Howard E. Woodin ES Colloquium Series

Cultural Ecosystem Services: How do you measure that?

Rachelle Gould, Assistant Professor, University of Vermont, Environmental Program, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources

Cultural ecosystem services (and more generally, socio-cultural values related to ecosystems) are increasingly recognized as a critical component of conservation assessment and practice. This class of services is, however, notoriously thorny and difficult to characterize. Researchers continue to innovate ways to characterize these difficult-to-measure phenomena; the first half of this talk will summarize those current efforts and potential next steps (spoiler alert: there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question in the title!). The second half of the talk will focus on one of Dr. Gould’s current projects: the way that Cultural Ecosystem Services are at play in debates about solar panel siting in Vermont.