FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT NEWSA Newsletter for Dept. of Forest Ecology and Management Staff, Students, and Alumni

Vol. 2, No. 1 March, 1999

AlumniUpdate

Dave Liska (B.S.-71; M.S.-72) waspresented with the HonoraryMember Award by the WisconsinArborists Association in January atthe annual meeting. The award wasgiven in recognition of Dave's long-term involvement, contributions andprofessionalism to the organizationand the arboriculture industry.

UndergradAnnouncements

Congratulations to the followingFEM undergraduates who havereceived scholarships:Sunday Burkhart - Vicky Lee HirshScholarship Angela Jacobs - Vicky Lee HirshScholarshipBrooke Ivener - National Council ofState Garden Clubs, Inc. ScholarshipCindy Karsten - Carroll D. BesadnyEnvironmental ScholarshipAlan Kirschbaum - David N. ConnorScholarship; Vicky Lee HirshScholarshipJennifer Knorr - David LyonScholarshipJoshua Scherer - Robert HendricksScholarshipJohn Stephenson - David N. ConnorScholarshipKatie Wellnitz - Vicky Lee HirshScholarshipJedd Ungrodt - Vicky Lee HirshScholarship and WisconsinAgricultural and Life SciencesAlumni (WALSAA) Outstanding

Sophomore Award. Jedd alsoreceived the 1998 Forest HistoryAssociation of WisconsinScholarship. His entry in thecompetition, "Chequamegon ForestPerspectives," told the history of apiece of property on Lake Superior inBayfield County that has been in hisfamily for 50 years.

One Undergraduate's View ofOff-Campus Learning

by Cindy KarstenEveryone knows that the Universityof Wisconsin – Madison is filledwith experienced professors fromwhom we have gained considerableamounts of knowledge. However, inall fairness, I must admit that someof my greatest learning experiencesoccurred not on campus, but aroundthe world. When I entered college in 1994, Iwas undecided about my major. Inthe spring of my first year I decidedto take a course that I knew nothingabout but looked interesting. I foundmyself in Forestry 100. This class isnow a mere memory, but it convincedme that I wanted to pursue a degreein Forest Science and I transferredinto CALS. By the fall of 1995 I was feelingvery comfortable around theagriculture buildings and one daydecided to look into an exchangeprogram. I knew that I needed toattend a school where classes weretaught in English and was referred tothe exchange program at theUniversity of Zimbabwe. It was anew program at the time. InNovember I was told that theapplication was due January 1, andthat my classes would start inMarch. By the end of January, I

knew that I had been accepted, so Ibought my ticket and was off toZimbabwe on March 1st. In Zimbabwe I took classes in theFaculty of Agriculture and, with theway that the school year is set upthere, I had ample time to travel. Iwent to school for two months, had amonth off, went back for 3 months,had another month off and thencame back for finals. During my firstvacation I traveled north toTanzania and Zanzibar and duringthe second break I went to Malawiand traveled around Zimbabwe withmy parents. When classes ended inNovember 1996, I went to SouthAfrica for a month and traveledaround the country. I was fortunateto make friends with folks at asafari company that ran trips intoKruger National Park. They hiredme to assist the guides and help cookon a few four-day excursions into thepark. It was truly a magicalexperience to see all the wildlifethere. My most vivid memory is of ababy zebra taking its first steps. That is just not something that youcould experience hanging out aroundRussell Labs. When I returned to Zimbabwe inJanuary 1997, I was fortunate to beoffered a month long internship

