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Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment

Integrating research and outreach education from UMass Amherst

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News from the Media

UMass Extension expert Tawny Simisky advises protecting emerging cicadas in Massachusetts, as reported by Boston.com.

May 14, 2025
Media Source: Boston.com

UMass Extension Entomologist Tawny Simisky on Periodical Cicadas with The Garden Lady (WCAI/WBUR)

May 3, 2025
Media Source: The Garden Lady - Episode 18

After 17 years underground, periodical cicadas in Mass. crawl out this spring

April 18, 2025

Tawny Simisky, Extension Entomologist, was cited in the recent wbur article. 

Media Source: wbur

Crops, cows, and solar panels? Why farmers are harvesting sunlight.

November 6, 2024

Clean Energy Extension's research focused on agrivoltaics, or dual-use solar panels, was highlighted in a recent Christian Science Monitor article.

Media Source: Christian Science Monitor

‘A beautiful time of the year’: New state foliage map helps residents, tourists make autumn plans

October 11, 2024

Rich Harper, Extension Professor of urban forestry, was quoted in an article discussing a new state foliage map that helps residents and tourists plan their autumn trips.

Media Source: Greenfield Recorder

New Analysis Tools from UMass Amherst Can Help Farmers Make Informed Choice on ‘Agrivoltaics’

October 10, 2024
Media Source: UMass News, Agrivoltaic Decision Tools for Perennial and Field Crop Farmers

For UMass researcher, fall apple season is about more than picking

October 7, 2024

UMass Amherst Extension Fruit Team Leader Jon Clements, explaining the history of the EverCrisp apple variety, seen growing at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard. It's a product, in-part, of the Midwest Apple Improvement Association (MAIA) - one of several varieties tested at Cold Spring and available for Massachusetts orchards to grow.

Media Source: WAMC

How apple farmers are thinking about climate change this fall

October 2, 2024

Massachusetts has more than 80 pick-your-own apple farms. But warming weather is hurting apple and fruit crops across New England.

Al Rose, co-owner of Red Apple Farm, and Jon Clements, an educator with the Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment at UMass, talk about this year's apple season and how they're thinking about climate change's impact on future crops.

Media Source: WBUR

Fall coincides with increase in yellowjacket interactions, experts advise

September 25, 2024

Tawny Simisky, CAFE's Extension Entomologist specializing in woody plant entomology, was quoted in the Greenfield Recorder article 'Fall coincides with increase in yellowjacket interactions, experts advise.'

Media Source: Greenfield recorder, Yellowjackets fact sheet

New Pest Alert for Cape Cod

June 8, 2024
Media Source: Hyannis Country Garden

Earth Matters: Conserving Nature's Perfect "Villain"

June 6, 2024

Earth Matters column by Christine Hatch, Swamps, stewardship and conservation.

What does it mean to care for a forest in the Anthropocene era- especially a swamp, the perfect story villain? 

"I used to think that in order to conserve nature, we had to wall it off and protect it from all outside influences, especially our meddling human selves. I thought that left to its own devices, the natural world would restore itself to balance. Unfortunately, not only was I mistaken in that notion, but also..."

Media Source: Hitchcock Center for the Environment

What to Make of this Summer’s Dual Cicada Brood Emergence

May 31, 2024

Tawny Simisky, entomologist, UMass Extension's Landscape, Nursery and Urban Forestry Program, provides an update on the emergence of cicada broods XIII and XIX, and the messaging that pest management professionals and landscape professionals can share about these periodical visitors.

Media Source: Pest Control Technology

Good & bad local bugs

May 9, 2024

GCC prof Brian Adams w/ UMass Entomologist Tawny Simisky: good & bad local bugs

Media Source: WHMP Radio

Chasing Color: Cranberry station research bears fruit for industry

December 23, 2023

Around this time of year, cranberries are a traditional and cherished addition to the holiday table—andUMass researchers are working to ensure that these beloved burgundy gems will thrive for generations to come.

Media Source: UMass Magazine, UMass CNS News story

The Forest And The Trees: Western Mass’ Solar Siting Problem

December 13, 2023

Dwayne Breger, extension professor of Environmental Conservation and director of the UMass Clean Energy Extension, is quoted in an article on locating solar farms in forests. He says the field of solar energy has evolved from grassroots installations to installations backed by corporations. “As the market has now unveiled itself in fury, in the 2000s and 2020s and so forth, not just in Massachusetts but around the country, once again capitalism has taken over and we’ve got the big players that are just crowding out everyone else,” Breger said.

Media Source: The Shoestring

Researchers Develop Grassroots Framework for Managing Environmental Commons

December 10, 2023

A team of sustainability scientists, led by senior author Ana Quiñónez Camarillo and co-author, Timothy Randhir, have developed a community-based framework to help assess and respond to ecological threats. The framework is based on the local perception of threats, consequences, and solutions (TCS) which are easier to understand than "extremely theoretical scientific frameworks," Randhir says. “One of the biggest issues facing international sustainability efforts is that smaller,​ less economically developed ​countries often don’t have the resources to conduct nuanced, in-depth surveys of local people and the local environment in the threatened area,” says Quiñónez Camarillo. 

Media Source: Morning Ag Clips, News Office release

Plant Nurseries Aid Climate-Driven Spread of Invasive Species

December 6, 2023

New UMass Amherst research is the first to precisely map how plant nurseries exacerbate the climate-driven spread of 80% of plant species. Bethany Bradley, professor of environmental conservation and senior author of two recently published papers, says one of the major hurdles in addressing the threat of invasive species is determining when and where a species crosses the line from being non-native to invasive. 

Media Source: Mirage News, Environmental News Network, Phys.org, Morning Ag Clips, Earth.com, HortWeek, News Office release

'False Springs' Force Massachusetts Growers to Adapt

December 6, 2023

Susan Scheufele, production agriculture leader at UMass Extension, says warmer and wetter weather is creating a false spring. Farmers “might start to see more bacterial diseases or diseases that we think of as more southern or mid-Atlantic diseases,” she says.

Media Source: WCVB

Maine Apple Growers Hurt by 50% Loss, Insurance Inequities

November 26, 2023

Jon Clements, Extension Fruit Educator, is quoted in a story on Maine’s worst apple harvest in over a decade. “Crop insurance is a safety net. It’ll never make up for having a good crop,” Clements says. “And like any other type of insurance, it’s not mandatory. Some growers just don’t buy crop insurance.”

Media Source: PressHerald

Cranberries Remain Massachusetts Top Food Crop; The UMass Cranberry Station is One Reason Why

November 23, 2023

The UMass Cranberry Station is essential in supporting the commonwealth's top food crop. Despite challenges, like fruit rot, early frost, and record rainfall, Massachusetts farmers grew 200 million pounds of cranberries last year. The research facility in Wareham provides invaluable research to growers, helping them overcome such challenges. The station is critically important to the cranberry industry,” says John Mason, president of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association.

Media Source: MassLive

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News & Events

  • Center News
  • Upcoming Events
  • News from the Media
  • Faculty/Staff Brief Bios
  • Spotlight Stories
  • Video Gallery

Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment

 

Stockbridge Hall,
80 Campus Center Way
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA 01003-9246
Phone: (413) 545-4800
Fax: (413) 545-6555
ag [at] cns [dot] umass [dot] edu (ag[at]cns[dot]umass[dot]edu)

 

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