Anne Jefferson

FEMA buyouts vs. risky real estate: New maps reveal post-flood migration patterns across the US In general, people are moving to safer homes after disasters, but the vast majority are selling, meaning someone else is now taking on that risk. Buyout programs can help.

"Mend it, don't end it." People who accept FEMA flood buyouts tend to stay local, but in less risky areas. But many houses sold after floods just result in new people living in the flood zone. theconversation.com/fema-buyouts...

ghoulish behavior

Vegetation and sediment with a bank sign in the background.

Flowering plants and greenery on wood chips in a depression, with a bank sign in the background.

Check out this great new video on a resilient rain garden that got buried by sediment in the 2023 Vermont flood and today is more beautiful and functional than ever. all-geo.org/jefferson/ne...

Upcoming #WARR talks on water chemistry + pollution in substantially modified urban streams flowing through densely populated landscapes

Drs. Elizabeth Herndon + Anne Jefferson @annejefferson.bsky.social

REgister: psu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

@waterbarnes.bsky.social @devonkerins.bsky.social

‘It’s madness’: Trump-voting fishermen oppose Revolution Wind halt The Rhode Island offshore wind project, now nearly finished, employed 80 fishermen to help with construction. With Trump's pause, they are losing vital…

SCOOP: Revolution Wind employed 80 fishermen over the past 2 years, paying out $9.5 million to captains, deckhands, and fishing boat owners. Trump's pause means he just put Trump-voting fishermen out of work.

When Trump paused Empire Wind, the fishermen stayed quiet.

This time, they spoke to me.👇

With Canadian tourism on the decline, Vermont leaders work to repair cross-border relations Lindsay Kurrle, Vermont’s Secretary of Commerce and Anson Tebbetts, Vermont’s Secretary of Agriculture, said they have recently returned from a trip north to meet with a member of the Canadian Parliam...

According to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data, Northern Border Crossings are down 39.27% from July 2024 to 2025 and down 36.13% in Northern New York (including Champlain Rouses Point Crossing and Trout River Crossing).

#Boycott #ViveLeCanada #Canada 💪🏻🍁

www.ctvnews.ca/world/articl...

Hydrogeologists say no, absolutely positively no. 😭 ⚒️

Forget phd level, most 2nd graders could do better. Maybe even kindergartners.

Flood managed aquifer recharge paired with forecast-informed reservoir operations led to a 40-60% reduction in aquifer overdraft. That’s pretty significant! But still need to reduce withdrawals.

Scientists identify bacterium behind devastating wasting disease in starfish After 90% loss of global sunflower sea star population in 10 years, researchers hope decline can now be tackled

Scientists have identified the microbial culprit responsible for the largest sea star wasting disease (SSWD) epidemic ever documented in the wild: A strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida, which proliferates in warm water during seasonal variations and anomalous marine heating events.

Seven volcanoes wake up in Russia's Kamchatka after powerful quake Klyuchevskoi, Krasheninnikov, Avachinsky and others have all woken up following the 8.8 magnitude quake, the strongest in the region since 1952.

⚒️ Does anyone have any more info on this ‘7 volcanoes in Kamchatka wake up’ story? It doesn’t match with the latest bulletins from KVERT (kvert.febras.net) and the stories don’t really give many details. Would be nice to know which 7, and what they’re actually doing…

Whether you’re in Alaska or not, please consider donating to keep Kotzebue Public Radio on the air. 💔

⚒️ Overnight there was an M8.8 #earthquake off the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia Earthquake (160.2°E, 52.5°N), at a depth of 20.7 km, close to the Kamchatka Trench: a subduction zone boundary between the Kuril-Kamchatka and Pacific plates. The USGS PAGER alert level is RED

Compiled info🧵follows:

Polar Icebreakers May Be Key to Jumpstarting American Shipbuilding New Report Finds The recently-signed ICE Pact, focused on the development of icebreakers, represents a unique opportunity to revitalize American shipbuilding, a new report by the Wilson Center, a think tank, finds.…

Polar Icebreakers May Be Key to Jumpstarting American Shipbuilding New Report Finds

I feel like someone could convince the WH that an Antarctic ice breaker is key to global domination. But the means might defeat the ends.

So much waste. Loss of research, loss of talent, and loss of capacity for years to come.

