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Sam in the Amazon

As the rest of Seattle has been bracing for the darkest days of the year, first-year doctoral student Samantha Zwicker has been gearing up for a tropical field season this winter in the Peruvian Amazon. Sam, who grew up nearby on Bainbridge Island, has been working with Professor Kristiina Vogt since her time as an undergrad. She has explored various angles of ecosystem ecology, conservation and human impacts on the environment, and now, for her doctoral research, she has begun a large-scale study assessing the impact of roads on big cats—primarily jaguar (Panthera onca)—in the Las Piedras River basin. Learn more about her work in Peru, including the nonprofit she co-founded to help local communities develop more sustainable agricultural practices!

BLOG BITS

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Next Wednesday (1/27): Natural Resources Career Fair

The Society of American Foresters UW Student Chapter invites you to attend a Natural Resources Career Fair on Wednesday, January 27, from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Forest Club Room (AND 207). Nearly 20 agencies, organizations and companies will be on hand to interact with students (and recent alumni), so join the action!

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Carbon Seminar: Winter 2016 Schedule

This winter, we are pleased to host the Carbon Seminar (ESRM 429a), which runs Tuesday mornings from 8:30 to 9:20 a.m. in Anderson 223. The series features weekly lectures from leading UW scientists who are covering the applications and cycles of carbon—the most interdisciplinary element.

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Arboretum Map Upgraded for Smartphones

The UW Botanic Gardens is excited to announce an interactive map of the Washington Park Arboretum that you can now use on your smartphone! Thanks to this super-cool upgrade, your phone can be a handy aid as you walk around and explore the collections, either browsing as you go or searching for plants by name, keyword or accession number. Check it out!

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Alumni Spotlight: Avery Meeker

Shortly after graduating last June, SEFS alumnus Avery Meeker (’15, B.S.) spent the late summer and fall volunteering with the Raptor View Research Institute, a nonprofit research and education organization based in Missoula, Mont. He recently sent us photos of his efforts monitoring raptor migrations in Montana!

UPCOMING EVENTS


Jan. 27, 2016:

Natural Resources Career Fair, 12:30-3:30 p.m., AND 207

Feb. 10, 2016:

Xi Sigma Pi’s Resume Workshop, 5 p.m., AND 207

Mar. 4, 2016:

Graduate Student Symposium

Mar. 18, 2016:

Winter Quarter Ends

 

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ANNOUNCEMENTS & KUDOS

Save the date for the 2016 Sustaining Our World Lecture, which we’ve set for Thursday, April 21! We’re excited to welcome author and news reporter Lynda Mapes, who covers environmental issues for The Seattle Times. We’ll have more details to share later, but we hope you’ll go ahead and mark that evening on your calendars!

We’ve also set the date for the annual SEFS Spring Gathering for Sunday, April 10, at the Center for Urban Horticulture! All students, staff, faculty, alumni and friends are welcome, and we’ll pass along the specifics as soon as they’re finalized.

Coming up on Friday, January 29, SEFS doctoral student Caitlin Littlefield will be presenting the next installment in the Evening Talks at ONRC speaker series, “Landscape connectivity to address climate change: Tracking climates through time and space.” Her talk will begin at 7 p.m. at the ONRC campus in Forks, Wash., and is open to the public.

Kudos to Anna Simpson, a doctoral candidate with SEFS and UW's Astrobiology program, who recently presented some of her research at the 2015 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco, Calif., from December 14 to 18. The AGU Fall Meeting is the largest earth and space science meeting in the world, and it encompasses a wide variety of fields, from solar physics to biogeochemistry. Anna, who works with Professor Darlene Zabowski, presented on “Microbial community and nitrogen cycling shift with snowmelt in high-elevation barren soils of Mount Rainier National Park.” To assist with the cost of travel and attending the meetings, Simpson received financial support from the College of the Environment Student Travel and Meeting Fund and the Director’s Student Travel funds at SEFS. Nice work!

Kudos, as well, to SEFS master's student Lynn Khuat, who recently attended the Soil Science Society of America annual meeting in Minneapolis. She had the opportunity to present her research about the influence of soil characteristics in dry forest vegetation patterns in the eastern Cascade Mountains. During the weeklong conference, she was also able to network with other forest soil scientist grad students and professionals. Great stuff!


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COMMITTEE NOTES

No updates to report, but a reminder that the SEFS Research Committee has begun soliciting requests for proposals for the annual McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research program grants. Full details are available online, and letters of intent are due by 5 p.m. on February 5.


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SEMINAR SCHEDULES

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

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

Carbon Seminar: Tuesdays, 8:30-9:20 a.m., AND 223


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PUBLICATIONS

Professor Jon Bakker, who is part of the global Nutrient Network, is a coauthor on a new paper just published in Nature, “Integrative modelling reveals mechanisms linking productivity and plant species richness.” (Michelle Ma at UW News put together a great release about the research, “Scientists solve long-standing ecological riddle.”)


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SEFS IN THE PRESS

In the last issue, we mentioned a new publication from SEFS postdoc Jeff Richardson and Professor Monika Moskal in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, “Urban food crop production capacity and competition with the urban forest.”

For more on that paper, check out a story from Michelle Ma, “Fewer than 1 in 25 Seattleites can really eat locally.”

The Joseph A. Witt Winter Garden got some love on page 84 of Seattle Magazine’s Winter 2016 issue, including a teaser on the cover! Lynda Mapes of The Seattle Times—who will be giving our Sustaining Our World Lecture this April—also put together a nice piece on the garden on December 13, “Blooms, fragrance grace Seattle winter garden.”

Professor Sally Brown was featured in an article in The Daily, “UW professor brings attention to impacts of landfill diversion.”


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ALUMNI UPDATES

Last Saturday, January 16, SEFS alumnus Kevin Zobrist gave a reading from his book, Native Trees of Western Washington, at the King County Library, Federal Way Branch. Kevin earned his B.S in 2000 and then his master’s in 2001, and he oversees the Washington State Extension Forestry program in Everett, Wash.