Kristen Nelson

smiling woman outdoors
Professor Emeritus
Department of Forest Resources
Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology
[email protected]
612-624-1277
Green Hall
MSP LTER urban ecosystems
Education

Ph.D. University of Michigan

Areas of Interest

Environmental change & human systems

Teaching

  • ESPM 3202W Environmental Conflict Management, Leadership, and Planning
  • ESPM 3271 Environmental Policy, Law and Human Behavior
  • ESPM 4041 Problem Solving for Environmental Change 
  • ESPM 5202 Environmental Conflict Management, Leadership, and Planning

Research

My research interests focus on several areas: community-level analysis of institutions and organizations involved in resource conservation and development, collaboration and conflict in environmental planning and management, and social capital and resource mobilization. My recent projects focus on social institutions that support ecosystem services provided by fragmented terrestrial systems at the rural/urban interface and in developing countries; evaluation of community-level carbon mitigation projects; social maintained biodiversity efforts. Most of my international work has been done in Latin America, specifically Chiapas, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Ecuador.

2018-2021 Research Projects Include:

  • Low-input vegetation management in cities: public land managers and homeowners
  • Anticipatory governance in urban ecosystems
  • Beekeepers and managing healthy systems from colonies to communities
  • Bee Lawns: public perceptions of enhanced pollinator habitats
  • Social equity and urban greening
  • Q 3.2 Advocacy in Environmental Policies and Practices

Keywords

Interdisciplinary understanding of environmental change and its dynamic with human systems. Specifically, environmental sociology, community participation in natural resource planning and knowledge formation; environmental dispute management; conservation and sustainable development; social movements.

Select Publications

*graduate students & post-docs

  • Engebretson, J.M., K.C. Nelson, L.A. Ogden, K.L. Larson, J.M. Grove, S.J. Hall, D.H. Locke, D.E. Pataki, R. Roy Chowdhury, T.L.E. Trammell, P.M. Groffman. 2020. "How the nonhuman world influences homeowner yard management in the American residential macrosystem." Human Ecology, 48, 347-356.
  • Ramer, H., K.C. Nelson, M. Spivak, E. Watkins, J. Wolfin, M. Pulscher. 2019. "Exploring park visitor perceptions of ‘flowering bee lawns’ in neighborhood park in Minneapolis, MN, US." Landscape and Urban Planning, 189: 117-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.04.015
  • Thoms*, C., K.C. Nelson, A. Kubas, N. Steinhauer, M.E. Wilson, D. vanEngelsdorp. 2018. Beekeeper stewardship, colony loss, and Varroa destructor management, Ambio, (online).
  • Barnes*, M. R., K. C. Nelson, A. Meyer, E. Watkins, S. Bono, B. Horgan, W. Meyer, J. Murphy, C.Yue. 2018. Public land managers and sustainable urban vegetation: The case of low-input turfgrasses. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 29, 284-292.
  • Yue, C., J. Wang, E. Watkins, S. Bono, K.C. Nelson, J. Murphy, W. Meyer, B. Horgan. 2017. Consumer preferences for information sources of turfgrass products and lawn care, Agronomy Journal, 109(4): 1726-1733.
  • Larson, K., K.C. Nelson, S.R. Samples, S.J. Hall, N. Bettez, J. Cavernder-Bares, P.M. Groffman, M. Grove, J.B. Heffernan, SE Hobbie, J Learned, JL Morse, C. Neill, LA Ogden, J O’Neil-Dunne, C. Polsky, R. Roy Chowdhury, M. Steele, T.L. Trammell. 2015. Ecosystem services in managing residential landscapes.
  • Sisser, John, Kristen C. Nelson, Kelli L. Larson, Laura A. Ogden, Colin Polsky, and Rinku Roy Chowdhury. 2016. Lawn enforcement: How municipal policies and neighborhood norms influence homeowner residential landscape management, Landscape and Urban Planning, 150: 16-25.