BBC uncovers lasting toxic legacy of cargo ship disaster off Sri Lanka Scientists warn the damage to the environment after the 2021 X-Press Pearl disaster could be much more enduring.

Even as someone who has read a lot & done research on beach #microplastics, this story from the BBC is horrifying. I really hope the companies involved can be held more responsible. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Interested in #bigdata #river #Biogeochem #interdisciplinary collaboration? A postdoc opportunity in the Sullivan group, one of the most supportive & nurturing mentors I ever know.

sites.google.com/oregonstate....

Microplastics are in Lake Champlain and in us. These scientists want to know their source Researchers on Lake Champlain are doubling down on years of research to try to figure out how tiny pieces of toxic plastic are getting into the lake, which serves some 200,000 people with drinking wat...

A discarded toy on a Lake Champlain beach may take a different form one day: millions of microplastic bits, says @uvmvermont.bsky.social prof. @annejefferson.bsky.social.

Learn about what Jefferson and colleagues are finding as they scour Lake Champlain for microplastic sources: go.uvm.edu/xen2p

National Science Foundation Staff Booted From Headquarters - Eos Staff at the National Science Foundation (NSF) were notified on 25 June that the agency’s office space, located in Alexandria, Va., will be taken over by Department of Housing and Urban Development (H...

National Science Foundation staff were notified that their office space will be taken over by Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's unclear where the 1,800+ NSF employees will work. Renovation plans apparently include a personal gym for the HUD secretary & family eos.org/research-and...

Tulane scientist resigns citing university censorship of pollution and racial disparity research Kim Terrell, a researcher with the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, resigned Wednesday, saying in a letter the university had sacrificed academic integrity for political expediency.

Universities must respect academic freedom. Tulane apparently does not.
www.wwno.org/education/20...

Hasn’t a couple of decades of increasing reliance on phone navigation taught us it’s a seriously bad idea to trust a computer to shorten your route?

In Vermont, we annually place bets on how long it will take a truck to get stuck in Smuggler’s Notch (a “shorter” mountain route) once it opens.

Wild how the Fed chair saying that *entire regions of the United States* won’t be able to get a mortgage in the next decade barely registered as a news event

Lakekeeper Julie Silverman Is a Watchdog for Lake Champlain On the beach, on the water and at the Statehouse, the educator and advocate works to protect the 450-square-mile lake that links two states and two countries.

Working with folks fighting plastic pollution in the Lake Champlain Basin continues to give me hope for the future of civic engagement. Here's a great profile of one of our local environmental leaders. www.sevendaysvt.com/news/lakekee...

graph with scientist names on the x axis and colored indicators for NIH, NSF, and Other funding. Also indicators for active pre-1960 and Outside US

When we communicate science, we often don't say where the resources for it come from. This is clearly a mistake: people consuming science should know who is funding it--and if that funding is being taken away. So, I decided to document the funding sources of every scientist mentioned in my book.

Seeing Blatten buried again and again, from every angle...

Properly staggering! 😮😱

Abandoning my long-held career plans was painful—but I love where I landed The author was about to start law school when Hurricane Katrina sent her back to science

A beautiful essay by former colleague Jacqueline Curtis on how changes to the best-laid plans can end up working out OK - or even wonderfully - in the end. This feels needed and timely as so many scientists struggle with the cruelties of 2025.
www.science.org/content/arti...

#MSH45 | “A Big Black Cloud”
Unless you were near the mountain, the first sign was the sky.
A towering black mushroom cloud rising fast.

In Cowlitz County, emergency dispatchers begin fielding calls.
No alerts. No answers. They’re piecing it together in real time.

Whatephra you do today 🌋

Take some time to commemorate the eruption of Mt. St. Helens/Lawetlat'la that happened 45 years ago today.

This (unfortunately tragic) eruption significantly changed the way we think about and monitor volcanoes in the U.S., for the better.

Vermont is supposed to get 1.5-2" of rain in the next 48 hours, on top of soils that are already very wet. I think lots of folks have post-traumatic flood jitters, but the (excellent) NWS forecasters are showing only minor flooding in some areas. Let's hope Mother Nature doesn't throw a curve ball.

It is an incredible privilege to get to work so closely with NOAA scientists and program officers. I'm saddened by every early retirement, every layoff, every deferred resignation. Each one represents such a loss for America's environment and Americans' safety. Dear NOAA personnel, Thank you.