WEEL in South Africa

Dr. Dan Childers just returned from a workshop organized by Professor Melissa McHale who is part of the Urban Ecology Lab Group at the NCSU College of Natural Resources. The  workshop was part of the NC State IMAGINE (International Mentoring of Advanced Graduates for INterdisciplinary Excellence) project which sets one of its goals to develop science that contributes to the health and well being of communities in need. Its main study area is in the region of Kruger National Park and they were working at the Wits Rural Facility Lab, which is part of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. To learn more about the benefits of studying urbanization in developing countries read Dr. McHale’s and others recent publication “Urban ecology in a developing world: why advanced socioecological theory needs Africa”. A cool fact about Dr. McHale is that she worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long Term Ecological ResearchProgram, Arizona State University from 2007-2008.
Here are some pictures from Dr. Childer’s very lucky camera!