Annual Idaho State University Art Faculty Exhibition Runs through Jan. 28 at Davis Gallery

Released by Idaho State University January 13, 2011
Contact: Amy Jo Popa, (208) 282-3341

Annual Idaho State University Art Faculty Exhibition
Runs through Jan. 28 at Davis Gallery

POCATELLO – The Idaho State University annual Art Faculty Exhibition will continue through Jan. 28 at the John B. Davis Gallery in the Fine Arts Building.
This event is free and open to the public.
It includes ISU faculty work by Rudy Kovacs, Scott Evans, Linda Leeuwrik, Anthony Martin, Amy Jo Popa, Doug Warnock and Angie Zielinski.
Adjunct faculty members showing work are Ryan Babcock, Lou Christofferson, Jim Jenkins, Lynne Parker and Lou Pirro.
The Davis Gallery hours are Monday – Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information regarding the gallery, contact Amy Jo Popa, Davis Gallery director at 282-3341.
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Idaho State University Taste of France Set Feb. 5 in Pond Student Union Ballroom

Released by Idaho State University January 12, 2010
Contact: Phillip Coats at coatphil@isu.eud or Valia Tatarova at tatavali@isu.edu or (208) 282-3630

Idaho State University Taste of France
Set Feb. 5 in Pond Student Union Ballroom

POCATELLO – The Idaho State University French Club will sponsor its 11th annual Taste of France dinner and entertainment night on the theme “Life in Pink” on Saturday, Feb. 5, in the ISU Pond Student Union Ballroom.
The French Club will serve an authentic French meal. Dinner will include beef burgundy, vegetable stew, green salad, French bread, French cheese and chocolate mousse.
Entertainment for the evening will include a slide show with pictures from the most famous areas of France, French music, skits, a fashion show and door prizes.
Tickets will be on sale starting Jan. 20, in the Pond Student Union main lobby from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Prices for tickets purchased in advance are $6 for students with valid Bengal ID cards, $8 for ISU faculty and staff and $9 for the general public. All tickets purchased the night of the event cost $1 more.
For more information or ticket reservation, contact Phillip Coats at coatphil@isu.edu, Valia Tatarova at tatavali@isu.edu or the ISU Department of Languages and Literatures at (208) 282-3620.
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Africa Night 2011 Welcomes Community Jan. 22 to ISU Stephens Performing Arts Center

Released by Idaho State University January 7, 2011
Contact: Winnie Kimeu, kimewinf@isu.edu

ISU Africa Night 2011 Welcomes Community Jan. 22
At Stephens Performing Arts Center

Pocatello – The Idaho State University African Student Association invites the whole community to experience the beautiful and exuberant culture of Africa at ISU Africa Night 2011 Jan. 22 in the L.E. and Thelma E. Stephens Performing Arts Center.
Dinner will be served in the Barbara J. Marshall Rotunda and entertainment will be performed in the Joseph C. and Cheryl H. Jensen Performing Arts Center. In previous years this event that attracts hundreds was held in the Pond Student Union Ballroom.
“This promises to be the biggest and best Africa Night ever, and we think our patrons, both old and new, will enjoy the dinner and festivities in the elegance and grandeur of the Stephens Performing Arts Center,” said Winnie Kimeu, president of the African Student Association. “This year we have added more performances, including singing and additional dances, and we are auctioning and giving away traditional presents.”
The annual event will run from 5:30 to about 8:30 p.m. This year’s theme is “WAKA, WAKA, Around Africa in Two Hours” and it will showcase the rich traditional and contemporary culture of Africa.
The evening will offer a traditional African dinner, a fashion show, a flag show, traditional and contemporary African dancers, singing, cultural skits, poetry, vendors, an auction, a raffle, door prizes and African batik and jewelry for sale.
The seven-course dinner menu consists of peanut butter soup from Ghana, pof pof (fried bread) from Cameroon, mokimo (a potato/vegetable dish) from Kenya, doro wat (chicken in red pepper paste) from Eritrea, injera (a flatbread) from Eritrea, beef stew from Ghana and, likely, palm kernel soup from Nigeria.
Beginning Jan. 10, tickets will be sold weekdays at the Pond Student Union and Rendezvous Complex from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Prices for tickets purchased in advance are $7 for ISU students, $8 for ISU faculty and staff, and $9 for the general public. Tickets cost $1 more at the door. Children under age 5 have free admission.
The African Students Association is a group of students from Africa and the United States who work to promote awareness of the realities in Africa and to strengthen the diversity of the ISU community.
For more information, contact Kimeu at kimewinf@isu.edu.
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January 17 March at Idaho State University to Honor Memory Of Martin Luther King Jr.

Released by Idaho State University January 5, 2011
Contact: Kay Flowers, Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Diversity Office, at 282-3964 or rogekay@isu.edu

January 17 March at Idaho State University to Honor Memory
Of Martin Luther King Jr.