In this issue

Alumni info . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 1

Undergraduate news . . . . . . p. 1

Graduate news . . . . . . . . . . . p. 2

Faculty news . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 2

Special pull out sectionlisting FEM faculty

with the Forestry Commission of

Page 2 FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT NEWS

Zimbabwe. Most of our workconsisted of visiting trial sites ofeucalyptus trees to examine howwell this Australian tree fared inZimbabwe’s climate. We alsoworked with groups in the communalareas on agro-forestry projects in anattempt to increase biodiversity onthe barren lands that they weregiven to farm. I would like to returnto Zimbabwe when I graduate to seehow the trials and projects areprogressing. I would even enjoyworking there for a few years after Igraduate. I returned to Wisconsin in February1997 and continued my classes at theUW the following fall. This pastsummer I decided to take a job as anintern at the newly establishedBrickett Place WildernessInformation Center in the WhiteMountain National Forest in Maineand New Hampshire. I can hardlyremember having such a wonderfulsummer. Will, the other intern, andI set up the Brickett Place, a 1830homestead nestled in the WhiteMountains, and designed to assistforest users during the summerseason. I created displays on "leaveno trace practices," tree identifi-cation, wilderness areas and forestpolicies. We were called upon toanswer questions about everythingfrom trails to the weather, fromparking permits to bathrooms. Ispent my free time climbing moun-tains and familiarizing myself withthe area. I highly recommend theWhite Mountains to anyone wholoves mountains you can climb in oneday or ranges you can traverse in afew days time. I have been offeredthe position of project manager forthe upcoming summer. It is a greatopportunity, but part of me longs tosee other parts of the country. I’lljust have to wait and see where mynext adventure takes me. I will graduate from theuniversity in December 1999, buthave no definite plans after that. I

know that I want to see as much ofthis country as possible. I have beenextremely fortunate with my travelsin the past and I can only hope thatmy luck continues into the future. Cindy Karsten is a senior in theForest Science major. She is aMadison native and has workedpart-time for the WisconsinDepartment of Natural Resourcesduring her undergraduate tenure.

Grad StudentNews

Lynne Heasley received theAmerican Association of UniversityWomen's American fellowship andthe EPA Science to Achieve Resultsfellowship. Lynne is a dissertatorstudying with Prof. Ray Guries. Shehas a minor in History under Prof.William Cronon. Her specialties areenvironmental history andlandscape ecology. As a new mother,Lynne is busy balancing family andresearch, but she found time todevelop and co-teach a new seminarin forest history with Prof. NancyLangston during the fall, 1998semester.

Nancy Menning is a Ph.D.student in the Department of ForestEcology and Management and theInstitute for Environmental Studies. As one of our Social Forestrystudents, her dissertation concernsthe association of community, cultureand land use. Specifically, herresearch focuses on religious worldviews and land managementpractices of three faithcommunities—Mormon, Catholic,and Apache Baptist—in themountains of eastern Arizona. Nancystarted her fieldwork in August of1998 and will be living on site untilDecember 1999. She is supported bytwo grants: a Ford Foundation

Community Forestry ResearchFellowship and an EnvironmentalProtection Agency Science toAchieve Results (STAR)dissertation fellowship.

FacultyBulletin

Joseph Buongiorno receivesSociety of American ForestersAward in Forest Science

Joseph Buongiorno was presentedwith the first Award in ForestScience from the Society of AmericanForesters (SAF) at the 1998 SAFNational Convention in TraverseCity, Michigan in September of lastyear. The award recognizesdistinguished individual research inany branch of the quantitative,managerial, and/or social sciencesthat has resulted in substantialadvances in forestry, regardless ofthe age or seniority of theindividual. In announcing theaward, the SAF cited Joseph as"…one of the world’s premier foresteconomists.” Joe was also the firstrecipient of SAF’s Carl AlwinSchenk Award for OutstandingAchievement in Forestry Educationin 1988, and is the only person ever toreceive both awards.

Meet Nancy Langston

I'm a foresthistorian, whichmeans that Iexamine the sharedhistory of peopleand their forests,asking how andwhy forests havechanged over time,

how people have used and alteredthe forest, how our perceptions of

FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT NEWS Page 3

forests have evolved, and howsocieties have struggled to establishpolicies governing forests. Myinitial training, however, was as anecologist rather than a historian. While on a National ScienceDoctoral Fellowship at theUniversity of Washington, Iresearched the evolutionary ecologyof Carmine bee-eaters nesting alongthe Zambezi River in Zimbabwe. My experiences in Africanconservation persuaded me that tounderstand (and reverse)environmental degradation, weneeded to pay much closer attentionto human communities. Under-standing the historic roots ofenvironmental change became myprimary research focus. My first book, Forest Dreams,Forest Nightmares: The Paradox ofOld Growth in the Inland West(University of Washington Press,1995) examines the causes of theforest health crisis on westernnational forests. Forest Dreams wonthe 1997 Charles WeyerhaeuserPrize for best book on forest andconservation history, and thisproject led to my election to theBoard of Directors of the ForestHistory Society. The book I am nowwriting focuses on dilemmas overriparian management. I amexamining the ways differentcultures have transformed ripariansystems in the West, and theways scientific and cultural ideas ofnature have affected thosetransformations. Troubled Waters:An Environmental History ofWestern Riparian Areas will soonbe published by the University ofWashington Press. I am now part of the SocialForestry group in the Department ofForest Ecology and Management, andI have a joint appointment in theInstitute for Environmental Studies,where I teach various courses inenvironmental humanities. (Nancy’sphoto by Jeff Martin)

