FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT NEWS A Newsletter for Department of Forest Ecology and Management Staff, Students and Alumni
Vol. 6, No. 1 March 2003
won’t deter them from following a family in Wisconsin. Check out the News from dream or allow them to accept failure. Land Between the Lakes web site at This year’s graduating class is no excep-
Welcome to Our New Graduate Students Student News We have two new graduate students in the department this semester - Michael Labissoniere and Laura Marx. They each have provided a bit of background about themselves. Take a moment to welcome them, either in person or by e-mail.
Congratulations to Our Michael La Bissoniere
The Dept. of Forest Ecology and 2003 by Academic Press, ISBN 0-12- Management currently has 16 students 141362-4. Gilless is now the S.J. Hall working toward the MS degree and 25 Department News Professor in the College of Natural PhD students. Undergraduate majors Resources at the University of include 38 students pursuing a Forest California, Berkeley. The textbook on Science degree and 40 pursuing a Prof. Joseph Buongiorno forest resource management is intended Recreation Resources Management for senior undergraduates; first year degree. Undergraduate enrollment in the co-authors two new books graduate students; and professionals in Forest Science degree has been steady Professor Joseph forestry, natural resource management, over the past couple of years. However, Buongiorno, Dept. and other fields of environmental sci- student interest in the Recreation of Forest Ecology ence. In their book Buongiorno and Resources Management degree appears and Management Gilless review the essential modern deci- to be increasing. The number of students and Prof. Keith sion methods used in the scientific man- in our graduate degree program is also Gilless (PhD ’83) agement of forests. They give a bal- on the rise in response to the addition of are co-authors of: anced treatment to the ecological and three new faculty in recent years. Decision Methods economic impact of alternative manage- for Forest Resource ment decisions in both even-aged and Management, pub- uneven-aged forests. The relevant lished in February continues on page 3 FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT NEWS Page 3 methods are presented with simple alge- In particular, the study will examine the the history, setting, and mission of Kemp bra and spreadsheet models, along with impact of population growth associated Station,” says Steele. “We want a build- a variety of examples that you can with housing/residential development ing that not only allows students to study download from the web to brush up your (both seasonal and permanent land own- conservation, but a building that puts management skills. ership) on local communities and how it conservation into practice.” Features affects nearby national forest and park such as “green” construction techniques, Joseph management. The study will take place energy efficient heating and ventilation, Buongiorno, in southwest Utah and the study results and innovative day lighting will make Shushuai Zhu will be compared to the results of a simi- this a state-of-the-art facility. (PhD ’01), Dali lar study Field and colleagues are doing Funding comes from a grant from the Zhang (PhD ’92), in the Pine Barrens in northwestern National Science Foundation’s Field James Turner Wisconsin. Co-investigators for the new Station & Marine Laboratory Program (Graduate NRI project are Dr. Richard Krannich, and from the generous support of numer- Student), and Utah State University, and Dr. A.E. ous private citizens. Steele notes it is the David Tomberlin Luloff, Pennsylvania State University. private funding that makes this project a (PhD 99) are co- reality. “We are most grateful for the authors of: The support provided by the friends of Kemp Global Forest Products Model, pub- Kemp Station Adds New Station. We have raised over $500,000 lished in February 2003 by Academic Lodging for Northwoods to date but still have $100,000 to go.” Press, ISBN 0-12-141362-4. Zhu is now Scientists and Students When completed, the new building will a Senior Software Engineer with Oracle go far to advance the Station’s mission Co., Zhang is an Associate Principal at Whether it was for Summer Camp, a of natural resources research, instruction, Jaakko Poyry Consulting in Shanghai, weekend field trip, or a Northwoods and public education. Turner is a PhD student here, and research project, there’s a good chance Tomberlin is a Research Economist with that your academic travels took you to If you would like to learn more about the National Marine Fisheries Service in Kemp Station. More and more people the project or wish to contribute to the Santa Barbara. Their book describes the have been making the trip to Kemp in building fund, please contact Tom Steele Global Forest Products Model (GFPM) recent years. So much so that the Station at 715-356-9070 or via email at designed to predict production, con- is adding new lodging to accommodate [email protected]. sumption, trade, and prices of forest the growing number of scientists and products in world markets. The model students working at the Station. “We’ve simulates how world forests and their seen a terrific increase in research and industries interact through international teaching activity,” says Tom Steele, trade. The book thoroughly documents Kemp Superintendent. “In the mid- Research the methods, data, and computer soft- 1990s, we completed a major lab reno- Capsules ware of the model. Six applications of vation project and since