{"id":307315,"date":"2019-09-05T06:06:21","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T20:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=307315"},"modified":"2019-09-05T06:06:21","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T20:06:21","slug":"uogs-demeulenaere-wins-award-funds-for-work-to-protect-endemic-guam-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/uogs-demeulenaere-wins-award-funds-for-work-to-protect-endemic-guam-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"UoG\u2019s Demeulenaere wins award, funds for work to protect endemic Guam tree"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
From left, Krissa Skogen, co-chair, Botanical Society of America Public Policy Committee; University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability associate director Else Demeulenaere; Andrew Pais, chair, American Society of Plant Taxonomists Public Policy Committee; and Kal Tuominen, co-chair, BSA Public Policy Committee.
(CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Else Demeulenaere, associate director of the University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability, was recognize with an award for her research and advocacy on the critically endangered\u00a0h\u00e5yun l\u00e5gu, or Serianthes nelsonii, at the 2019 Botany Conference in Tucson, Arizona.<\/p>\n

The conference in late July gathered some 1,200 plant scientists from around the world to network, share their research, and acknowledge some of the most impactful works in the field. <\/p>\n

Demeulenaere received the competitive Botanical Advocacy Leadership Grant\u2014an honor given to an individual who helps bridge public policymaking with issues relevant to plant science. The grant includes $1,000 to help fund the recipient\u2019s proposed project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to advocate for the need to have more local laws to protect our natural and cultural resources on Guam,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Demeulenaere is pursuing her doctoral degree under an interdisciplinary arrangement with the University of Guam and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is concurrently conducting phylogenetic research on the\u00a0h\u00e5yun l\u00e5gu\u00a0and an ethnobotanical study\u2014a study of the tree’s uses based on traditional cultural knowledge\u2014at Litekyan, also known as Ritidian. She has also provided testimony before the 34th and 35th Guam legislatures about to her research in Northern Guam.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy involvement and research take root in the social movement to protect Litekyan. The plans to build a live-fire training range complex at Tailalo\u2019 threaten access to Litekyan, a sacred place, and will fragment a very valuable limestone forest, which is home to many endemic species intrinsically connected to the rich CHamoru culture,\u201d Demeulenaere said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
From left, Stefanie Ickert-Bond, professor of botany, University of Alaska Fairbanks; University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability associate director Else Demeulenaere; and Pamela Soltis, president, American Society of Plant Taxonomists.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her proposal, \u201cBringing Biocultural Diversity to the Forefront of the Political Agenda in Guam,\u201d will give her the opportunity to further advocate for endemic plants, cultural practices, and the protection of sacred places like Litekyan at a policy level.<\/p>\n

\u201cElse\u2019s progress through her doctoral program has helped call attention to the rare Serianthes nelsonii and the challenges Guam faces with its repopulation,\u201d said UOG assistant professor of Biology Wei Xiao, one of her advisers. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of Else for receiving a prestigious recognition for her research into this unique species.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Botanical Advocacy Leadership Grant is given annually by the Botanical Society of America and the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis award highlights the outstanding value of Else\u2019s dissertation research. It is an exciting intersection of resolving the genetic nature of one of Guam\u2019s charismatic trees, an exploration of the ethnobotany of Serianthes, and an advocacy for natural resources in the face of threats from human disturbances,\u201d said University of Alaska Fairbanks professor of Botany Stefanie Ickert-Bond, Demeulenaere\u2019s adviser and dissertation committee chair. (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Else Demeulenaere, associate director of the University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability, was recognize…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":307317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19371,23529,190,12707],"class_list":["post-307315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-alaska-fairbanks","tag-biology-wei-xiao","tag-natural","tag-northern-guam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}