u ni v e rsi t y
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Coll e g e o f F o r e s t R e s o u r c e s
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Permit No. 62
SPRING 2007
College of Forest Resources News
In this issue
Centennial CElebration
Monika Moskal PROFILE
Washington NatureMapping Program
COLLEGE NEWs
China’s Jiuzhaigou National Park
alumni focus
M e s s a g e from the dean
In our Fall 2004 newsletter, we noted the launching of
Campaign UW ‘s public phase and thanked our many
campaign supporters. Now, more than three years later,
we celebrate, along with our centennial year, a record of
successful fundraising to insure the College’s contribution
to natural resource and environmental challenges through
the 21st century. I’m pleased to report that, with your
help, we have reached 95 percent of our $17.7 million
fundraising goal, with more than a year left to go!
Our vision and priorities for Campaign UW are consistent
with our adoption of sustainability as a guiding
paradigm. Drawing on the two key integrating concepts
of sustainable forest enterprises and sustainable land
and ecosystem management in an urbanizing world, we
continue to guide our educational, research, and outreach
programs to excellence in a changing global environment.
To succeed, we must:
• ensure teaching and learning that enable professionals,
scientists, decision makers, and citizens to lead in
meeting natural resource and environmental challenges
• develop partnerships with all stakeholders to identify
issues and solve problems
• support a well-educated and diverse faculty with
opportunities to grow professionally
• provide well-prepared, motivated students with
enhanced learning opportunities and state-of the-art
facilities and infrastructure
• foster initiatives for sustainable forestry, forest
enterprises, and urban and wildland environments
In all of these areas your generous support has provided,
among many other examples:
• New endowed student support, including the James
and Marinelle Bethel Graduate Fellowship, the Thomas
Swen Friberg Fund for Student Support, the W. G.
Reed Fellowship in Sustainable Resource Sciences, the
Continued page 4
Legislative Reception Kicks Off College’s
100-year Celebration
At the same time that its faculty, staff, and students have been helping the state look to the future
concerning working forests and the potential for biofuels from woody debris, the College of Forest
Resources kicked off a year-long celebration of its 100th anniversary at the state capitol in Olympia
in January.
More than 200 alumni, faculty, staff, and other guests attended the event in the capitol’s rotunda,
where they visited with students from the College during a reception and poster session on research
about the sustainability of Washington’s natural resources. The program featured remarks by Governor
Chris Gregoire, UW Provost Phyllis Wise, and Dean Bruce Bare. Governor Gregoire has proclaimed
2007 the “year of the forest” in honor of the College’s centennial.
Since the beginning of the year, College researchers have briefed legislators and their staffs about
the results of five studies commissioned by the Legislature that provide the latest information about
the health of Eastside Washington forests, pressures to convert forests to other uses, and the potential
and challenges for the state’s forest products industry and its rural communities that have historically
depended on forestry. In related research, the College has been investigating the potential for
improving biodiversity and producing bioenergy from woody debris in conjunction with thinning
fire-prone forests.
Additional input and comment on the study results was provided by the College’s Northwest Environmental Forum during several sessions in which representatives of forest companies, small landowners,
environmental advocates, Native American tribes, the legislature, and agencies concerned with
Washington’s working forests discussed forest management for commodities such as timber, as well
as for environmental services like fresh water and wildlife habitat.
In other Centennial events, the College sponsored a winter lecture series at the UW
with speakers alumnus Steven Anderson, President of the Forest History Society;
Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland,
who manages the Washington Department of
Natural Resources; and Dean Bruce Bare.
Upcoming centennial events include the Spring
Tree Safari, the annual Scholarship Luncheon, and
the College’s Graduation celebration, all on the
UW Seattle campus. For a complete calendar
of centennial events see http://www.cfr.
washington.edu/About/CFRCentennial.htm.
Governor Chris Gregoire receives
Centennial gift from Dean Bruce Bare.
