2008 An Environmental Crossroads

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Global warming clouds our future. Pollution degrades our air, soil and water. Environmental toxins compromise the health of our children. Misuse threatens the sustainability of our forests, fisheries, wetlands and coasts, and the health of species that live there.

But there is reason for hope.

Through sound science and policy research, we're finding answers to these problems. Airborne lead and acid rain have been dramatically reduced. Industrial water pollution has decreased. Habitats are being preserved.

Faculty members from the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University are part of the effort to help find these answers and establish new environmental practices and policies to safeguard our natural resources for generations to come.

To contact our experts or learn more about what we're doing in states across the nation, click on the state you're interested in.

Wildlife & Threatened Species
Montana’s eastern prairies are home to 330 species of breeding birds, nearly three quarters of the breeding bird species in the United States. Loss of these grasslands has caused dramatic declines in many of these species, including the mountain plover, the long-billed curlew, the burrowing owl, the lark bunting, the Baird's sparrow, the Sprague's pipit, the McCown's longspur, the chestnut-collared longspur and the ferruginous hawk.

Randall Kramer is an environmental economist who has developed survey research methodology to determine an economic value for species and habitat conservation. The statistical models developed by Kramer also can help governments identify ways to encourage more consumers and producers to take part in conservation efforts.
tel: (919) 613-8072 e: kramer@duke.edu

Research focus: Kramer's expertise lies in the role of economics in environmental policy and management, focusing on improving our understanding of how human and business behavior is shaped by policies intended to protect the environment, especially in the areas of water quality, wetlands, biodiversity.

Lynn Maguire chairs a review panel examining monitoring approaches for the northern spotted owl.
tel: (919) 613-8034 e: lmaguire@duke.edu

Research focus: Collaborative decision processes. Facilitation of environmental disputes. Decision analysis for environmental problems that are difficult because of uncertainty, multiple or conflicting objectives, and disputing parties.

Recent applications include the northern spotted owl and other endangered species; invasive species; water quality; wildfire risk; and seafood rating systems.

Maguire’s research evaluates both the substance of environmental decisions - how well the resulting management actions reflect public values and available science - and the process of environmental decision making - how well the mechanisms used to involve the public achieve social justice goals.

Stuart Pimm studies ways to preserve endangered species and restore natural habitats in environmental hotspots worldwide.
tel:(919) 613-8141 e: StuartPimm@aol.com

Research focus: Biodiversity, conservation biology and the impact of poor water management decisions on endangered species.

James Salzman studies environmental policy especially as it relates to sustainable development, ecosystems and climate change.
tel: (919) 613-9185 e: salzman@law.duke.edu

Research focus: Salzman's more recent books include: Natural Resources Law and Policy (2004); Concepts and Insights in Environmental Law (2003) and International Environmental Law and Policy (1998, with second edition in 2002).

Salzman has served since 1996 as a principal liaison for the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee, providing counsel to the EPA and USTR on trade and environment issues. Prior to entering academia, he worked for the OECD in Paris and as the European Environmental Manager for Johnson Wax. He holds the position of vice chair, American Bar Association, Committee on Sustainable Development, Ecosystems & Climate Change, and is an editor of Environmental Impact Assessment.

He holds a joint appointment at the Duke School of Law and the Nicholas School.

Dean Urban uses GIS and other geospatial technologies to study natural and manmade agents of landscape change, and the patterns of change over time.
tel:(919) 613-8076 : e: deanu@duke.edu

Research focus: Landscape ecology and forest community ecology. Conservation biology. Spatial and multivariate analysis. Simulation modeling.

As co-director of the Triangle Landscape Change Project, Urban uses geospatial technologies to analyze landscape patterns and land use change, with a special emphasis on the causes and consequences of development. Land use pattern, in turn, provides a context for studies of forest dynamics as influenced by prior land use (especially agriculture) and fragmentation. Forest pattern provides a context for studies of songbird communities in fragmented forest habitats in a nonforest matrix.

More recently, he has begun to study the implications of land use change on hydrology and watershed integrity.