POCATELLO – Idaho State University will host a Martin Luther King Jr. March at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 17 on the ISU campus.
Marchers will assemble at the northeast corner of Holt Arena and journey to the Pond Student Union, where a program will be held in the Bengal Theater. A bus provided by ISU Transportation Services will transport individuals wishing to participate but unable to march. The bus will provide transportation back to Holt Arena after the program for individuals who participated in the march.
The program in the Pond Student Union Bengal Theater, scheduled to start around 2 p.m., will include a keynote address by Jason Wright, ISU graduate student. Various student-organization leaders will make presentations, and there will be an audio presentation of one of Dr. King’s writings. James Fletcher, vice president of Finance and Administration, will present the welcoming address, and James Burnett, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice will deliver closing remarks.
The march route will travel from the northeast corner of Holt Arena to Bonneville Street, where it will turn west to Memorial Way, then south on Memorial Way to Martin Luther King Jr. Way, then west to Caesar Chavez Way where it will head south to the Pond student Union.
The march is sponsored by the following ISU entities: Finance and Administration, Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Diversity, Diversity Center, Multicultural Committee, Department of Sociology and the Union Program Council.
For more information, contact the EO/AA and Diversity Office at 282-3964 or rogekay@isu.edu.
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Harlem Gospel Choir to Perform Jan. 19 at Idaho State University

Released by Idaho State University January 5, 2011
Contact: George Casper, (208) 282-3398


Harlem Gospel Choir to Perform Jan. 19 at Idaho State University

As Part of “A Season of Note”



POCATELLO – The Idaho State University a “Season of Note” series will present the Harlem Gospel Choir at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 19 in the Joseph C. and Cheryl H. Jensen Grand Concert Hall in the L.E. and Thelma E. Stephens Performing Arts Center.
The Harlem Gospel Choir is one of the most famous gospel choirs in America today. It travels the globe, sharing its joy of faith through its music and raising funds for children’s charities. In this new era of hope and change, the Choir’s voices reflect the renaissance of Harlem’s culture. Their songs of hope and inspiration will touch the depths of your soul and lift your spirit. More than just a style of gospel, the Harlem Gospel Choir is the original “real deal” straight from New York.
For more information on the choir visit www.harlemgospelchoir.com.

Ticket prices are $26 main level, $22 upper level and can be purchased at the Stephens Performing Arts Center Box Office, open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays during the school year. Tickets can also be purchased over the phone at (208) 282-3595 or online at www.isu.edu/tickets or at Vickers Stores in Idaho Falls and Pocatello.
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Eliminating Sagebrush on Arid, Semi-Arid Western Rangeland Increases Risk of Invasive Weed Invasion, Suggests Idaho State University Studies

Released by Idaho State University January 3, 2011
Contact: Matt Germino, (208) 282-5680 or germmatt@isu.edu

Eliminating Sagebrush on Arid, Semi-Arid Western Rangeland
Increases Risk of Invasive Weed Invasion, Suggests Idaho State University Studies

POCATELLO – Goodbye sagebrush, hello to a lot more weeds?
Recent peer-reviewed papers published by Idaho State University researchers document that when sagebrush is removed from Northern Rocky Mountain areas, exotic weeds move in. The study the papers are written about occurred near Barton Road in Pocatello.
“This is something land managers and ranchers may want to keep in mind,” said Matt Germino, ISU associate professor of biological sciences. “Historically, sagebrush has been eradicated from rangeland and it still is through wildfire, some management actions and other uses. Sagebrush can be thought of as a ‘foundation plant species’ that can sculpt the plant, animal, and microbial life around itself in many areas of the West, and its disappearance from the landscape has repercussions.”
In a study “Exotic plants increase and native plants decrease with loss of foundation species in sagebrush steppe” published in the journal Plant Ecology, ISU faculty researchers Germino, Nancy Huntly and Richard Inouye, and graduate student Janet Prevéy concluded that the removal of sagebrush facilitates invasion of exotic plants, and that increased soil water is one of the causes.
“The Plant Ecology paper reports on how the whole plant community responded to the treatments, with the expected result that the weeds increase upon sagebrush removal, and the surprise that native wildflower species were lost,” Germino said. “This is surprising because sagebrush removals are traditionally done to relieve native herbs from competition with sagebrush, which improves the value of a site for livestock.”
In this study the researchers compared undisturbed sagebrush steppe, areas with sagebrush removed and areas where sagebrush was removed where “rainout” shelters were built that blocked out winter-spring recharge of soil water. Overall, weeds were scarce in untreated plots having native plants intact, and were three to four more times abundant in areas with the sagebrush removed. The weeds did not become nearly as abundant in areas that had the removal and the shelters.
“Our finding suggest that sagebrush plays an important role in reducing invasions by exotic plants and maintaining native plant communities, in the cold desert we evaluated,” said the authors in this paper.
In related effort, Prevéy published a study in the journal Ecological Applications that showed that removing sagebrush increases certain types of exotic, noxious shrubs that can tap deeper water in the water table
“This study further showed that when sagebrush is removed that there was not much increase at all in the desirable species like bunchgrasses, and both papers show that most of the plant community response to sagebrush removal is basically increases in exotic weeds like cheatgrass and tap-rooted forbs,” Germino said.
This second paper furthermore did some detailed modeling of the exotic plant populations that revealed that their populations are not sustainable and would shrink over time unless sagebrush was removed.
“We also used rainout shelters in the experiment to block the winter recharge of deep soil water that sagebrush uses, and there were fewer exotic tap-rooted forbs in that case,” Germino added. “This shows that sagebrush has some unique properties compared to other natives that can protect sites from exotic weeds. Practices like burning or chaining of large tracts of sagebrush may have benefited herb production and diversity at one point in history, but the prevalence of weeds in areas like Pocatello is complicating the outcome of these types of treatments.”
Sagebrush plants have deep roots that can go deeper into the soil to tap water than grasses and wildflowers can. When sagebrush is removed, invasive species that can tap the deeper water move in.
“The results of this study argue that management of invasive plants should focus not only on removal of nonnatives but also on reestablishment of important native species,” stated the authors of the study.
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Researchers, Land Managers Battle the Bromus Gang throughout the West

