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The Northwoods Photographic Project

For the month of October, we are very excited to feature a photography exhibition by John Tylczak in the Forest Club Room. Tylczak grew up in Shelton, Wash., where four generations of his family have lived since 1885; his grandfather, in fact, was the executor of Agnes Anderson’s estate. The black-and-white portraits he is sharing with us come from his broader collection, Views from the Northwoods: 1983-1995, which captures the faces of the Washington timber industry in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Tylczak will be at the opening, which coincides with the Salmon BBQ on October 1, so come by and meet him and take a look at his work! 

BLOG BITS

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Undergrad Spotlight: Maria Gamman

“I’ve always felt that whatever you do without getting paid on your own time, that’s what you should try to do for your job,” says Gamman, who is heading into her final quarter at SEFS. “Particularly what you enjoyed doing when you were younger—something you had a natural pull or attraction for.”

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Gibson Virtual Desktops: Virtual Computing, From Anywhere

Created a little more than two years ago, Gibson provides fully secure, 24-hour remote access to high-end software previously only available in SEFS computing labs. Now, no matter where you are in the world, as long as you have an internet connection you’ll have your personalized computer waiting for you, along with the full suite of SEFS online resources and software at your fingertips.

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UW Farm Opens Weekly Produce Stand Along Burke-Gilman Trail

The stand will be open every Friday from 3 to 5:30 p.m. just across the trail from the Husky Grind at the Mercer Court apartments. Stop by to pick out fresh, hyper-local lettuce, kale, chard, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, carrots, beets, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, turnips, radishes, beans, tomatillos, herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme, lavender), mustard, garlic and more!

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Video: Cultivating Hybrid Poplars for Biofuel Production

Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest (AHB) has put together a series of short videos to help explain current research to convert hybrid poplars into biofuels and other bioproducts. Check out the segments, which range from an AHB project overview to more granular explorations of specific parts of the conversion process.

UPCOMING EVENTS


Sept. 17, 2014:

SEFS Fall Retreat, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Sept. 19, 2014:

Graduate Student Orientation

Sept. 24, 2014:

Fall Quarter Begins

Oct. 1, 2014:

Annual Salmon BBQ, 4-6 p.m., Anderson Courtyard

 

GET INVOLVED

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ANNOUNCEMENTS & KUDOS

The Stand Management Cooperative has opened recruitment for a new research scientist position (Forest Research Scientist 4). Take a look at the job description and forward it to anyone you think might be qualified and interested!

Professor Ernesto Alvarado passed along links to a great video series, “Braids of Truth,” produced in part by the University of Washington. The three-part series (plus intro) covers a range of topics, from differences between western science and traditional ecological principles, to fire management and climate change, to better ways for agencies, institutions and tribal cultures to communicate and collaborate. The video project came out of a workshop in 2010, funded by a grant from the Joint Fire Science Program, with partial support from the U.S. Forest Service. The segments are well worth a watch: Introduction; Part 1: Fire and Forest Management; Part 2: Climate Change; and Part 3: Collaboration Challenges.

Horticulturist Ryan Garrison sent out some well-earned and wide-ranging kudos in his announcement that they are finally done digitizing grids for the UW Botanic Gardens interactive map. The official launch of the map will be happening soon, and this was a huge step—in a very huge project—very much deserving a big round of congratulations! Special thanks go to Tracy Mehlin; Jim Lutz; David Campbell; Andrew Fraser; David Hutchins; Peter Dierich; Thomas Barger; David Zuckerman; Keith Ferguson and his volunteers; Nichole Sheehan; Marc Morrison and his IT crew; the UWBG horticulture staff; Fred Hoyt; Sarah Reichard; and many other students, project partners and supporters along the way.

In other UW Botanic Gardens news, they are looking for student volunteers to help with the invasive plants conference, "Meeting the Challenge: Prevention, Detecting and Controlling Invasive Plants," coming up September 16-17 at the Center for Urban Horticulture. Volunteers will help with such tasks as check-in, set-up and clean-up of breaks and lunches, and clean-up at the end of each day. Volunteers are generally asked to commit to arrive one hour before the program begins and stay up to an hour after it ends. In exchange for their services, student volunteers get free admission to the conference and tremendous exposure to some exciting colleagues and research! Email Elyse Denkers if you're interested.

PUBLICATIONS

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

SEFS IN THE PRESS

Second-year SEFS doctoral student Ben Dittbrenner was featured in an Everett Herald story on September 6, “Beavers brought here as part of an effort to improve ecosystems.” Dittbrenner is looking at how the reintroduction of beavers into higher elevation areas of the west slope of the Cascades may reduce hydrologic impacts of climate change by increasing water storage in the upper watershed; water storage will likely decrease as winters warm and snowpack decreases. One of the main components of the study is to trap "nuisance" beavers, animals that would otherwise be trapped and killed, from the lowlands and relocate those animals into the headwaters of the Skykomish River basin. He’s been trapping for a few weeks now, with great success, and their first relocation into the wild occurred last Wednesday. Chris Winters, a writer with the Everett Herald, came along on the relocation and wrote the article about the experience. Great stuff!

ALUMNI UPDATES

SEFS alumna Hillary Burgess had her graduate research featured in a guest column in the Seattle Times on September 5, “The citizen wildlife steward and the return of the Western bumblebee.” Her citizen science project helped inspire a lot of the excitement around the rediscovery—and ongoing search and documentation—of Western bumblebees in the Seattle area.