Photo: Mary Levin
Washington NatureMapping Program
The 1993 pilot project was a partnership between
the Cooperative Research Unit and the state’s
Department of Fish and Wildlife that asked a group
of 23 teachers and four farmers to collect data for
a statewide biological database for conservation and stewardship planning
at multiple scales. The vision has grown to a goal of developing a network
of NatureMapping training centers using informal science education
organizations to facilitate interaction among their staffs, scientists, informal
science educators, and citizens on local and regional field research projects.
Currently, Dvornich is working with eight centers across the state to train
and mentor staff in NatureMapping protocols. Thousands of citizen scientists,
professionals, graduate students, and K-12 teachers and students are now
submitting NatureMapping data. Data for over 420 vertebrate species
(110,000 observation records) were recently peer-reviewed and submitted
for updating Washington Gap Analysis maps, a project identifying areas of
high conservation priority.
Journal illustrations by Erma Smith.
NatureMapping, a biodiversity survey, training, and monitoring program,
got its start in Washington as a pilot project in 1993. The program has two
components: a biodiversity survey program, allowing citizens, school groups,
and professionals to enter and download wildlife observations and water
quality measurements into a statewide biodiversity database; and
a progressive set of workshops to train NatureMappers in data
collection and monitoring. Workshops are tailored to
specific groups such as teachers, local communities,
Washington State Parks, and Certified Forestry
landowners. College staff member Karen Dvornich
works with the Washington Cooperative Fish and
Wildlife Research Unit at the UW as co-founder and
director of the Washington NatureMapping Program.
A recent project in the Puget Sound region involved Tacoma School of the
Arts sophomores, who began a long-term inventory of the City of Tacoma’s
Oak Tree Park using PDA/GPS units with NatureMapping’s data collection
software. The students received NatureMapping training as part of an
intensive three-week introduction to learn about wildlife and habitat. The
project goal is to identify the best places for trails and signs and where to
remove non-native species, as well as to develop
materials that can be used by other groups. The
students’ artwork was part of the project, and it
was presented at a show hosted by the Tacoma
Nature Center and shown in other locations
throughout the community.
Color illustrations: Golden-crowned Kinglet (left) by Cidney
Lange, Scrub Jay (top) by Julie Farrell.
International Collaboration Forged
with China’s Jiuzhaigou National Park
The College of Forest Resources, along with the Colleges of Arts and
Sciences and Engineering and the Vice Provost for Global Affairs, recently
hosted a series of visitors from Sichuan Province, China. A common theme
for these UW units is the continued development of a multi-institutional,
international research endeavor focused on China’s Jiuzhaigou National Park.
The 720 km2 park encompasses an entire watershed, spanning an elevation
from 1,996 to 4,764 m (over 1,200 feet taller than Mt. Rainier!). Other reserves
and buffer valleys surround it, creating a geographically extensive and
interconnected system of bio-reserves. The park contains an extraordinary
diversity of geological, hydrological, biological, and cultural features.
Included in this matrix are nine Tibetan villages. It is recognized nationally
and internationally as a premier National Park holding titles of World
Heritage Site, UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, and Green Globe 21 travel
destination. In little more than a decade, visitor numbers increased from the
tens of thousands to over two million.
Ongoing collaborations have included a junior year exchange between
the UW and Sichuan University and a 2006 research pilot study in the
park, funded by an NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research
Traineeship (IGERT) Program. Professor Tom Hinckley was the study’s group
leader, and he, along with 11 graduate students and five undergraduates
from the UW, spent two weeks in the park with faculty and students from
Sichuan University. Some of the projects focused on the indigenous Tibetan
population, covering environmental education as well as preserving and
recording anthropologically and archeologically sensitive materials. Other
projects included sanitation, water quality, ecological monitoring, and GIS
and remote sensing. Student groups worked closely with park staff to foster a
mutually beneficial learning environment.