then our use has the model show its usefulness in grown dramatically.” Demand from addressing international economic and users now exceeds Station capacity. Model shows impact of fire environmental issues. You can down- During the busy field season, scientists load from the web the software and the and students from Wisconsin and across suppression on red pine data to run these applications, and see North America call Kemp Station home. The current practice of forest fire sup- what the future world forest sector will Indeed, the Station is developing a pression may have a dramatic effect on be like. national and international reputation for the forest landscape in the Boundary supporting innovative research and edu- Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) of cation. Minnesota, reports Rob Scheller, FEM Study receives NRI funding To address its lodging shortage, the graduate student. Scheller, who is work- ing with Professor David Mladenoff, The UW-Madison, Department of Forest Station is in the preliminary stages of has developed a model that shows the Ecology and Management has been constructing a new dormitory. The struc- long-term effects of fire suppression in awarded a National Research Initiative ture will house 18-20 people and provide the BWCA as well as the expected out- (NRI) grant for $168,500. The principal year-round accommodations. In addition, come if regular burnings are allowed. investigator is Professor Donald Field. the building will include a comfortable The two-year project will examine the lounge, kitchen and dining facilities, and Scheller reports that before people set- social transformation of a rural area in meeting area. “Kemp is truly a unique tled the area in the early 1900s, fires an amenity rich natural resource context. place and we want a building that fits continues on page 4 Page 4 FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT NEWS started naturally, mainly by lightning bolts, and swept through the area every Year in Germany was experience of a lifetime 50-100 years. The fires reduced compet- ing vegetation and triggered the release by Amy Jahnke of seeds from pine cones, which enabled Standing alone at the international ter- the surviving trees to reproduce more minal in Chicago’s O’Hare airport, I successfully. realized I had no idea why I was there, The model suggests that while a fire but it was the best feeling of my life. every 300 years would allow red pines There are some things that you just get to persist, jack pine, another tree species a gut feeling about, and for me, study- dependent on fire for reproduction, ing abroad was one of them. As I could eventually be lost. Fires every 50- 100 years, as they once occurred natural- boarded the plane, destination ly, would maintain tree diversity. A fire Freiburg, Germany, I didn’t know every 50 years would actually increase what would happen to me in the next the number of red pines, but continued 11 months, but I was ready for an Amy Jahnke is pictured above visiting Hinterzarten, a small town near Freiburg. fire suppression would lead to the disap- unforgettable experience. pearance of red pine, jack pine, aspen, Freiburg lies in southwestern Germany at the foot of the Black Forest, close to and birch trees within 300 years. “If full fire suppression continues, the forest both the French and Swiss borders. As Madison’s Sister City, Freiburg plays host may never recover and red pine may be to a similar liberal, college-town atmosphere. Most German students there opt to lost as a locally dominant species,” live in university housing, which consists of apartment-style, co-ed dormitories. I states Scheller. lived in a newly renovated, seven-bedroom apartment with five Germans and one Scheller recently presented his findings Turkish student. We all got to know one another well enough to cram into our liv- at the Ecological Society of America’s ing/dining space to watch “Die Simpsons” together, but not well enough to tolerate annual meeting. His research is funded showering at the same time in the two side-by-side shower stalls with transparent by the USDA Forest Service, which doors. plans to use the model to develop a My first semester at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität was spent studying German long-term perspective on fire and forest management. history, literature, and music to improve my language skills. The second semester I braved German forestry courses. The forestry classes were held as one-week mod- ules, consisting of 8 hours of class each day and a test or paper due each Friday. I Remote Sensing Brings Views went on several week-long class excursions to the Rhine Valley, France, the of Wisconsin Lakes to Your Swabian Alb, and the Black Forest region around Freiburg to study tree physiology, Computer Desktop ecology, and forest management. One of the more noteworthy experiences I had was traveling to 10 European It is now possible for anyone with inter- net access to sit down at a computer and countries during the two-month semester break. The most memorable two weeks of access images of Wisconsin lakes cap- that were spent with my dad driving around in a tiny German rental car through tured by satellites 438 miles above the parts of Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Czech Republic and Poland. earth. UW-Madison researchers at the We saw some incredible countryside, celebrated my 21st birthday in Munich, found Environmental Remote Sensing Center the town in Poland where my great-grandparents were born, and had a few traffic (ERSC), along with their cooperators, incidents on the