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You'll Be Floored

In case you haven’t seen the new carpet in the Forest Club Room, or rolled around on the fresh tiles like a dog at a picnic, then prepare for a double-take. True, the old chairs and tattered sofas and rickety tables are the same, but the brand-new carpet gives the room a total makeover. No more dangerously frayed edges and taped-down corners, and gone are the uncountable crumbs and spills stomped into every fiber of that old dish rag of a carpet. In short, the Forest Room has its groove back, so stop by and appreciate the freshness while it lasts!

BLOG BITS

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Grad Student Spotlight: Matt Norton

Since Norton began his master’s program at SEFS this past fall, we’ve been hearing a few tantalizing rumors of his past exploits—from driving airboats to having a day named after him in Florida’s Volusia County—so we sat down with him last week to learn a little more of his story.

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Feathered Fun

Last Wednesday, 4th grader and avid birder Hudson Brown visited Anderson Hall and sat down with Professor John Marzluff for some lively discussion about all things avian—and the aspiring young ornithologist more than held his own!

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WSSAF Annual Meeting: Registration Open!

Updated information on the Washington State Society of American Foresters Annual Meeting, which will be held May 7-9 at Pack Forest, is now available online, and registration is open—so check out the schedule and get involved.

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Save the Date: SEFS Recognition Event!

The date is set for this year’s annual celebration—Tuesday, May 13, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Forest Club Room—and we’ll be sending out information soon about award nominations and items for the silent auction. Stay tuned!

UPCOMING EVENTS


March 10, 2014:

Wildlife Science Seminar, 3:30-4:30 p.m., Kane Hall, Room 130

March 12, 2014:

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

March 14, 2014:

Graduate Student Symposium, 9-5, AND 207

April 27, 2014:

SEFS Spring Gathering

 

GET INVOLVED

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ANNOUNCEMENTS & KUDOS

Saying goodbye to long-time colleagues and friends is never easy, and we hope Anita Smith knows how much she will be missed in these halls. Yet sad as we are to see her go, we take solace in knowing she’s moving on to a tremendous opportunity with General Internal Medicine, and we wish her the absolute best!

Another great installment of Evening Talks at ONRC is coming up this Friday, March 14, at 6:30 p.m. at the Olympic Natural Resources Center. Mike Tetreau will be giving the talk, “Chasing the Ice Worm in Tibet.” The event is open to the public, and you are invited to bring your favorite snack to share! Contact Ellen Matheny with any questions about the talk or speaker series.

Last Wednesday, March 5, Professor Aaron Wirsing gave a talk at the annual meeting of the Northwest Section of the Wildlife Society in Boise, Idaho. The talk, “The rise of animal-borne video systems as tools for wildlife research,” was part of a plenary session titled, “The Rise of Technology in Wildlife Science: Transforming Wildlife Conservation in the 21st Century.”

We have some kudos for Clara Burnett, who supplied a few “emergency mugs” for the Anderson Hall kitchen last week to help with a coffee cup shortage. Nothing grips this school with panic more than a crisis threatening our caffeine intake, so thank you to Clara for helping everyone keep the coffee flowing!

And don’t forget that the annual Elisabeth C. Miller Library Garden Lovers’ Book Sale is coming up on April 4 and 5. It’s the biggest event of the year and an important fundraiser for the library, so check out the event details and see if you have any plant-related books to donate to the sale!

PUBLICATIONS

Professor Jon Bakker, who will be returning from sabbatical shortly, is part of the Nutrient Network, a global research cooperative that has a paper being published in Nature this week: “Herbivores and nutrients control grassland plant diversity via light limitation.”

Bakker was a coauthor on a separate paper in Nature a few weeks ago, “Eutrophication weakens stabilizing effects of diversity in natural grasslands.” Great work, Jon!

SEFS has several authors—including Professors Stevan Harrell and Tom Hinckley, as well as Lauren Urgenson and Julie Combs—on a study published in Human Ecology this February: “Traditional Livelihoods, Conservation and Meadow Ecology in Jiuzhaigou National Park, Sichuan, China.”

SEFS IN THE PRESS

There’s a great story in the Seattle Times Pacific NW Magazine from February 23 about Professor Sarah Reichard and her husband, and how their large, wild and weedy garden in Crown Hill has proven to be both retreat and testing ground: “On the wild side: Down a ravine, treasures are found, natives thrive and creatures call.”

In other fun gardening news, Riz Reyes, one of our award-winning gardeners at the UW Botanic Gardens, was featured in a piece from The New York Times on March 5: “Scratching a Niche.”

We also came across a neat piece in ARCADE about Winkenwerder Hall, “A Surprising Richness of Order.”

ALUMNI UPDATES

The SEFS Alumni Group and Xi Sigma Pi are organizing a career mentoring event for students on Wednesday, April 16, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Forest Club Room. Event details and ways to get involved are still being finalized, and we’ll have more information soon. You can contact the SEFS Alumni Group with any questions in the meantime.