ANNOUNCEMENTS & KUDOS

We are extremely pleased to report that Kurt Haunreiter has accepted our offer to become the new Paper Science Center Manager! Kurt joined the industry in the early 1990s as an analytical chemist for James River, and then held positions as a process engineer, tissue operations manager and pulp manufacturing superintendent at Kimberly Clark. He earned a bachelor’s in chemistry from UW and a master’s from the Institute of Paper Chemistry. Kurt officially joins the BSE team this week, and you can reach him in person in Bloedel Hall (B-14), by phone at 206.543.5472, and by email at haunrk@uw.edu. We hope you’ll join us in welcoming him to our community!

We’ll continue the good news with some outstanding kudos for Professor Ivan Eastin, who has agreed to serve as the College of the Environment’s Associate Dean for Research, effective October 16. He’ll be working to foster multidisciplinary collaborations, promote and support the range of basic and applied research programs across the college and university, and help faculty identify opportunities to partner and collaborate with universities and research organizations both in the United States and around the world. Ivan will continue to run CINTRAFOR half-time while spending half-time in the Dean’s office. Congratulations, Ivan!

Professor Sarah Reichard sends some big-time kudos to everyone who helped organize the Seattle Garden Club’s Shirley Meneice Horticulture Conference on Tuesday, September 22, at the Center for Urban Horticulture. It’s an important conference for the Garden Club of America, and we hosted delegates from all over the country for an extraordinary event. So many people had a hand in the planning and execution of the conference, and Sarah sends a special thank you to all of the horticulture staff for the work they did to make our gardens shine—and to Maureen Black for arriving in time this summer to help with countless little details that helped everything come together so well!

SEFS Research Associate Nabin Baral was recently invited to participate in an international workshop, “Economic Impacts of Tourism in Protected Areas,” jointly organized by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and Wurzburg University. The workshop was held from September 21 to 25 in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, and Nabin presented two case studies from Nepal on the economic impacts of nature-based tourism in two protected areas. The ultimate goal of the workshop is to develop a standardized system for evaluating and monitoring tourism in protected areas throughout the world. Nice work, Nabin!

On Tuesday, September 9, new SEFS grad students Amanda Bidwell and Sean Callahan—working with Tom DeLuca and Patrick Tobin, respectively—presented on their research at the 2015 Green Seattle Partnership Shareholder Meeting, “Gamechangers and Beyond,” held at South Seattle College. As part of their research at SEFS, Amanda and Sean will be quantifying metal and nitrogen deposition along an urban-to-wildland gradient associated with transportation corridors (I-5 and I-90); using isotopic ratios to determine the source of pollutants; and assessing the influence of metal and nitrogen deposition on canopy epiphytes, forest floor bryophyte communities, and associated food webs. Great stuff!

On September 29, the UW Botanic Gardens participated in Dawg Daze Enviro-Quest 2015 by hosting a photo scavenger hunt through the 230-acre Washington Park Arboretum, “Find the UW Gnome at the Washington Park Arboretum.”

Students: One of our undergrads, Aaron Tam (ESRM - Wildlife Conservation), spent the summer volunteering for a climate policy initiative with Carbon Washington (CarbonWA), a grassroots organization working to bring strong climate policy to Washington through the ballot in 2016. CarbonWA is currently recruiting applicants for a paid fellowship for the fall quarter. They’re looking for students who are passionate about addressing climate change, advancing social justice, and enacting political change. Aaron says it’s a great learning opportunity, so if you’re interested, check out the details and submit your application by Saturday, October 10.

COMMITTEE NOTES

In case you missed the SEFS retreat or wanted to reference some of the discussions, Professor Monika Moskal’s presentation is now online: “SEFS Trends: Past, Present and Future.” Other reports and follow-up from the retreat will be available soon.

Professor Peter Kahn has successfully moved his lab space into Anderson 302.

Professor Stanley Asah will be moving his office into Bloedel 282, formerly the office of Professor Emeritus Gordon Bradley.

As always, all space requests (office/lab) must be submitted to the Director’s Council for evaluation.

SEMINAR SCHEDULES

SEFS Seminar Series: Wednesdays, 3:30-4:20 p.m., AND 223

Wildlife Seminar: Mondays, 3:30-4:50 p.m., Kane 120

Water Seminar: TBD

PUBLICATIONS

Doctoral student Kaeli Swift and Professor John Marzluff have a new paper in Animal Behaviour, “Wild American crows gather around their dead to learn about danger.”

SEFS IN THE PRESS

Speaking of that paper, Carl Zimmer wrote a great story about their research in The New York Times on October 1, “Crows May Learn Lessons From Death.” (The BBC ran its own story on this research the same day, “The birds that fear death.”)

ALUMNI UPDATES

SEFS alumna Melody Mobley, who gave our commencement keynote this past spring, was recently featured in a story in The Forestry Source, “Melody Mobley: A Forestry Pioneer, Black and Female,” written by another SEFS alumna, Andrea Watts. Great stuff!

Also, don’t forget to join SEFS alumnus Willis Littke (’82, Ph.D.), who will be giving the Distinguished Alumni Seminar as part of the SEFS Seminar Series this Wednesday, October 7, at 3:30 p.m. in Anderson 223: “Integrated Pest Management Application to Future Forest Health.” Littke, who studied with Professor Emeritus Bob Edmonds, recently retired from Weyerhaeuser after a long career as a forest health researcher. Should be a great talk to get you warmed up for the Salmon BBQ right afterward!