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Anchorage Aweigh!

A few weeks ago, we heard from two of our recent grad students, John Simeone and Erika Knight, who each earned a master’s from SEFS this past year. They actually met and started dating while undergraduates at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.—they’re now engaged—and this past September they loaded their Volkswagen, hitched up a small U-Haul trailer and set out on the 2,400-mile drive to try life in Alaska. Check out a slideshow of their journey and first days in Anchorage!

BLOG BITS

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Director's Message: Winter 2014

With classes starting up for Winter Quarter, SEFS Director Tom DeLuca reflects on the incredible capacity of some organisms to thrive and sprout new life even in the coldest, darkest months of the year—when most assume the forest is asleep or dormant.

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Wildlife Science Seminar

From brown bears to wolves and whales and the law, the Wildlife Seminar this winter features a wide range of subjects (and has a distinctly carnivorous feel this quarter). Held on Mondays at 3:30 p.m. in Kane Hall 130, the seminars are open to the public!

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Exploration Seminar: Costa Rica!

For the past five years, Professor John Marzluff has led a group of 15-20 students on a month-long exploration seminar to Costa Rica. The course is equal parts expedition and cultural immersion, and students get to learn about everything from local history and ecology to language and tourism. Deadline to apply is March 1, so check it out!

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Advanced Silviculture Seminar

This winter, Professor Greg Ettl has pulled together a continental slate of speakers, with presenters giving talks via videoconference from eight different locations in three countries—including Canada, Mexico and the United States. The seminars are held on Fridays at 2:30 p.m. in Kane Hall, Room 19.

UPCOMING EVENTS


Jan. 13, 2014:

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

Jan. 15, 2014:

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

Jan. 17, 2014:

Evening Talks at ONRC, 6:30 p.m.

April 27, 2014:

SEFS Spring Gathering

 

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ANNOUNCEMENTS & KUDOS

Much as we hate to begin on a sad note, we have to pass along the news that Pat Saunders is leaving SEFS. She moved to Seattle in 2008 and has worked at Pack Forest for the past five years, but this winter she’s returning to her home state of Maine to be closer to her parents, son and granddaughter. If you’re ever in Maine, she says, look her up and she’ll give you a tour of her family's forest (and also a place to rest your head). Best of luck, Pat—we’ll miss you!

On a more cheerful note, we have some great kudos for David Campbell and Shane Krause, who at the end of last quarter were extremely and proactively helpful with printing and posting capstone posters for students. Nice work!

We also have kudos for SEFS alumna Ara Erickson, who works for Weyerhaeuser and has been closely involved in the SEFS Alumni Group. Through her continued involvement with SEFS, Erickson helped earned us a $1,000 WAVES grant award through the Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund. Thank you, Ara, for your many contributions!

Coming up this Friday, Jan. 17, at 6:30 p.m., is the fourth installment of the new speaker series out at the Olympic Natural Resources Center, Evening Talks at ONRC. This month, ONRC is pleased to welcome Tom Rosmond, a consultant for the Naval Research Laboratory, Marine Meteorology Division, for his talk, “An Introduction to Modern Weather Prediction: Is it going to rain or maybe snow?” The series is open to the public, and you can contact Ellen Matheny for more information.

PUBLICATIONS

This past December, SEFS postdoc James Freund was third author on a new publication in PLOS ONE, “The Importance of Large-Diameter Trees to Forest Structural Heterogeneity.” As it happens, all of the authors are SEFS alumni and were also graduate students of Professor Jerry Franklin!

Professor Aaron Wirsing is a coauthor on a new study that appeared in the January 10 issue of Science, “Status and Ecological Effects of the World’s Largest Carnivores.” For more background and context, check out a great story Sandra Hines at UW News & Information put together about the research.

SEFS IN THE PRESS

In case you missed this story on KUOW.org, “Tree Sitters Face Off With Professors Over Logging Plan,” there’s been a little controversy over the logging and conservation interests on Bureau of Land Management forest land in Oregon. The article features Professor Jerry Franklin and his colleague Norm Johnson at Oregon State University, and the storyline is not as clear-cut as you might imagine from the headline (or the article itself, for that matter).

ALUMNI UPDATES

We have some excellent alumni hiring news, including for Jamie Bass, a recent grad (ESRM major) who just got a job as a forester for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in north-central Washington, and for Matt Grund, who recently earned a master’s and has now landed a position as a forester with the Department of Natural Resources. Nicely one, Jamie and Matt!

Back in December, we were pleased to have Hector Lisboa Basualto visit Anderson Hall with his daughter. Basualto, who earned a master’s from SEFS in 1962, now runs a eucalyptus tree farm (Eucalyptus regnans) in Chile, and he credits UW for shaping his career as a forester who dedicated all of his life to trees. Learn more about his operation!