ANNOUNCEMENTS & KUDOS

We’ll start with some well-deserved kudos for Michelle Trudeau—or should we say, Dr. Trudeau—who recently completed her doctoral degree! Stop by and congratulate her on this great accomplishment, and find out what she’s been sneakily studying on the side!

We have kudos, as well, for SEFS doctoral student Emilio Vilanova, who took part in the IUFRO World Congress last month in Salt Lake City. As part of a special session, “Long-term research for ecosystem management,” Vilanova presented a preliminary set of results on the dynamics of different types of Venezuelan forests, with a strong emphasis on recruitment, mortality and productivity of tree populations. For the past 10 years, he’s been involved in organizing field expeditions, forest measurements and data management to monitor a set of sample plots in forested areas of Venezuela in an effort to study the effects of climate change on tropical forest ecosystems. Great work, Emilio!

We’ll keep the kudos rolling with SEFS doctoral student Shannon Kachel, who represented our school at The Wildlife Society Annual Conference, held October 25-30 in Pittsburgh, Pa., and presented a poster, "Snow Leopards, Wolves, and the Ecology of Fear in Central Asia."

One more round of kudos goes to SEFS grad student Ben Roe, who was recently featured in the Washington State Society of American Foresters Annual Report. Roe is pursuing a joint master’s from SEFS and the Evans School, and he was a $1,000 scholarship recipient for 2013 and 2014. After he graduates, he plans to pursue a career with the federal government, working to develop policies that incorporate sustainable management and environmental conservation. Nice work, Ben!

STUDENTS: If you’re looking to enhance your research program or have other technology and equipment needs, the 2014-15 Student Technology Fee RFP is now available online. SEFS students have secured grants for all sorts of proposals, from field research kits to precision lab equipment, and there’s virtually no limit to how little or how much you can request. Jump in there and get started on your application, and contact Marc Morrison, our STF guru, if you have any questions about the process or whether your idea is a good fit.

On the office front, Lisa Nordlund reports that we’re a little behind our pace from last year in the UW Combined Fund Drive, but there’s still plenty of time to take part! You have through November 28 to sign up to support a great cause or organization through payroll deduction. Last year, 4,395 individual donors at UW pledged $2,181,517 to support hundreds of different charities, and we’re hoping to push that number even higher this year. If you have any questions about the drive, contact Nordlund (and remember that if you signed up in a previous year, that commitment will rollover to this year as well).

If you’re looking for volunteer opportunities in the Bothell area, SEFS grad student Elliott Church passed along news of a community group he’s involved with, Friends of North Creek Forest, that is working to develop a 64-acre urban forest into an outdoor laboratory to advance art, science and literature. Email Church if you’d like to learn more.

Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest (AHB) has released another great video, “Building a bioenergy workforce in the Pacific Northwest,” about students who are taking cutting-edge classes on bioenergy and the environment in the Pacific Northwest. This latest segment features our consortium partners at Oregon State University and the Agriculture Center of Excellence at Walla Walla Community College.

Finally—and most fittingly on a day like today—if you’re looking for inspiration, resources and company for pedaling to work in November, the annual “Ride in the Rain” challenge kicked off this past Saturday. Get your wheels wet as part of the competition! (You will be asked to log in to access details and sign up.)

COMMITTEE NOTES

The search is under way for two new assistant professors—one in bioproducts and the other in quantitative wildlife ecology—with an expected start date of fall 2015.

Final interviews are also in process for the new Olympic Natural Resources Center (ONRC) director. This faculty position will likely split time between ONRC and the main campus.

The Director’s Council approved a temporary move for Shannon Ewanick, who has been hired as a lecturer, to use Bloedel 334 (formerly Professor Monika Moskal’s office).

Also, we will soon have updates on new committee assignments and tasks this fall, and if you have suggestions/ideas/improvements, email sefsdirector@uw.edu.

PUBLICATIONS

Don’t forget to send us word of new publications involving you or your students!

SEFS IN THE PRESS

In the last issue, we reported about a great new publication from Professor Sharon Doty’s lab involving phytoremediation, and Science News recently covered some of the findings in a story on October 21, “Engineered plants demolish toxic waste.”

A UW Today story on October 29, “Fires and floods: North Cascades federal lands prepare for climate change,” features Professor Josh Lawler and Dave Peterson.

Professor John Marzluff’s new book, Subirdia, received some nice coverage in a Seattle Times story on October 26, “‘Subirdia’: Surprisingly, birds thrive in suburban areas.”

Sandra Hines at UW News put together a great piece on our photography exhibition in the Forest Club Room, “Portraits from time of change in Western Washington logging industry.” We’ll be pulling down the photos shortly in case you wanted to take one final look!

ALUMNI UPDATES

On Wednesday, December 3, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in Anderson 223, the final SEFS Seminar of the quarter will feature alumnus Stephen M. Hopley, “My life story as a paper science and engineering graduate.” After his talk, we’ll be holding our annual SEFS Holiday Party in the Forest Club Room, and all students, staff, faculty and alumni are invited!