Autobahn. have completed the first satellite-based inventory of water clarity for the largest It may sound glamorous to just hop on a plane and fly to a foreign country for 8,000 lakes in the state. The inventory a year to live, study, travel and learn another language, but it’s really not what I is available to the public in map form on would consider glamorous. Every day was a new adventure, with different chal- the Web, where it is possible to zoom in lenges arriving like high-speed trains and learning experiences around every cob- for a close look at your favorite lake or blestone street corner. If you ask me now why I went, my answer is why not? The group of lakes. You can view the lake decision is not something I dare to question because I’m thanking myself everyday clarity images as well as other ERSC images at their Web site: for having made it. www.ersc.wisc.edu. continues on page 5 FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT NEWS Page 5
“Our research aims to integrate satellite Most seasonal residents are data into the state’s day-to-day lake Minnesotans, who represent 61% of the management programs. This won’t seasonal respondents. Wisconsin con- Announcements eliminate the need for conventional tributes 22% of the seasonal respondents water quality monitoring, but it will while only a small number of seasonal greatly increase the benefits of ground- homeowners, 8%, come from Illinois. based sampling,” says Thomas Not surprisingly, most seasonal home- ‘Marketing Urban Wood’ Lillesand, director of ERSC and a pro- owners, 77%, own waterfront homes Workshops Planned for March fessor in FEM and the Gaylord Nelson while only 35% of permanent residents Institute for Environment Studies. live along lakes or streams. Seasonal Two Marketing Urban Wood workshops residents also are wealthier as a group are scheduled for March 12 and 13. There appears to be a great deal of inter- and have attained higher levels of educa- These one-day workshops are designed est in the images. Just after information tion when compared to permanent resi- for persons involved with urban tree about the Web site was issued in a press dents. removal (tree service companies, utili- ties, and municipalities) and wish to release “. . . we had hundreds of new Seasonal residents spend an average of learn about options they have for utiliz- users of the interactive map, so many 72 days a year at their seasonal homes. ing wood and producing additional that it crashed our server,” says Summer is still the time when the home income. Lillesand. The project is funded by a is used the most (31 days per year), but NASA initiative called the Satellite Lake seasonal homes are still visited in the The workshop on March 12 will be held Observatory Initiative. other three seasons: 9 days a year in the at Havenwood State Forest in winter, 14 days a year in the spring and Milwaukee. The March 13 workshop 19 days a year in the fall. In addition, will convene at the Ag and Extension Communities and Natural many seasonal homeowners plan to Center, Green Bay. For more informa- Resources: A Word about retire or relocate to the Pine Barrens. tion, contact Don Peterson tel. 715-528- Seasonal Residents in the Pine When asked if they will relocate to their 5579. The workshops are sponsored by Barrens of Wisconsin seasonal home within the next 5 years or the USDA Forest Products Lab in sometime after 5 years, 25% of seasonal Madison, Glacierland RC&D, Prof. Donald Field and graduate stu- respondents replied that they are some- Lumberjack RC&D, UW-Extension dents Greg Clendenning and Dana what or very likely to relocate within 5 Forestry and Wisconsin DNR. Jensen are continuing with their years and 41% after 5 years. This trend research in the Pine Barrens of Burnett towards relocating to the Barrens is also and Washburn Counties. These two apparent in the permanent resident popu- Forest Products Marketing counties are particularly rich in natural lation, as 16% of all permanent respon- Workshop Set for June amenities, with over 1,500 lakes and dents were once seasonal residents. - thousands of acres of forests found with- Greg Clendenning Marketing forest products in the Lake in their borders. Both counties have States will be the focus of a two-day been experiencing rapid population workshop June 12-13, 2003, in Stevens growth and development pressures over Point. The workshop will introduce the the past few decades, largely because of And, what’s a butterfly? At best, basics of marketing to new employees the abundant natural amenities. During He’s but a caterpillar drest; and update current employees to the the 1990s Burnett County's population changing forest products industry. The - John Gay increased by 20 percent while Washburn workshop will emphasize strategies to County's population increased by 16 per- maximize product image and improve cent. Even more remarkable is the competitiveness in the market. growth in the number of seasonal Instructors include Dr. Scott Bowe, homes. Since 1970, the number of sea- Wood Products Specialist in FEM and sonal homes has increased by 76 percent Dr. Robert Smith, Extension Specialist in Burnett County and by 112 percent by in Forest Products Marketing at Virginia Washburn County. With the survey Tech. For registration materials and fur- complete and data analysis under way, ther information, contact: Scott Bowe, we are learning more about the landown- tel. 608-265-5849, email ers in these two counties, especially the [email protected]. seasonal homeowners. Page 6 FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT NEWS
