Hello CALS Colleagues,
I hope you had an excellent weekend and had a chance to get out and enjoy the outdoors. I expect many of you are just finishing up a week away or are heading out for vacation, and I wish you excellent rest and relaxation! We all need it from time to time. The year we’ve just been through with the COVID-19 pandemic and so many related stresses has been epic, and even as it seems to recede quickly into the past here in Iowa, it’s still very much in our psyches, and the disease still looms near and far. Keep diligent and take good care.
It is wonderful to come into work and see the hallways and doorways filled with people and hear the chatter between meetings. If your work is like mine, it’s been busy. Busy catching up, getting ready and initiating new projects and lines-of-thought.
Last week I was at the Northwest Research and Demonstration Farm with Terry Tuttle, superintendent of Iowa State Research Farms; Andrew Weaver, agricultural specialist; Landon Lenhart, agricultural specialist; Joel DeJong, industry extension specialist; Prashant Jha, associate professor of agronomy; Matt Helmers, director of the Iowa Nutrient Research Center; and Tim Goode, manager of Iowa State Research Farms, for a field day with more than 100 attendees. Then I was over at the Allee Demonstration Farm with Lyle Rossiter, superintendent of Iowa State Research Farms. It was great to see those facilities and meet so many committed people. In between those visits, Nick Van Berkum, associate director of development, and I were in Cherokee and Storm Lake interacting with some great alums and donors to the college. Think about those farms, and the other research and demonstration farms we have, as places and spaces anyone in CALS can explore and find ways to use to advance their teaching, research and outreach.
I know you have been busy - please feel free to send me your most interesting updates! My best for a great new week. - Dan
Nature in Focus
Joel Rybolt, systems analyst in the animal science department, captured this photo of a Great Spangled Fritillary on a purple coneflower in his yard in Ankeny on July 4.
In late June, Greg Courtney, professor of entomology, taught an Aquatic Invertebrates workshop to the Field Ecology course (NREM 311) at the Rod and Connie French Conservation Education Camp in Montana. The images he captured include students collecting aquatic insects as part of an investigation of faunal differences between Fish Creek and a small tributary. The other images are of insects in these streams: the first showing the nymph of a highly sensitive species of mayfly (Drunella grandis) and the second the larva of an extremely rare caddisfly (Rossiana montana). The latter is one of only two species in the family Rossianidae, both found only in western Montana and adjacent parts of Idaho. Rossiana is known from only about 10 collection sites, including a new site added by the field ecology students!
If you haven't already, check out the "Common Ground" exhibit at the Brunnier Art Museum in the Scheman Building, which includes this interesting George Washington Carver vase.
Please keep sharing your photos with me via email!
