Yale School of the Environment

What a trip. In May YSE students spent a week in the Pacific Northwest.

The group visited irrigation districts along the Hood River, spent time on a working farm navigating the realities of surface water rights and endangered species liability, learned about Pacific Lamprey at the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation's South Fork Hatchery, and spent a full day with Bobby Brunoe of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs exploring anadromous fish reintroduction on the Deschutes River.

The trip's highlight? Spotting a spawning Chinook Salmon on Mother's Day — a rare sight even for experienced field professionals.

Louisiana is losing its coast faster than anywhere else in the U.S. What happens next could become a blueprint — or a warning — for vulnerable communities around the globe.

Louisiana’s Shrinking Coast Offers a Narrowing Window for Managed Retreat Louisiana is losing its coast faster than anywhere else in the U.S. What happens next could become a blueprint — or a warning — for vulnerable communities around the globe.

Forests get most of the attention when it comes to nature-based climate solutions — but what about the animals that inhabit them? As rewilding efforts gain momentum globally, the science linking healthy wildlife populations to carbon storage and ecosystem health — the basis for the Animating the Carbon Cycle platform, developed by Professor Oswald Schmitz, and the Global Rewilding Alliance — is growing.

Schmitz spoke with YSE News about how animals actively shape soil carbon, what it takes to find the right balance of wildlife on the land, and why the climate accounting most governments rely on is still missing a critical piece.

A Climate Solution Hiding in Plain Sight Professor Oswald Schmitz has spent decades studying how animals shape the ecosystems they inhabit. He recently spoke with YSE News about the science behind rewilding — and why healthy wildlife populations may be one of nature's most undervalued tools in the fight against climate change.

The regalia gown Brandon Hoak ’26 MEM wore to commencement was not standard issue. He had set out to sew one himself, but when it became clear he wasn’t going to finish in time, classmate and class speaker Caroline Solomon ’26 MEM jumped in, sewing most of it for him. It was, in miniature, a portrait of the community Hoak has spent two years building at YSE: something made carefully, by hand, together.

From transforming the neglected garden between Kroon and Sage Halls into a gathering place for students to building a free library in the Sage Lounge to leading a Writing SIG where he cooked for attendees, much of Hoak’s time at YSE has been about bringing people together.

Students, staff, and faculty recognized his efforts by awarding him this year’s Kroon Cup, which is presented annually to individuals and groups that embody stewardship and implement projects that engage and inspire the YSE community.

From supporting Tribal co-management of Pacific Northwest salmon to unlocking a 20-year impasse over farmland protection, Michael Kern finds consensus where others find only conflict. He joins YSE this July as the inaugural Bataua Professor in the Practice of Collaborative Solutions.

At YSE he will take the lead in establishing the Collaborative Solutions Program that will convene diverse stakeholders and engage Yale students and faculty in addressing complex environmental challenges through dialogue and collaborative action.

“In a world that is telling us that so much is hopeless and that it’s all about partisanship and conflict — there are these opportunities to be more, do more, have the sum be more than the parts, and be collaborative leaders. And that doesn’t mean we’re not staunch advocates for outcomes. It actually means we’re going to get somewhere,” he said.

https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/internationally-recognized-leader-environmental-collaboration-joins-yse-faculty

Congratulations to YSE Professor Karen Seto — a 2026 Benjamin Franklin Medal honoree in Earth and Environmental Science!

From space, Professor Seto sees what's invisible from the ground: how cities expand, ecosystems shift, and the climate changes as a result. Her pioneering use of satellite imagery has put urban growth on the global environmental map, and is helping shape smarter, more sustainable cities for the future.

On April 30th, she was honored at The Franklin Institute Awards ceremony in Philadelphia.

Watch her story here:

The Franklin Institute Karen Seto: Mapping the Hidden Impact of Urban Growth | 2026 Franklin Institute Awards

David Keiser has spent his career focused on a question that affects everyone's life: What are the social costs of water pollution?

He has built new data sets, hydrology tools, and national models to investigate the benefits and tradeoffs of water policy. His work has reshaped how policymakers understand the economic stakes of clean rivers, lakes, and drinking water systems. Keiser, who earned his doctorate at the Yale School of the Environment in 2014, will join the faculty July 1, as professor of water policy and management.

“YSE is a unique place where you get this phenomenal education in an interdisciplinary setting. It offers a mixture of great economics training, along with a deep understanding and appreciation of the environmental issues,” he said.

Economist Focused on the Benefits of Clean Water Joins YSE Faculty David Keiser ’14 PhD is redefining how the U.S. measures the true cost of polluted water — building tools that put real dollar values on degraded water quality.

Our full graduation photo gallery from the 125th YSE Commencement is now available: https://environment.yale.edu/commencement

As part of the 2026 commencement festivities, YSE held a community-wide celebration on Sunday, May 17th, recognizing the many accomplishments of our graduating students.

“You have learned because you opened your minds to new ways of thinking, new ways of solving problems, and to the ideas brought by others from very different backgrounds, countries, and perspectives. I hope you carry forward an openness to complexity, humility about what you do not yet know, and a willingness to keep listening, even when doing so is difficult,” Burke said. “I hope you continue to encounter ideas that challenge you, and that those moments lead you toward deeper insight into the very complicated relationship between humans and the environment. …Real leadership rarely begins with winning an argument; it begins with building trust.”

In her address to the Yale School of the Environment Class of 2026, Dean Indy Burke applauded graduates’ hard work, resilience, and persistence.

Class of 2026: Meeting Environmental Challenges with ‘Openness and Willingness to Listen’ This year’s graduates are entering careers across energy, corporate sustainability, public policy, and academia — joining a global alumni network of more than 6,000.