In June 2022, CURes Managing Director Dr. Michele Romolini relocated to Baltimore, Maryland and launched our Baltimore satellite location. This new location allows CURes to deepen connections with existing partners, including scientists with the US Forest Service’s Baltimore Urban Field Station as well as the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, one of the two longest running long-term urban ecology research sites in the nation. It has also provided opportunities for new collaborative projects.
The Nature Conservancy
CURes began working with The Nature Conservancy (TNC)’s Baltimore Program in Fall 2022, first joining a project to examine the network of environmental stewardship funders in Baltimore, MD. In 2023, with funding from the US Forest Service, TNC partnered with CURes to implement “Healthy Trees Healthy Cities Baltimore”. This 3-year project will explore how art-based engagement, targeted science communication, and partnership with communities may impact urban forestry participation and outcomes. We developed this work with a focus on recognition justice, an area of environmental justice that acknowledges the different lived experiences of people across diverse communities.
Specifically, we aim to use a short animated film as a vehicle to spark conversations and strengthen the voices and diverse perspectives represented in urban forestry in Baltimore. The two-minute film, “To The Jungles That Be,” features spoken work poetry and narration by East Baltimore poet Kondwani Fidel about his experiences with trees in the city. We will be holding a series of community pop-up and workshop events during which we will screen the film and invite interested community members to fill out a short questionnaire and participate in a discussion about their experiences with trees. We will then use qualitative analysis and creative methods to compile, synthesize and share out the stories and perspectives of Baltimoreans related to urban forestry.
University of Maryland
CURes joined University of Maryland (UM) researchers Paul Leisnham and Amanda Rockler on their collaborative project entitled “Stakeholder Inclusive Water Management in a Changing Mid-Atlantic: Alternative Water Sources, Related Socioeconomic Factors, and Sustainability.” This transdisciplinary study aims to facilitate the use of nontraditional water sources and implementation of water conservation practices in agriculture. Dr. Romolini is providing social science expertise to better understand stakeholders’ experiences and perceptions regarding freshwater and reusable water resources. She and CURes’ undergraduate research assistants Lily Maddox (EVST ’23) and Alexa Siglar (ENVS ’25) developed interview protocols and a sampling framework to conduct 17 interviews with agricultural professionals from May-December 2023. Preliminary results were reported at the LMU Undergraduate Research Symposium in March 2024 and at the Chesapeake Community Research Symposium in Annapolis, MD in June 2024.