Released by Idaho State University January 3, 2011
Contact: Matt Germino, (208) 282-5680 or germmatt@isu.edu

Researchers, Land Managers Battle the Bromus Gang throughout the West;
Coordinated, Multi-Agency Effort Needed to Understand Corralling this Beast

POCATELLO – A posse of sorts comprised of western researchers and land managers, with Idaho State University serving more or less like a sheriff, is gathering information on the beastly gang of Bromus grasses - invaders from Eurasia who are terrorizing the land here in Idaho and throughout the American West.
Idaho State University associate professor Matt Germino is the lead on a $200,000 grant to form the Bromus Research, Education, and Extension Network (REE NET) project, a working group in the Great Basin Research and Management Partnership, which has 27 core participants at universities and agencies in Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Washington, California, Oregon and Massachusetts. This group collects data and advises land managers about Bromus, a family of plants that includes species commonly known as cheatgrass, which are exotic, invasive weeds.
“I believe Bromus REE NET is tackling core shortcomings of our efforts to deal with one of the worst invasive species and one of the most pressing environmental issues of our vast landscape throughout the region,” Germino said.
Although only standing2-feet tall at its highest, this Old World invader’s presence has devastating and diverse impacts that need closer monitoring on a broader scale. Hikers, hunters and other outdoor lovers are familiar with some of the mildest forms of this invasive weed’s impacts when it leaves its fruits in the form of stickers in their socks and dogs’ ears.
Many people are familiar with the ease in which cheatgrass spreads. Large stands of native sagebrush and grasslands in arid and semi-arid areas of the western United States have been replaced by millions of acres of cheatgrass. In areas with sagebrush and native plants still intact, cheatgrass is still often present.
Dramatically altering the landscape and its ecology, some of Bromus’s biggest impacts are its effect on wildfires.
“Cheatgrass has altered the fire frequency,” Germino said. “We have more and larger rangeland wildfires because of cheatgrass.”
The secondary impacts of these fires is immense – Idaho State University researchers have documented that in a wildfire area that was dominated by cheatgrass, there was up to five inches of top soil lost in the first year following the fire. The desert dust from wildfires on Idaho’s Snake River Plain has been found tainting the glaciers at the upper elevations of the Teton Range in Wyoming, which in turn has accelerated the melting of the snowpack resulting in less high-mountain water storage. Impacts such as these, too name a few, are occurring throughout the West, affecting everything from grazing practices to the restoration of endangered species.
“The big question is what do we need to do help the ecosystem sustain its values – from protecting native plant species and wildlife, to providing forage for livestock – in the face of the spread of cheatgrass and other Bromus species,” Germino said.
“This is more than a biological problem and is a socioeconomic problem that affects private and public lands, ranchers and recreationists, and rural and wild places,” Germino added. “Dealing with cheatgrass is interdisciplinary in nature because of the invasive weeds’ wide distribution and impacts.”
This is where Bromus REE NET plays a role. It is designed to foster communication among many of the Bromus specialists in the western United States, leading to ideas for transformative research and the extension of that understanding to controlling exotic cheatgrasses in semiarid rangelands.
In its second year, this group aims to produce white papers, which are authoritative reports and guides, oriented towards advising land managers or federal agencies on specific actions to take to address the Bromus problem.
The group has held conferences in several states, and has created http://greatbasin.wr.usgs.gov/GBRMP/BromusREENET.html, a website and database. Its members are proposing a $4 million grant to further their efforts of managing this invasive species.
“We are not only looking at current problems and what happened in the past, but we’re also trying to determine what effects Bromus will have in the future,” Germino said. “We want to identify the socioeconomic and biological tipping points and identify emerging problems, and help make decisions and develop treatment plans to prioritize and address problems, integrating our efforts.”
The challenges are many, as researchers try to take in account everything from the effects of climate change with either warmer and wetter, or warmer and dryer weather in some areas.
“We’ve had cheatgrass diebacks in some areas already that can possibly be attributed to climate change,” Germino said. “What comes next for those sites?”
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