Beginning in January 2007, visitors to the UW have included Jiuzhaigou
administrators and staff as well as faculty from a new research station
within the park. Four park staff members, Yang Jie, an assistant section
chief in Jiuzhaigou’s Environmental Protection Department; Chen Haoran,
an engineer with the Construction Department; Zhu Zhongfu, a forestry
engineer in the Science Department; and Li Yali, the deputy section chief
of Jiuzhaigou’s Personnel Department, visited in March, coming from eight
weeks of working in Yosemite National Park. They learned about the UW,
Visitors Li Yali,Yang Jie, Zhu Zhongfu, and Chen Haoran at IslandWood Environmental Education Center.
its students and faculty, and its environmental research and visited projects
to sustain the Pacific Northwest environment, such as the Mountains to Sound
Greenway; our region’s three National Parks; and environmental learning
centers, such as the Olympic Park Institute.
At the UW the visitors toured the UW Botanic Gardens, including restoration
sites, the Elisabeth C. Miller Library, and the Washington Park Arboretum. They
learned about research being conducted by CFR graduate students Jennifer
Leach, Jim Lutz, and Lauren Urgenson. They met with Dean Bruce Bare, with
Olympic Natural Resources Center staff Jason Cross, and with CFR and National
Park Service research scientist Mark Vande Kamp. Says Hinckley, “As we visited
varied environments in the Pacific Northwest, I was amazed at the frequent
convergence of concerns and issues about the sustainable management of
forested and mountainous landscapes.”
Research in parks and wildland sustainability at the College continues the work
of the late Professor Grant Sharpe, whose inspired legacy will be honored by a
memorial endowed fellowship for which fundraising is underway.
College News
Wind River Canopy Crane
Site Selected as NEON
PNW Headquarters
In response to challenges in ecology and
the environmental sciences, the National
Science Foundation (NSF) has proposed a new
and unprecedented long-term research and
education platform — NEON, the National
Ecological Observatory Network. Neon,
Inc. has selected the Wind River Canopy
Crane Research Facility as the core site
and headquarters for NEON in the Pacific
Northwest Domain and lead academic
institution in working through the detailed
physical and legal issues associated with
the core site. In addition to the core site and
headquarters investment (which includes five
tower/sensor systems), the domain will have
three redeployable towers (moved every three
to five years) to address different forest land
conditions.
CORRIM Meets at UW
Highlights
Researchers from around the world involved in
the environmental performance of wood as a
renewable resource in construction met at the
College in late January to build a collaborative
research agenda. The two-day workshop,
coordinated by the Consortium for Research
on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM),
http://www.corrim.org/, featured presentations
and a discussion of issues and future research
directions. Participants came from Finland,
Sweden, New Zealand, and the U.S. The
workshop was created to bring together
international work on the environmental
performance of using wood versus non-wood
building products and its impacts on carbon.
The workshop was organized by Bruce Lippke,
CORRIM President and College faculty member,
and Lauri Valsta, visiting scholar at the UW
from the University of Helsinki in Finland.
Recent faculty honors included the Northwest
Scientific Association Outstanding Scientist
Award given to Linda Brubaker for her
significant contributions to science in the Pacific
Northwest; the honor of Fellow of the Soil
Science Society of America awarded to Rob
Harrison for his achievements in education,
research, service, and leadership; and the
National Park Service Research Award to PNWCESU co-leader and affiliate faculty Darryll
Johnson for his contributions to social science
research in the national parks.
Wood Quality Evaluation
Study in Sawmilling Phase
The Stand Management Cooperative’s (SMC)
AGENDA 2020 project “Non-destructive
evaluation of wood quality in standing
Douglas-fir trees and logs” recently entered its
sawmilling phase. SMC crew and cooperators
from the USDA PNW Research Station recently
began log scaling to obtain acoustic velocity
and knot data, bucking logs, and measuring
cookies in the South Union Sawmill log yard
in Elma, Washington. This followed earlier
testing on veneer logs at the Weyerhaeuser
mill in Foster, Oregon. The logs were sawed
into 2x4 and 2x6 lumber, dried, planed,
graded, and then shipped to the U.S. Forest
Products Laboratory for testing of mechanical
properties. That laboratory is currently
testing the veneer that was shipped from the
Weyerhaeuser mill at the beginning of the
year. SMC researchers are reviewing tree and
log data and analyzing standing tree acoustic
velocity data from earlier project phases.
