ANNOUNCEMENTS & KUDOS

We were incredibly saddened over the weekend to learn that Doug Walker, a UW alumnus and co-chair of the College of the Environment's Advisory Board, was killed in an avalanche on Granite Mountain while out hiking last Thursday, December 31. Doug was a noted philanthropist, an extraordinarily skilled mountain climber and avid outdoorsman, and a champion of conservation in the Pacific Northwest and across the country. He was a close friend and supporter of SEFS, and a public gathering in Doug’s honor will be held in the near future. We will share more details as soon as we can.

In much brighter news, we are excited to welcome our newest staff member, KC Deterling, who took over at the SEFS Front Desk in Anderson 107 last Monday, December 28. KC earned an associate’s degree in horticulture landscape management, and she joins us from the UWMC Anatomic Pathology Department. We hope you’ll introduce yourself and give her a warm welcome on your next stop into Anderson 107 (or by sending her an email at kcd8@uw.edu)!

We’ll go from there to some double kudos for David Campbell, starting with a hearty thanks for his work to get 140 graduate applications ready for review before the holiday break!

The second half comes from Professor Jim Fridley, who wanted to commend David for some of the “above and beyond” work he did during the Autumn Quarter: “I have, for my entire career, taught courses involving students working on teams of 4 to 8 individuals completing major projects. These courses demand systems for making every student accountable for her or his effort toward completing the team project, but I have always struggled with the highly time-consuming tasks of collecting and processing the needed information. This past quarter David devoted considerable time and energy to developing a web app that administers a specialized survey and preprocesses the results so that we can more easily and efficiently conduct our analysis. The app saves the students some time, saves us instructors a large amount of time, helps us get more complete information from our students, and eliminates virtually all of the errors associated with data handling and processing. We have used the app on multiple occasions in ESRM/BES/TESC 462 (the restoration capstone), and we will be using it even more in the next two quarters—and beyond. David was tremendously helpful throughout the whole development process. I was impressed with not only his willingness to take this on and the technical results he achieved, but also with the manner in which he worked with us to understand our requirements and make sure that the resulting web app fully serves our needs.”

COMMITTEE NOTES

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.

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

PUBLICATIONS

SEFS postdoc Jeff Richardson and Professor Monika Moskal have a new paper out in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, “Urban food crop production capacity and competition with the urban forest.”

On December 21, Michelle Ma at UW News put together a great release about Professor David Butman’s new paper in PNAS, “Rivers, lakes impact ability of forests to store carbon.”

SEFS IN THE PRESS

On January 2, the The News Tribune in Tacoma ran a nice story that features Professor Monika Moskal and some of the research in her lab, “Tacoma’s Challenge: Making City of Destiny more a City of Trees.”

A Seattle Times story on December 31, “Cheap oil slows down UW’s plan for tree-based biofuels,” features Professor Rick Gustafson and our biofuels research.

On December 29, the New York Times did a wonderful story that features the Fiddleheads Forest School, including Kit Harrington and Sarah Heller, “Preschool Without Walls.”

A Spokesman-Review story on December 25, “In windstorm aftermath, arborists suggest evaluations before removing more trees,” features quotes from Professors Eric Turnblom and Bernard Bormann.

On December 10, Seattle’s KCTS Channel 9 did a nice story that features Professor Steve Harrell at length, “China’s Forest Protection Efforts May Be Taking Root.” The story draws from a recent publication in China Quarterly with co-author and SEFS alumna Alicia Robbins (’13, Ph.D).

The Soil Science Society of America put together a great piece about Professor Sally Brown a couple weeks ago, “Plants, soils take to the streets,” about stormwater bioretention systems.

On December 16, Michelle Ma covered a different angle of Sally Brown’s research, “Composting food waste remains your best option, says UW study.”

Michelle Ma—who has clearly been crushing it with coverage of our work!—also put together an excellent story about SEFS grad student Theresa Yoder and her MEH project, “Seattle’s Ballard is ripe for green-space restoration, new report says.” Theresa’s work picked up some nice traction, and she ended up getting interviewed by King 5 news!

ALUMNI UPDATES

SEFS alumna Linda Uyeda (’15, Ph.D.) sent word that she has recently accepted a position as the California Condor Biologist for the Santa Barbara Zoo, where she had been working as a research associate. “I'm very excited about this job and am looking forward to learning a lot while working on a great program,” she writes. Great stuff!