of heterosexist image of the nation.鈥� He also looks at the politics of colonialism that have allowed the canoe to become a symbol of the nation.

Sandilands turns her gaze to two authors, Jan Zita Grover and Derek Jarman, and聽how they responded politically and with dignity to the massive losses brought about by AIDS, and how they offer a model for thinking intelligently about the daily losses that are part of the environmental crisis. Too often environmental loss becomes tourism. Everyone runs out to see the natural wonder before it鈥檚 gone.

鈥淏ut that approach is part of the problem, ethically and politically, we can't just 鈥榤ove on鈥� to other natures, and some of the approaches to loss and memory explored in the massive artistic and literary response to AIDS are very instructive to help us think about the consequences of what we are losing environmentally,鈥� she says.

The book came about through a Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada grant Sandilands received related to her work as Canada Research Chair, which included funds for a聽workshop which inaugurated the Queer Ecologies project.

Sandilands' next book, This Is For You: Walks with Jane Rule (UBC Press), is forthcoming.

Queer Ecologies was published last week; a launch will take place in the fall.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Scientists and environmentalists argue that the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (CNLOPB) suffers the same conflicts of interest that have afflicted the US regulator.

鈥淭he regulator has all this expertise for developing and promoting oil and gas but also is mandated to protect the environment,鈥� said Gail Fraser, a professor of ecology and biology in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Environmental Studies who is studying Canada鈥檚 offshore regulations. 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 more than a conflict of interest.鈥�

Fraser said the board lacks transparency on industry waste and spills into the ocean, and is too cozy with industry, running land sales as well as regulating offshore drilling.

The complete article is available on . The story was also carried on .

Fraser's long-term research projects include long-term monitoring of Manx Shearwaters and Leach鈥檚 Storm Petrels, wildlife management and aspects of avian ecology in Toronto鈥檚 urban waterfront and the environmental effects offshore oil and gas.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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