So here I am in sunny East Lansing, settling into my new office at the Center for System Integration & Sustainability at MSU. As you’d expect It’s pretty much been all admin thus far, but I’m beginning to find my way around and the first real meeting in the job tomorrow should help me get to grips with the task in hand – a project to integrate ecology and economics by developing a systems model of a managed forest landscape in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that has been experiencing low tree regeneration due to overabundant deer, and declines in habitat for songbirds of conservation concern due to deer impacts and timber harvest.

Things are pretty crazy right now as you might expect having moved to a new job in a new country so I haven’t got much time to say much else right now. Rest assured I’ll keep you up-to-date on the progress of the project in the future. In the meantime why not go and check out some of the excellent articles highlighted in the fifth edition of Oekologie, this month hosted by Jeremy at The Voltage Gate.