The UW and the University of Guadalajara,
Mexico recently signed an agreement for
student exchange between the two universities
that will include exchange between the College
and the University of Guadalajara’s graduate
programs in natural resources. The College also
signed an agreement with Seoul National
University’s College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences providing for the exchange of faculty,
graduate students, and research scientists.
The Yakama Tribal Natural Resources
Scholarship, a new endowment through
the UW’s faculty-staff-retiree Campaign for
Students, will support undergraduate students
in the College who qualify as tribal members
of the Yakama nation and who are studying
natural resource conservation and stewardship.
The College’s graduate program was chosen to
receive an Achievement Rewards for College
Scientists Fellowship for use in recruiting an
outstanding new student entering in the 200708 academic year. The award provides a total
stipend of $17,500 over three years.
The College participated in an Interdisciplinary
Graduate Education and Research Traineeship
(IGERT) grant proposal that was recently
recommended for funding. The IGERT, with
partnership from the Colleges of Forest
Resources and Engineering, the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory, and the
Yakama and Quinault Nations, would
support the development of a multidisciplinary,
multicultural graduate education and research
program in bioresource-based energy for
sustainable societies.
In the January 12, 2007 Chronicle of Higher
Education report on rankings of doctoral
programs in the U.S., the College’s program
was ranked second in the nation in the 2005
Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index.
The Water Center’s Annual Review of Research
on February 14, 2007, included posters and
presentations on a wide range of topics including
water resources, stream restoration, urban water
management, natural resources policy, geology
and geomorphology, and climate change and
variability. Faculty, affiliates, and graduate
students from the College participated in the
review, including Bob Edmonds, Christian
Torgersen, Peter Kiffney, Cindy Flint, Jessica
Taylor, and Julia Helen Tracy.
The Washington Park Arboretum’s display garden
at the 2007 Northwest Flower and Garden
Show, February 14-18, 2007, was presented by
the Arboretum Foundation in cooperation with
UW Botanic Gardens and Seattle Parks and
Recreation, and featured a garden suited for
small city lots, country cottages, and new urban
communities.
The Denman Forestry Issues Series on April 30,
2007 presented speakers on “Trust and Transition:
Perspectives on Native American Forestry.”
Denman programs are recorded by UWTV in
digital format and broadcast nationwide on the
UWTV cable channel and the ResearchChannel.
They can also be viewed via streaming video
at the UWTV website. The series is funded with
support from Mary Ellen and W. Richard
Denman.
A new endowed fund in the College will
provide support for education and outreach
programs at the Olympic Natural Resources
Center. Established by the Rosmond family, the
endowment honors logging engineering alumnus
Frederic Rosmond (’39) and memorializes his
dedication to the field of applied forestry science
and education.
Alumni Focus
College Participates in Washington Weekend
Alumni News
Ray Davis, Jr. (’58) writes from Eugene,
Oregon that he enjoyed the article about Sitka
spruce in the Winter 2007 CFR News, and
reminisces about working in the woods on the
Olympic Peninsula in the early 1950s.
Robert Michael Pyle (’73) recently published
Sky Time in Gray’s River, a non-fiction account
of life in the Willapa Hills along the Columbia
River in southwest Washington.
Lisa Graumlich (‘85) was recently appointed
Director of the School of Natural Resources at
the University of Arizona.
Douglas Steinberg (’90) is Senior Program
Officer at the Lemelson Foundation in Portland,
Oregon, where he develops and supports
the foundation’s international technology
dissemination portfolio. Steinberg served as
a Peace Corps volunteer in agro-forestry in
northern Cameroon and has worked with
CARE, a leading international relief and
development agency, in Niger, Bangladesh,
Mali, and Angola.
Renee Brooks (‘87, ‘93) recently received
OSU College of Forestry’s “Forest Science
Graduate Student Award for Outstanding
Faculty.” Brooks works with the Environmental
Protection Agency in Corvallis, Oregon, and has
an affiliate faculty appointment at OSU.
