By Chris Riotta
The Association of Agricultural and Resource Economists hosted a graduate coffee and poster forum at Symons Hall at the university of Maryland, where graduate students and faculty members discussed interdisciplinary research around the theme “Saving the Chesapeake Bay: Benefits, Policies, and Data Needs”.
The event was funded by Graduate Student Activities fees and all graduate students were invited to attend. “Meetings like this are a great opportunity for us to get together and see what kind of research is being done by our peers,” said graduate student Leah Bergdoll. ” Not to mention, the free pizza and coffee brings in a decent crowd for the presenters.”
The meeting was held on the third floor of Symons Hall, and five students presented their research in posters throughout the conference room.
Joe Maher’s research poster, “A Valuation of Restored Streams Using Repeat Property Sales” indicated that stream restoration projects boost land value in the outlying areas of the streams being studied. It is the first empirical data of its kind to show that such projects can raise home values in areas with streams being restored.
The posters all correlated with each other as students and faculty had the opportunity to walk through the conference and speak with presenters on their topics and findings.
