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February 25, 2013, Vol. 45, # 1       SEFS  |  Offshoots  |  Facebook  |  Support SEFS  |  College of the Environment

Arboretum

Arboretum History, Maps Going Digital

Since it opened in 1934, the Washington Park Arboretum has hosted thousands of plant collections and species, each with a meticulously kept record and history. Until recently, many of those details have been preserved solely on paper. This past August, though, the University of Washington Botanic Gardens (UWBG) received a grant to begin digitizing those records and create an interactive Geographic Information Systems (GIS) map for the entire park.

BLOG BITS

Peter Gill

Student Spotlight: Peter Gill

After returning from two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal, Gill reflects on his graduate work in agroforestry and his experience with the PCMI program at SEFS.

McIvor

Alumni Spotlight: Kristen McIvor

A former Ph.D. student with Professor Sally Brown, McIvor used her background in urban agriculture to help galvanize the community garden program in Tacoma.

Bob Edmonds

Professor Bob Edmonds, a World Apart

From aerobiology to forest pathology, water pollution to biosolids and root diseases, Professor Emeritus Bob Edmonds reflects on his 37 years of teaching and research as a forest ecologist.

Raccoons

Students to Investigate Raccoon Ramblings

For their senior Capstone Projects, three ESRM students set up motion-sensor cameras to track the nocturnal patterns of raccoons on the UW campus.

UPCOMING EVENTS


Feb. 27, 2013:

SEFS Seminar Series

March 1, 2013: 

Dead Elk Society Film Night

March 8, 2013: 

2013 Graduate Student Symposium

March 8, 2013:

Dead Elk Society's post-GSS, end-of-quarter party

 

GET INVOLVED

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ANNOUNCEMENTS & KUDOS

Save the date for the 2013 Sustaining Our World Lecture, hosted by SEFS and the College of the Environment--Built Ecologies: Regionalism and Resource Integration in the Built World, featuring Thomas Knittel, vice president and project designer with HOK. WHEN: 6-7 p.m., April 4. WHERE: Kane Hall 210. More details to come soon!

Special kudos and thanks go to Brad Coston, Marc Morrison, Shane Krause and the rest of their team for their incredible dedication and brutally long hours helping restore systems after the power outages on February 7 and then this past weekend.

Student and Academic Services would also like to extend kudos to Xi Sigma Pi for their bustling resume workshop on February 4. Volunteers who helped organize the event and staffed shifts from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. included Natalie Footen, Julianne Baroody, Lauren Grand, Josefina Narvaja, Katherine Wyatt and Kendall Becker. Lisa Nordlund was also very helpful advertising the workshop and setting up the meeting area in her office!
                 
Congratulations to Korena Mafune, a senior ESRM major who received the Dean’s Award for Undergraduate Innovation, and Katrina Mendrey, who was recently awarded a $2,000 fellowship through the Washington Section of the American Water Resources Association!

PUBLICATIONS

The journal of Forest Ecology and Management recently published an article, “Role of biotic interactions in regulating conifer invasions of grasslands,” based on dissertation work by Ryan D. Haugo, who was co-advised by Charlie Halpern and Jon Bakker. The research was funded by the UW Royalty Research Fund.

For the April 2013 issue of Biological Conservation, Professor Aaron Wirsing co-authored a paper, "Widespread mesopredator effects after wolf extirpation," addressing the possibility that expanding numbers and ecological effects of coyotes might in part be the consequence of wolf extirpation in the American West.

Professor Sally Brown contributed to the 2012 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Guidelines for Water Reuse; she presented some of that research in Week 7 of the SEFS Seminar Series on February 20.

SEFS IN THE PRESS

Coverage of the impending 520 construction and the end of the ‘ramps to nowhere’ at the Arboretum collected several news hits. Check out a selection of clips! 

ALUMNI UPDATES

SEFS alumnus Riz Reyes, now a gardener at the Center for Urban Horticulture, had his first garden display in the Northwest Flower and Garden Show this year. At the Preview Party on Tuesday, Feb. 19, he was awarded the Founder’s Cup—the highest award of the show. Well done, Riz!

Randy Dahlgren, chair of the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis, was honored with the 2012 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement. Dahlgren received a Ph.D. in soil science (Fio Ugolini, advisor) in the early 1980s. His work focused on the role of tephra (ash from volcanoes, specifically Mt. St. Helens' 1980 eruption) on soil development at mid- to upper elevations.

Also, with the SEFS Alumni Union rebooted and ready to roll, now’s a great time to reconnect. Find out about upcoming alumni activities, and see how you can get involved today!