Each year, my pharmacist, Dr. Jennifer Filloon, demands that I get a flu shot; no excuses. Flu shots are truly a part of precision medicine. Flu shots are designed to do one thing - prevent the flu. And the benefits are clear: The flu shot targets seasonal flu strains predicted by researchers. The flu shot has no appreciable side effects. Getting an annual flu shot boosts immunity to the flu and can prevent, or minimize, the flu. Getting the flu shot is simple and inexpensive. In a recent webinar, Dr. Steven Hall (Assistant …
Join Me in Colorado?
I will be attending the 2018 Sustainable Agriculture Summit, will you? The Sustainable Agriculture Summit is the premier annual gathering for major food companies, conservation groups, and farmers. The summit is committed to advancing a comprehensive approach to driving change in agriculture sustainability. Join me! If you are motivated to impact large-scale changes in agricultural sustainability, your focus must include Precision Conservation. I would like to spend a few minutes with you talking about what motivates farmers and ways to …
Leaving a legacy…
This month marked the passing of a great conservationist. On October 2nd, my dad, Ludwig Buman, yielded to colon cancer; dying at the age of 91. Dad’s name will never be etched among the likeness of Hugh Hammond Bennett, Theodore Roosevelt, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, or "Ding" Darling, but his children will tell you his name belongs on that list. Dad was not a great orator. He did not lead a conservation agency. He never desired the power to create national parks. He did not publish scientific papers, nor did he incite public outcry against …
Have you ever entered Yellowstone National Park through the East Gate?
My first trip to Yellowstone National Park (YNP) was in 1965. Since then, I have returned on numerous occasions, each time deliberately entering by a different route. Yellowstone has five entrances (the South, East, Northeast, North, and West). Each entrance provides me with a unique perspective of the park. It is not the entrance, itself, that is so unique. Instead, it is the route I travel to reach each entrance that provides me the altered perspective. Each time, I see new things. I feel like the same type of experience has happened …
We are Misappropriating Our Limited Resources
The arguments to increase the number of publicly funded conservation employees has admittedly run its course. Therefore, the need to update technology in soil and water conservation is blatantly obvious. We know we all need to accomplish more with less. Let’s end the pretext for our lack of progress, and get on with improving technology. Before you respond and tell me why this is impossible, let me provide a response to the Top 5 arguments I hear for not improving technology. #1: Soil and water conservation budgets are limited. Resources are …
What did you accomplish with all that taxpayer money?
It seems like “dollars spent” has become the new metric for reporting improvements in soil and water conservation. I totally agree, we should know how much money is being spent on protecting our natural resources, but I think “dollars spent” is a misleading way to report progress. Taxpayers are entitled to information that contains more specificity, such as tons of soil or pounds of nitrogen kept from entering water bodies. Better yet, progress reporting should include efficiency information such as the cost of saving a ton of soil (cost/ton …