Featured Faculty - Prof. Glen Stanosz
know I’m an odd one. My daughter says, “Dad, you I have an illness!” I get a lot of strange looks when talk- ing to foresters and landowners and I excitedly remark “This is just the best Armillaria root rot!” or “You have the nicest Eutypella canker I have ever seen!” or “Cherry leaf spot does not get better than this!” Sometimes, I find it hard to see the forest through the disease! But as a forest pathologist I see tree diseases not just as impediments to our management objectives, but interesting biological interactions and power- ful ecosystem influences. And frankly sometimes a good example of a disease symptom or fungal fruiting body is a beauty to behold! Growing up I came to know plants through trips to Boerner Botanical Gardens near my home in Milwaukee and I learned to love forests during camping trips throughout the Glen Stanosz, professor of Forest Ecology and Management and Plant Pathology, at work in the field pursuing his goal state. I earned a BS in Forest Biology (‘76) from the State to keep Wisconsin’s trees and forests green and growing. University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse, and then MS (‘83) and PhD (‘85) pathology subjects. Forestry undergrads are most common degrees studying forest pathology here in Russell Labs in the in the former; Horticulture, Landscape Architecture, and Department of Plant Pathology. After a post-doc at North nontraditional students (green industry professionals) pre- Carolina State studying maladies of boreal-montane spruce dominate in the latter class taught on Monday nights. I try to and fir and almost five years as forest pathologist in the provide a learning opportunity that will change what students Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, I landed back in Madison see and how they think. One of the best compliments a stu- to begin my faculty career in 1992. dent ever gave me was to say, “After your class, I just can’t Students seem to appreciate my enthusiasm in my class- walk through the woods the same way anymore!” es. “Insects and Diseases in Forest Management” (co-taught My research group focuses on diseases caused by fungal with forest entomologist Ken Raffa) and “Diseases of pathogens of pines and poplars. We use methods ranging Landscape Trees and Shrubs” are two twists on similar from field surveys, to microscopic examinations, to molecu- lar genetic analyses attempting to understand diversity in Photo below shows the fruiting bodies of Armillaria root fungi and how this pathogen diversity and host condition rot. Photo used courtesy of Dave Powell, USDA Forest influence diseases. We also respond to new or increasingly Service (www.forestryimages.org). important diseases caused by new, invasive pathogens or those fungi that exploit changes in the climate or forest prac- tice. I enjoy learning how forest management practices influence disease development, and how disease develop- ment influences forest management practices. Much of what we learn has direct implications for tree health and can be put to use by forest and landscape tree managers. I have an active outreach program (i.e., there is NO Extension faculty plant pathologist with a commitment to nurseries, ornamental or shade trees, or forest trees!?!) and am happy when results of our research allow managers to achieve ecological, eco- nomic, recreational, or other chosen objectives. As my let- terhead indicates, “Forest pathology helps to keep Wisconsin’s trees and forests green and growing!” FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT NEWS Page 7
Thank You to Our Generous Donors We want to take this opportunity to publicly thank everyone who made a gift to the Department of Forest Ecology and Management during 2002. Having gift funds available to support undergraduate scholarships and educational activities, targeted research, and special development projects is always valuable, but especially this year when cuts are being made in so many university programs. We recognize and appreci- ate your generosity and continuing interest in our programs here in Madison. Terrence Bush John Charles Haglund Richard Larue Ranney Jonathan William Chapman Hamilton Roddis Foundation Bruce Herbert Richter Sanya Reyes Chapman William Ferguson Heckrodt Martin R. Schuettpelz Gregory Sale Colby David Peter Liska Jeff W. Sorenson Connor Foundation Isabel Dixon Mc Kay Jennifer Ellen Sorenson Harriett J. Culbert Blair Dickson Orr Jeffrey Charles Stier Patrick F. Culbert John Joseph Pastor Sandra Jean Stier Terry Donald Droessler Heidi Ann Prestemon Alan S. Tatzel Maureen W. Giese. Jeffrey Paul Prestemon John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Ronald Lawrence Giese Thaddeus Joseph Pyrek Kathryn Gonzalez Lorraine A. Ranney
Forest Ecology and Management Endowment Fund
We invite you to join us in our efforts to establish an endowment fund. Earnings will be used to support student travel to professional meetings, help cover the costs of the summer field camp and the southern trip and to renovate work space in Russell Labs.
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If paying by check, please make your gift payable to UW Foundation Forestry Fund, University of Wisconsin Foundation, 1848 University Avenue, P.O. Box 8860, Madison, WI 53708-8860 Alumni Update We’d like to hear what’s new with you, your family, career, etc. Please complete and return the form below or e-mail the information to
Please return the above form to: Department of Forest Ecology and Management 1630 Linden Drive University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI 53706