Congratulations ProfessorsJeff Martin and Gene Wengert

The department lost both Extensionfaculty to retirement within the lastfew months. Gene Wengert's last

day was Nov-ember 3rd, 1998. He came to theUW in 1992 afterserving 16 years atVPI & StateUniversity, andreplaced TedPeterson in the

forest products extension area. Genecontinues to teach his wood productscourses this spring semester and tomaintain his "Ask the Wood Doctor"column on the WoodWeb site atwww.woodweb.com.

Jeff Martin retired on February 3rd ofthis year. He replaced Gordon Cun-

ningham in the areaof forestmanagementextension. Jeff hadspent 14 years as aResearch Foresterwith the USDAForest Service,Northeastern Forest

Experiment Station in Princeton,WV, before being lured to the"flatlands" of Wisconsin. Jeff hasdeveloped a real knack forphotography over the years (seeJeff's photos in this issue) and willbe pursuing that avocation during his"golden years." He reports that hemight also be lured back to helpwith summer camp, especially if thefish are biting up north! If you wish to send Jeff and Gene anote or card, you can use thedepartment address and we will besure that they get them. (Jeff’sphoto used courtesy of WoodlandManagement)

Compton back from travels to Asia

Professors Lin Compton, Tom Yuill(Director of IES) and Tim Moermond(Zoology, and Chair of IESConservation Biology andSustainable Development) traveledto Yunnan, China for two weeks inJanuary. They worked with Chineseand Thai colleagues of theSustainable Management of UplandTropical Ecosystems (SAMUTE)Consortium in conducting a fieldassessment and follow-up programdesign workshop for a GlobalEnvironmental Facility project. Lin also visited four currentadvisees doing Ph.D. dissertationfield research in Thailand and Laos:1) Jim Peters (IES/Land Resources),who is studying Karen indigenousknowledge of forestry and naturalresource management, 2) Jean Geran(Land Tenure Center/DevelopmentStudies), who is studying ruralresponses to the current economiccrisis in Thailand, 3) Kym Leggett(Land Tenure Center/DevelopmentStudies), who is studying the role ofNGO's in promoting environmentaleducation at the rural villagecommunity level, and 4) SethapanKrajangwongs (IES/Land Resources),who is using Geographic InformationSystems databases and groundtruthing surveys to study local adap-tation to macro infrastructural andeconomic change in Thung PhaPhoom district of KanjanaburiProvince. Lin was also able to visit withformer UW students Janpanit Surasin(Prof. at Chulalongkorn University),Suchat Kalyawongsa (Asst. DirectorGeneral of the MOAC ForestryDept.), and Pierre and GadsarapornWalter (Asst. Prof. of DevelopmentEducation at the Asian Institute ofTechnology). He reports they areall actively involved in endeavorsof considerable significance toThailand's development.

Page 4 FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT NEWS

Forestry Club Tree Sale

The forestry club hosted its 22nd

annual Christmas tree sale Dec. 4-6in the UW Stock Pavilion. Devotedclub members managed to sell over600 balsam fir, Fraser fir, whitepine, and Scotch pines. Additionalproceeds from the sale of wreathsand Professor Harvey’s terrificmaple syrup pushed net profits to anall time high. The club uses the majority of theprofits to subsidize students’ costs forspring field trip (FEM 657) andsummer camp (FEM 655) classes. We’ve come a long way since thefirst sale in 1977, when studentsmanaged a profit of just over $100. The one constant has been clubadvisor Ray Guries, whose carefulplanning and dedication to the salehas allowed it to grow and becomethe success it is today. - Jedd Ungrodt

Remember the block of open grasslined with flowering crab appletrees just north of Russell Labs alongObservatory Drive? Well, a memoryis all it is now. The photo belowshows the new parking ramp thatreplaced the green space this fall. (Photo by Jeff Martin)

Forest Ecology & Management1630 Linden DriveUniversity of Wis.-MadisonMadison, WI 53706(608) 262-9975 • Fax 262-9922Web: http://forest.wisc.edu/

Department of Forest Ecology and Management1630 Linden Drive, Room 120University of Wisconsin-MadisonMadison, WI 53706