Center For Ecological Risk Assessment
and Management (ERAM)
Restoration Ecology Laboratory

Colorado State University's Center for Ecological Risk Assessment and Management (ERAM) provides technical expertise in support of national and international restoration programs associated with contaminant releases to ecosystems, physical distrubance, and overall environmental degradation. The Center offers services in three areas:
  • A graduate degree program in ecological risk assessment and management;
  • Training programs for professionals in the field;
  • Research in ecological risk assessment and environmental restoration methodologies.


Risk Assessment, Environmental
Restoration, and ERAM

Management of risks associated with radioactive and hazardous waste is unquestionably one of the major technical, regulatory, and socioeconomic challenges facing all levels of national and international governments in the coming decades. Projected costs of several hundred billion dollars, just for cleanup of federal facilities in the U.S., dictate that selection of sampling priorities and remediation alternatives be driven by actual, rather than perceived, risks. This ensures that money is not wasted on actions that provide no added benefit in protecting human health and the environment. Appropriate risk management decisions will rely on credible risk assessment procedures that incorporate our best science and judgment in a format that can be understood and accepted by the general public.
Colorado State University is helping to meet this demand through its Center for Ecological Risk Assessment and Management. The Center combines long-standing teaching and research excellence in biological, earth, and health sciences with appropriate applications in ecological risk assessment and environmental restoration technologies.  A broad network of other university and agency collaborators ensures a national and international perspective on risk assessment, and a responsiveness to a wide variety of industry and agency needs.

Our Approach

The center interfaces science and policy through the risk assessment process by integrating scientific information with the prevailing regulatory, and socioeconomic environment. Our approach requires existing information on the principle components (physical and biological) and functional processes (rates of material and energy flow) that define the relevant ecosystem. It also requires data on the kinds, amounts, and distribution of stressors present (radioactive and chemical contaminants, and physical and biological disturbances). Both sources of information are integrated using ecological and contaminant transport models to estimate risks to humans and ecosystems.

Developing risk assessment procedures at the beginning of the restoration program creates an iterative framework that allows assessors to use pertinent existing data, identify information gaps, target future research needs, and evaluate the effects and economic cost of various risk management alternatives. A technologically sound methodology contributes to the development of consistently high quality assessments and scientifically based regulatory standards. Such an approach also facilitates selection of appropriate and timely remediation strategies which prove both cost effective and and acceptable to the public.
 

Educational Programs

The Center for Ecological Risk Assessment and Management faculty supervise Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy candidates enrolled in the ecological risk and assessment curriculum, affiliated with the University's Graduate Degree Program in Ecology. The curriculum consists of a combination of advanced interdisciplinary course work, seminars, and research that can be tailored to suit the students' specific interests.

Students are supported by several mechanisms including training grants, ongoing research, and other financial assistance programs. They have the opportunity to work with highly qualified scholars in the pursuit of knowledge and skills that are in demand by private industry, local, state, federal, and international regulatory agencies, and research organizations.

     

Research

Research conducted under the auspices of the Center for Ecological Risk Assessment and Management evaluates assessment methods and remediation alternatives for restoration of contaminated and disturbed ecosystems.  A variety of sponsors fund ERAM projects including the Departments of Energy, Defense, and Agriculture, the National Park Service, the National Science Foundation, and private industry. Departmental affiliations and research interests of ERAM associate faculty include:
 
  • Thomas E. Hakonson, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Department of Radiological Health Sciences...Research interests: contaminant distribution and transport; cover systems for remediating landfills; development of ecological risk assessment methods.
  • Edward F. Redente, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Rangeland Ecosystem Science...Research interests:  plant/soil interactions in disturbed ecosystems; restoration of Superfund and energy development sites.
  • John Stednick, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Earth Resources...Research interests: water quality, watershede analysis, use of geographic information systems in watershed analysis.
  • F. Ward Whicker, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Radiological Health Sciences...Research interests:  pathway analysis for radioactive contaminants; risk assessment model development; application of  ecological risk assessment in the decision-making process.

For more information about the ERAM, contact
 Edward F. Redente
Center For Ecological Risk Assessment and Mgnt.
Department of Forestry, Rangeland & Watershed Stewardship
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO  80523-1470
edr@cnr.colostate.edu
(970) 491-6542
Fax: (970) 491-6754

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