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Timber Triumph

How do you get a 22-foot Noble fir up to the Forest Club Room? Not easily, is the short answer, but it starts with Dave Cass hewing and hauling it up from Pack Forest. Then you recruit some handy helpers to shoehorn the tree up a narrow stairwell, maneuver it through a crowded capstone session, and then—when the coast is clear—stand the tree proudly and stably for all to admire and enjoy. A fair question here would be, “Who’s the jerk holding the camera and not helping with the tree?” Well, someone had to document the moment!

BLOG BITS

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Meet Wendy Star!

At the end of her second week as the new SEFS administrator, we sat down with Star to learn a little more of her story and help introduce her to the SEFS community.

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Student Panel Touts BSE Program

A couple weeks ago, six current BSE majors sat on a panel to talk about their experiences to a group of students considering the program. Covering everything from internship opportunities to setting up study groups, the panel made one point abundantly clear: The hard work is worth it, as most of them already have full-time jobs waiting after graduation!

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Winter SEFS Seminar Schedule Announced

We're moving the seminars back to Wednesdays this winter, but the hour and place remain the same: 3:30-4:20 p.m. in Anderson 223. So mark your calendars and come out and join us each week, starting on January 8! (Students, don't forget you can register for course credit.)

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News Bulletin ... About the Bulletin!

If plants are your passion, and you enjoy incisive articles about invasive species, then you’re probably already familiar with the Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin, the quarterly horticultural journal of the Arboretum Foundation. But if not, you might enjoy leafing through one of the latest issues!

UPCOMING EVENTS


Jan. 6, 2014:

Winter Quarter Begins

Jan. 8, 2014:

SEFS Seminar Series, 3:30-4:20 p.m., AND 223

Jan. 10, 2014:

Advanced Silviculture Seminar, 2:30-3:20 p.m., Kane Hall, Room 19

April 27, 2014:

SEFS Spring Gathering

 

GET INVOLVED

Like your news and updates on a daily basis? “Like” SEFS on Facebook and help promote our school!

ANNOUNCEMENTS & KUDOS

In case you haven’t heard, we’re extremely pleased to announce the hiring of David Guenther to join our IT team with Marc Morrison and Shane Krause. Guenther’s first day in the office will be Monday, Dec. 23, so please join us in extending a warm welcome when he arrives!

Big kudos to everyone who has donated so far for the U-District Food Bank Food Drive! We got off to a rather sluggish start, but contributions are starting to add up in the barrels we placed in Anderson, Bloedel, Winkenwerder and at UWBG. Some of the top needs at the food bank are canned fruit (pineapple, mandarin oranges and fruit cocktail, especially), soy or rice milk, pasta and sauce, soups and stews, and toiletries (soap, toilet paper, toothpaste). However, any unopened, unexpired (or recently expired) nonperishable food items you can donate would be greatly appreciated!

The “Climate of Change” video series, which we highlighted in the previous issue for its coverage of Pack Forest and the UW Farm, also features the fascinating work Professor Susan Bolton and her students have been doing trying to harness water from fog in a rural neighborhood of Lima, Peru. You can pick up the fog-catching story around the 16th minute of the fourth episode, “Commitment to the Future.”

That same project, in fact, just earned Professor Bolton and her fellow researchers with Comunidad Ecologica Saludable (Healthy Ecological Community) recognition as one of six Public Interest Design Global winners! Selected from applications representing 28 countries, the award recognizes projects that show how design can address the pressing social, economic and environmental challenges of the world.

In other award news, SEFS Director Tom DeLuca learned that his lab—with the help of research technologist Amanda Bidwell—has been certified at the Gold level as part of the Green Laboratory Certification Program, run by the UW Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability office! On top of that achievement, DeLuca’s lab has been recognized as the Greenest Lab in the 2013 College of the Environment Green Laboratory Competition. Nicely done!

PHISHING WARNING: Email scams are a year-round threat, and UW urges everyone to stay vigilant when opening emails. Always verify the sender of an email before clicking on any links, and be extremely wary anytime someone asks you to share or update your password information. When in doubt, don’t hesitate to reach out to UW Information Technology if you have any questions!.

PUBLICATIONS

One of Professor Greg Ettl’s new graduate students, Emilio Vilanova, is a coauthor on a publication in Science, “Hyperdominance in the Amazonian Tree Flora.” Nice work, Emilio!

SEFS IN THE PRESS

Make sure to let us know if we missed any news clips!

ALUMNI UPDATES

John Schoen (Ph.D., 1977), a senior science advisor at Audubon Alaska, and Gordon Orians, professor emeritus of biology at UW, published a book with the University of Washington Press this past June, North Pacific Temperate Rainforests: Ecology and Conservation. The book provides a multidisciplinary overview of key issues important for the management and conservation of rainforests in northern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. Professor Jerry Franklin coauthored the introduction and synthesis chapters.