Melly Reuling, (‘91) is currently field
coordinator with Tazama!Trust, a non-profit,
non-government organization with the primary
goal of protecting and conserving natural
resources and wildlife in Tanzania.
Wayne Mayer (’94) recently received a PhD
in conservation biology from Duke University,
along with certificates in international
development and Latin American studies.
Glen Yallup (‘05) is a supervisory forester
with the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the Fort
Apache Agency in Whiteriver, Arizona.
Carly Ann Wilson (‘06) writes that after
spending time working as a wildlife assistant
with the Royal Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals in Australia, she will
be volunteering several months at a sunbear
rescue and education center in Borneo.
In Memoriam
Lara-Karena Kellogg (‘04)
Washington Weekend is an annual UW Alumni
Association-sponsored event providing a
chance for everyone to come back to campus
to enjoy all the UW has to offer. Washington
Weekend 2007, held April 26th-28th,
presented events and programs showcasing
the UW’s rich academic, athletic, and
community traditions.
The College’s Centennial Washington Weekend
Open House included events in Anderson Hall
with faculty, staff, and students on hand to
answer questions and provide information
on College programs. Other events included
research posters, video showings of student
international field trips, wildlife presentations
on small mammals and urban crow research,
and demonstrations of papermaking, LiDAR,
and remote sensing.
Events at the UW Botanic Gardens included
an April 25th open house at CUH, home of
Merrill Hall, the first “green” building on
the UW Seattle campus; and a restoration
ecology tour of the Union Bay Natural Area.
Alumni Jack Blanchard (‘56), Bob Dick (‘74),
Ara Erickson (‘04), Ben Harrison (‘66), Weikko
Jaross (‘97, ‘02), Larry Maechler (‘81), Jack
Krystad (‘53), and Alan Randall (‘57) turned
out to help with an Arbor Day tree planting
of a “centennial grove” in the natural area.
College Welcomes Dr. L. Monika Moskal
L. Monika Moskal (“L” for Ludmila, but she goes by “Monika”) is the
College’s new Assistant Professor in remote sensing and biospatial analysis.
Moskal was selected from a pool of finalist candidates in a nationwide search
conducted last spring by the Precision Forestry Cooperative (PFC). She is
one of nine new faculty members hired by the College in 2006.
Originally from Poland, Moskal’s undergraduate and master’s degrees are
from the University of Waterloo (Ontario) and the University of Calgary,
respectively, where she studied remote sensing and GIS in environmental
applications. After completing her master’s degree, Moskal supervised a
remote sensing project at the University of Calgary involving grizzly bear
habitat mapping in the Canadian Rockies. She received her PhD from the
University of Kansas in 2005; her dissertation research was on spatiotemporal
patterns of post-disturbance forest regeneration in the Yellowstone region.
From 2003 to 2006 she was an Assistant Professor at Missouri State University,
where she focused on eastern cedar encroachment, urban expansion and
forest fragmentation, and monitoring management practices that enhance
the heterogeneity of tallgrass prairie ecosystems.
Moskal’s main focus in her work with the PFC will be developing precise
forest inventories from state-of-the-art remote sensing tools such as
LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) hyperspectral, hyperspatial, and
hypertemporal sensors. Specifically, she is working on ways to fuse multiple
data sources to improve inventory parameters such as health and species,
and on ecological applications of LiDAR data such as forest structure characterization,
riparian area delineation and shading, and invasive species susceptibility.
Collaborative projects include a pilot study with new faculty member Soo-Hyung
Kim to estimate the carbon budget of urban forests using LiDAR-derived Leaf Area
Index (LAI) estimates of the Washington Park Arboretum. The project will generate
future funding for larger scale research in the Pacific Northwest and
internationally. Future collaborative projects with CFR
and other UW faculty include the human and social
dynamics of invasive species spread and developing
inventories for sustainable bioenergy sources.
Moskal teaches classes in aerial photo and
remote sensing applications in natural resources
management, and a graduate seminar in
geospatial techniques for precision forestry.
Along with Dave Manuwal and John Marzluff,
she led a wildlife science field trip to Yellowstone
National Park over the 2007 spring break. You
can find her in Bloedel 334 or bicycling to
work along the Burke-Gilman Trail while
avoiding the bumps, puddles, and
occasional coyotes!
2007 Distinguished Alumni Seminar Series
Dean’s Message continued
William McKean Scholarship, the James Ridgeway Faculty Fund, the William
A. Eastman Fund for Student Support, and continued gifts to the Lockwood
Fund for Program Advancement. We are currently raising funds for the Grant
and Wenonah Sharpe Fellowship in Parks and Wildland Sustainability, and the
Yakama Tribal Natural Resources Scholarship.
An appreciative group of students, faculty, and staff from across the UW campus participated in
the College’s Centennial Distinguished Alumni Seminar on February 15th. The seminar featured
alumni Robert Michael Pyle (‘73), independent writer and biologist; Dan Hinkley (‘85), plantsman
and horticulturalist, and Michelle Connor (‘01), Vice President, Cascade Land Conservancy.
The seminar series showcases alumni who during their careers have been leaders in the private,
public, and nongovernmental sectors in the U.S. and abroad, and provides students with a critical
appreciation of the kind of real world work and possible roles they can assume after graduation,
as well as opportunities for networking.
• New endowed professorships, including the Weyerhaeuser Professorship in
Paper Science and Engineering, the Denman Professorship in Sustainable
Resource Sciences, and the David R.M. Scott Professorship.
• A new endowed chair, the Denman Chair in Bioresource Science and
Pyle spoke about the strong “sense of place,” and the humans who experience this sense, which
has characterized his writing career, including books about places he has lived in Washington
— most recently “Sky Time in Gray’s River,” an account of life in the Willapa Hills along the
Columbia River. Hinkley spoke about his passion for creating gardens and his adventures in
plant collection throughout the world, where he is always mindful of the role that plants play in
the lives of the humans who live among them. Connor spoke of her work with the Cascade Land
Conservancy, and in particular, of her involvement in saving an eight-acre property known as
Grandmother’s Hill, part of Seattle’s historic Poverty Hill neighborhood.
Engineering to fund research on sustainable bio-based products and sources
of energy that better serve society.
• Support for the Northwest Environmental Forum and our research and
outreach centers like the UW Botanic Gardens, including an outpouring of
support for the rebuilding of Merrill Hall, that allows for enhancement of
partnerships across the wide range of our stakeholders.
• Planned gifts, including the Denman, Lauridsen, and Soest trusts, along with
The College thanks the series’ generous supporters, including Charles Bingham, Sr., C & G Timber,
Lanoga Corporation, William Meadowcroft, Murray Pacific Corporation, Port Blakely Tree Farms,
Steven Rogel, Gary Shirley, and Allen Symington, with special thanks to Mack Hogans (‘76) for
his leadership and facilitation of the series.
other generous bequests.
Our students and our faculty thank you — your generosity will transform their
lives. And we hope to see you here at the College during our Centennial
Year Celebration!
Bruce Bare
Upcoming Events Calendar
MAY 9 , 2 0 0 7
Centennial Scholarship Luncheon
MAY 19, 2007
Centennial “Garb Day”
J UN E 8, 2007
Centennial Graduation Celebration
UW campus
Pack Forest
UW campus
MAY 1 7 , 2 0 0 7
Review of Center Research
MAY 23, 2007
Centennial WPPF Annual Meeting
N OVEMB ER 3, 2007
Centennial CFRAA Gala and Banquet
UW campus
UW campus
UW campus
MAY 26, 2007
Centennial Spring Safari
CFR News
UW campus
Please direct all corrections and inquiries to CFR News,
University of Washington, College of Forest Resources,
Box 352100, Seattle, WA 98195-2100.
email: cece@u.washington.edu phone: 206-543-3075
Share your news: CFR alumni activities and successes are of
interest and inspiration to faculty, students, staff, alumni,
and friends of CFR. Update your contact information at
http://www.washington.edu/alumni/addresschange.html.
This newsletter can also be found on line at:
www.cfr.washington.edu.
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